Shalom,
Please begin by reading Psalm 37:4.
In 1968 pizza was still a pretty new taste to many Canadians. This is precisely why Bernard Imbeault and two of his friends thought the time was right to start a pizza restaurant chain. Their starting place was a small take-out restaurant named Pizza Delight in Shediac, New Brunswick. Their exclusive sauce recipe, and fresh hand-made dough were an instant hit. Within a few years Pizza Delight restaurants were popping up all across eastern Canada.
Today, over 110 Pizza Delight restaurants still make their dough fresh every day, and top their pizzas with their exclusive sauce and a custom blend of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. I actually have never seen a Pizza Delight restaurant, but I admit, I do delight in pizza. While pizza may not be your favorite food, some sort of food is a favorite delight with most people. We all have delights in life: food, sports, money, material possessions, cars, houses, spouses, family, and oh yeah – don’t forget God.
Delight in this passage can mean two things: to find delight or to be delicate and sensitive. Our greatest delight in life should be the Lord God Almighty. If he’s not, he certainly should be and we need to make whatever adjustments in our lives which will place him in the appropriate position. If something is delicate, we need to be sensitive in how we handle it. If your relationship with Yahweh isn’t handled delicately and sensitively, then is it really something you find delight in? Something we delight in is seen in how much time we spend in pursuit of more of it.
Some people think this verse is a blanket promise from our heavenly Father to get whatever we want or desire. They actually believe that it gives them the opportunity to be greedy. Now they’ll explain it’s all about prosperity and that our Lord wants us to be rich and prosperous. But for far too many of these people it’s only about greed and the desire to have things above their means. We should really evaluate our hearts and consider what’s driving us when it comes to this subject. Wanting what our Lord wants for us is never bad. Claiming that our greedy desires are what Yahweh wants for us is self-deception.
The point of this verse is that we should be getting as close to our Lord and Master as we can. We should be delighting in what he delights in. It’s only then that the desires of our hearts will be good and right. This verse was never meant as a blank check that allows us to get anything we want just because we’ve given our lives to Jesus. Yes, our Father will bless our lives with greater things than we ever thought possible because he loves us. But those blessings only come on his terms. We must be obedient servants of our Lord and Master. We must be spending quality in prayer and study of Yahweh’s Word. We must align ourselves with his plan and purpose.
Delighting in the Lord isn’t some casual phrase that’s in the Bible just because it sounds good. It doesn’t simplistically mean to smile because you’re in church. Delighting is thriving in your relationship with the Father, Son, and Spirit. It means seeking every opportunity to have a deeper and more intimate experience of their presence. It’s what we should be striving for whenever we praise, worship, study, pray, and serve others. If our Lord never blessed us materially, we should still delight in the fact that he set us free from our sins. If we never achieved anything of significance in this world, we should still delight in our ability to know and experience his great love.
What is it that you most want out of life? Is it really wealth or power or influence or glitz and glamour? Those are all things the devil throws up in our faces to keep us unsatisfied. None of these will ever bring us true fulfillment. No worldly pursuit will bring us to a blessed eternity of peace and joy forevermore. Listen to Psalm 39:6. “Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro; he bustles about, but only in vain. He heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.” If we strive and seek after what the world values, we work in vain and will find the pursuit ultimately empty.
I believe what most people really want out of life are things money can’t buy, things that can’t be controlled by power or influence. We don’t find what really matters in the most popular entertainment spots. We don’t find lasting fulfillment in greedy grasping for more money. Ecc 5:10 says, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.” What most of us really want is true happiness and satisfaction, true purpose and love, good health and fulfilling relationships, and strong families. None of these things can be bought because their true value is priceless.
Most people want to look back at the end of their lives and know that they’ve lived the best life possible. They want to know that they’ve influenced others for their good. Most people want to be able to say they’ve taken the best life has to offer and returned of their best. Again these are things that can’t be given a monetary value. It’s much more difficult to put a value on how we’ve touched the lives of others. It doesn’t always easily add up and give us a concrete number we can admire.
But there are many people who never find happiness, aren’t satisfied, or worst of all don’t have any real reason for living or real purpose for their lives. Many people never find true love, but the love they find is cheap and easily lost. In fact, much of what is called love today is actually only lust or infatuation. Many are trying to satisfy their self-seeking desires and miss out on being truly loved and appreciated. And yes, some people have their love trampled on and crushed through unfaithfulness or broken trust. But only humans do that, never our loving heavenly Father. The main reason most don’t find true happiness is that they leave their Creator out of their pursuit. And as Solomon says, “This too is meaningless.” He uses this phrase 12 times in Ecclesiastes to explain how empty worldly pursuits are in and of themselves.
By delighting ourselves in our Lord we can avoid the traps and minefields of broken human relationships. Not that we’ll never have any, but that we’ll have secure ground to stand on after we inevitably face this tragic brokenness. We’re never promised that nothing bad will happen to us as we walk on this earth. But we are promised that we’ll know true peace and security if we delight ourselves in our Lord God Almighty. If our hope is in our eternal Father, than the hurts and struggles of this temporary world won’t be so devastating. Because we’re focused on eternity we have hope beyond this world that will sustain us and keep us from falling into despair.
Psalm 42:2 says, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” There isn’t a human being alive who doesn’t in some way worship a god. We all bow down to something because that’s the way we’re made. All humans want something to look up to, something they can always count on, something they can die for. Thousands and thousands of people all over the world spend their lives pouring themselves out for mankind. Serving humanity is a noble cause, but it comes short of our Creator’s vision for us. Paul didn’t say, “To live is to serve humanity.” We can’t be this short-sighted and miss the one who put us here to serve one another. The Scripture says, “To live is Christ.” And only this gives real meaning and true satisfaction.
The Amplified Bible says the Lord “will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.” When our delight is in Yahweh, then our desires, those secret prayers of our hearts, will be righteous and acceptable in his sight. And only then will our Lord bless us with our desires. To think that the Creator God is our giant Sugar Daddy, one who’ll grant our selfish requests, is an abomination. That thought is so anti-biblical, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Any human being who thinks the Creator God is their servant, or has to answer their prayers if they’ve used the proper formula, has definitely missed something in their Bible reading and they’re deceived.
There are actually people who are afraid that if they make Jesus the first and most important thing in their lives, giving up their personal desires, that they’ll somehow miss out on the “good things” of this world. They think God wants to take away all the fun things in life, and that we’re only supposed to be joyful and happy about being poor in those “good things.” Notice the focus of people who think this way, the “good things” of this world. They can’t be truly happy because these things never truly satisfy us. The only way to find true joy is in delighting in Yahweh. The only true satisfaction is found in doing things his way. And there are enough of these “good things” of the world allowed by our Father to keep us comfortable.
A missionary to India related this experience. While flying in a small plane, the pilot asked him if he would like to fly it. The pilot assured him that if he did what he was instructed to do, all would be well. The missionary agreed to try. When the pilot told him to pull a certain lever, he did. When the pilot told him to push a certain gear, he did. And sure enough, as long as he obeyed the pilot’s instructions, he was flying the plane. Our lives will have the same freedom to fly if we explicitly follow our Master’s instructions. Our lives will find the same level of enjoyment as we obey the Designer’s operating instructions.
It’s good and right to be delighted in your spouse, your children, and the other good things your heavenly Father has blessed you with. But the greatest delight had better be Jesus and living for his Kingdom, or all those other blessings won’t truly satisfy. It’s only by delighting ourselves in our Lord that we can save ourselves from the pain of this world. And it’s also the only way to find true and lasting joy.
Blessings & Peace, Mike
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Blessings! I hope that this study has enlightened you or helped you in some way. Please feel free to leave a plain old comment, or a question. Comments are moderated to keep the peace