WHY "DELIGHTING IN GOD"?
MY REASON FOR STARTING THIS MINISTRY
BY BELA
Psalm 37 was written to the one struggling with uncertainty about what God is doing and is going to do with him, as he watches, with some envy, frustration, and even anger, the wicked push forward on their sunlit mountaintops while he feels held back in his valley of shadows - as he watches the wicked do and gather so much while he can do and has so little - as he feels the painful sting of their slicing swords and piercing arrows. He questions where he really is with God. Is he missing something? Is not the path of righteousness with God a path of life, peace, and progress in the ever-unfolding plan of God? Why is he so hindered, which is making him feel so stifled? What is going on between them?
That is what everything in our existence comes down to. Every question - every uncertainty - every situation - comes down to that question. What is going on between us and the One Who made us? For each of us, there is not a single more important question, and in one verse in Psalm 37, I see what can be the most incredible answer. Psalm 37 is an expression of the rock-solid assurance that no matter what is going on around you or happening to you, nothing can change what is and will always be going on between you and your God. And I see verse four as the climactic assertion of that truth, fathoms beyond the mere hope that He will merely hold you together when things get rocky and uncertain.
Since learning of it early in my new life in Christ, I have never ceased to be amazed by the promise of Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart (ESV). In this one verse, I see an exact summation of an incredible and intimate exchange that can always go on between the creature and his Creator - the creature who most appropriately and affectionately exalts his Creator, and the Creator Who most faithfully and affectionately satisfies His creature. Yet, we know, as Christians, that this is more than an exchange between the creature and his Creator - it is between a child and his Heavenly Father.
Think about this. A most glorified God and Father promises a most satisfied heart. This will be the eternal tale of Heaven, as we most delight in Him and He most satisfies us. That will be the eternal climax of God’s redemptive work. We can never have more delighted happiness than what we can and will have in our infinitely delightful God. And, in turn, we can never have more fulfilling satisfaction than what we can and will have from our infinitely resourceful Heavenly Father. If, in His grace, He grants me a ministry, I want it to be a ministry of declaring this glorious truth, and that starts and culminates in this mission: Declaring the truth of God’s living Word for the joy of all knowing the truth of God’s supreme worth.
God really is the most delightful and desirable Person and Possession over and available to all His creation. In His common grace, what He gives to all people (see Matthew 5:45; Romans 1:18-20; Acts 17:24-28) is an appetizer, so to speak, of what He gives of Himself, in His particular grace, to His people. We can taste and see that [He] is good, knowing that blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8 ESV) Like newborn infants, [we should] desire the pure spiritual milk, so that [we] may grow by it for [our] salvation, since [we] have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2–3) His magnificence is beyond our imaginations, yet not beyond our experience. We cannot fathom the full scope of how wonderful He is, yet we can fully enjoy the fathoms of His wonders. He is the infinite embodiment of goodness. There is nothing that is anything more than Him.
Additionally, God is the most caring, capable, and generous Person when it comes to considering the desires of other persons. Many suppose that repentance and surrender to God, to live for Him, means the suppression/stifling and setting aside of one’s inmost desires in mechanical, dutiful, teeth-gritting devotion, in which one must rise above being human, taking for granted that human desires and Godly living are incompatible. That is an unfortunate and dangerous misunderstanding of the call to repentance and faith. The call of the Gospel is a call upward in our existence, not downward - a call to forsake our fatal, earthly, guttural, corrupted, rebellious, contriving humanity in order to fully embrace the living, heavenly, holy, purified, devoted, thriving humanity God designed for us and will magnify in us as He sanctifies us for Himself. In doing this, He does not empty us of our desires, but exchanges our wrong desires for the right desires that come out of delighting in Him, which includes delighting in His character and will. Those righteous desires include desires for pleasure and enjoyment as God sees fit to give them and fulfill them. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11 ESV)
So, why have I started this ministry? This ministry, if God is willing, will come out of where I live with Him every day. In a very deep and dark valley, He has sustained me with the promises of Psalm 37, verse 4 being the most powerful one for me to cling to for the joy of the Lord, [which] is [my] strength (Nehemiah 8:10 ESV). (See this post on the Belog.) I have been the one asking the questions in the opening paragraph, groping for Him in dark despair that threatened to suffocate my faith in Him, and He has answered me with this assurance: Delight yourself in [Me], and [I] will give you the desires of your heart. I have been tested by this assurance. (Is my delight truly in Him first, or in what I expect Him to do for me and with me? Am I trusting Him with and for the desires of my heart or demanding that He fulfill whatever desires I put in front of Him?) And I have been comforted by this assurance. (With Him as my first and greatest delight, He will not leave me wanting.) I have reached the point when this promise is central to everything I think, pray, write and preach. I know I can have no greater delight than what I find in God in the heights, breadths, and depths of His glorious Being, as He gives me the essence of Himself. And I can have no greater satisfaction than what I receive from God in His timely and eternal blessings, as He gives me the expressions of Himself. So it is for all of us. So, I have launched this ministry to share this message: When we most glorify God as our greatest delight, He will most satisfy our deepest desires.
That is what everything in our existence comes down to. Every question - every uncertainty - every situation - comes down to that question. What is going on between us and the One Who made us? For each of us, there is not a single more important question, and in one verse in Psalm 37, I see what can be the most incredible answer. Psalm 37 is an expression of the rock-solid assurance that no matter what is going on around you or happening to you, nothing can change what is and will always be going on between you and your God. And I see verse four as the climactic assertion of that truth, fathoms beyond the mere hope that He will merely hold you together when things get rocky and uncertain.
Since learning of it early in my new life in Christ, I have never ceased to be amazed by the promise of Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart (ESV). In this one verse, I see an exact summation of an incredible and intimate exchange that can always go on between the creature and his Creator - the creature who most appropriately and affectionately exalts his Creator, and the Creator Who most faithfully and affectionately satisfies His creature. Yet, we know, as Christians, that this is more than an exchange between the creature and his Creator - it is between a child and his Heavenly Father.
Think about this. A most glorified God and Father promises a most satisfied heart. This will be the eternal tale of Heaven, as we most delight in Him and He most satisfies us. That will be the eternal climax of God’s redemptive work. We can never have more delighted happiness than what we can and will have in our infinitely delightful God. And, in turn, we can never have more fulfilling satisfaction than what we can and will have from our infinitely resourceful Heavenly Father. If, in His grace, He grants me a ministry, I want it to be a ministry of declaring this glorious truth, and that starts and culminates in this mission: Declaring the truth of God’s living Word for the joy of all knowing the truth of God’s supreme worth.
God really is the most delightful and desirable Person and Possession over and available to all His creation. In His common grace, what He gives to all people (see Matthew 5:45; Romans 1:18-20; Acts 17:24-28) is an appetizer, so to speak, of what He gives of Himself, in His particular grace, to His people. We can taste and see that [He] is good, knowing that blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8 ESV) Like newborn infants, [we should] desire the pure spiritual milk, so that [we] may grow by it for [our] salvation, since [we] have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2–3) His magnificence is beyond our imaginations, yet not beyond our experience. We cannot fathom the full scope of how wonderful He is, yet we can fully enjoy the fathoms of His wonders. He is the infinite embodiment of goodness. There is nothing that is anything more than Him.
Additionally, God is the most caring, capable, and generous Person when it comes to considering the desires of other persons. Many suppose that repentance and surrender to God, to live for Him, means the suppression/stifling and setting aside of one’s inmost desires in mechanical, dutiful, teeth-gritting devotion, in which one must rise above being human, taking for granted that human desires and Godly living are incompatible. That is an unfortunate and dangerous misunderstanding of the call to repentance and faith. The call of the Gospel is a call upward in our existence, not downward - a call to forsake our fatal, earthly, guttural, corrupted, rebellious, contriving humanity in order to fully embrace the living, heavenly, holy, purified, devoted, thriving humanity God designed for us and will magnify in us as He sanctifies us for Himself. In doing this, He does not empty us of our desires, but exchanges our wrong desires for the right desires that come out of delighting in Him, which includes delighting in His character and will. Those righteous desires include desires for pleasure and enjoyment as God sees fit to give them and fulfill them. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11 ESV)
So, why have I started this ministry? This ministry, if God is willing, will come out of where I live with Him every day. In a very deep and dark valley, He has sustained me with the promises of Psalm 37, verse 4 being the most powerful one for me to cling to for the joy of the Lord, [which] is [my] strength (Nehemiah 8:10 ESV). (See this post on the Belog.) I have been the one asking the questions in the opening paragraph, groping for Him in dark despair that threatened to suffocate my faith in Him, and He has answered me with this assurance: Delight yourself in [Me], and [I] will give you the desires of your heart. I have been tested by this assurance. (Is my delight truly in Him first, or in what I expect Him to do for me and with me? Am I trusting Him with and for the desires of my heart or demanding that He fulfill whatever desires I put in front of Him?) And I have been comforted by this assurance. (With Him as my first and greatest delight, He will not leave me wanting.) I have reached the point when this promise is central to everything I think, pray, write and preach. I know I can have no greater delight than what I find in God in the heights, breadths, and depths of His glorious Being, as He gives me the essence of Himself. And I can have no greater satisfaction than what I receive from God in His timely and eternal blessings, as He gives me the expressions of Himself. So it is for all of us. So, I have launched this ministry to share this message: When we most glorify God as our greatest delight, He will most satisfy our deepest desires.