God for Us

“Delight yourself also in Jehovah, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalms 37:4)

David wrote this psalm it’s believed in his older age. So at the conclusion of a life lived trusting and relying on the Lord, David commands us to delight in the Lord. The Stong’s definition that fits here is “sport self.” This would be an old timey way of saying to entertain oneself or to amuse ourselves. In other words, to enjoy ourselves in the Lord. Going to the Lord should not be a task we enter in and think of as drudgery, just another thing I have to do, but a time that I will enjoy and something to which I look forward to doing.

David enjoyed his time with the Lord. “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; yea, on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” (Psalms 43:4) He learned to be in the presence of the Lord in his lonely times caring for his father’s sheep alone. Who do we seek out in our alone time? What do we do? Do we overthink all the things that have happened to us? Do we review over and over all the conversations we’ve had? Alone time is an excellent time to enjoy being with the Lord. Speak your heart. At first, it may be some complaining, then wishful thinking of how our lives would be perfect if only, but after our self-indulgence which wears thin quickly, we remember Who He is, how great the Lord is and how close He really is. Break out into worship and into song. “I will sing to Jehovah as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My thoughts of Him shall be sweet; I will be glad in Jehovah.” (Psalms 104:33-34) Soon, His presence will be almost tangible, the atmosphere so anointed and heavenly, that you want to remain in His presence forever. When that happens, you’ve just experience 1/millionth of what it will be like to be in His eternal presence. We live in this world and must eventually leave that precious time with the Lord. But our hearts will yearn for more of the Lord once you have experienced His presence like that, you will be like David and want to return to “delight yourself in the Lord.”

Solomon wrote the book Song of Solomon about the love between a bride and her bridegroom. Prophetically, it tells of the love between the church and Christ. In a verse, the bride sits among the trees of the woods, but only one tree nourishes her, is sweet to her and favorited by her. “As the apple among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.” (Song of Solomon 2:3) When we think of it prophetically, the church (meaning the people who love and follow Jesus) sit in the midst of the world with its many gods that pull on us to sit under their shadow. They draw us by their beauty, their promises and our self-ambition and pride. But there is only one tree that delights the bride and it’s the apple tree. It provides shade from the harsh sun and nourishment for her body. So to us, the church, there is only One God, who can delight us and that is the Lord, who provides protection from the harsh things in this world and nourishes us with His sweet fruit. And just like the bride says, “...so is my Beloved among the sons...,” we can say so is our Lord among all the gods of this world.

There is an additional promise to our Scripture of study. “He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Sorry, but to be brutally honest, we don’t even know what the desire of our heart is. But the Lord does. “...then you shall delight yourself in Jehovah; and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth and feed yourself with the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:14) It’s spiritual. Isaiah put it in earthly terms and even then, it’s too deep for us to understand what it really means. But generally, it means to be eternally in partnership with our Lord and God, the Creator of all things visible and invisible. Doing what? Doing the Lord’s work. Of course, with our earthly minds, we cannot imagine what that is.

Of course, we are worldly. There is no other way of putting it. We’re flesh and blood for the moment. And we grapple at the moment in this world. So, our petitions are worldly. And the Lord understands. He sends His promises not only for the eternal, but for us in the now. “If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.” (John 15:7) He is concerned and looking out for us in the now. Stay in there with the Lord, in the good times and in the bad times. He is for us. Grab hold of the hem of His garment and don’t let go in the ups and downs of life. Ask and you will receive more abundantly that you ever realized if you delight in Him, in His presence and anointing.

Recapping, real time alone with the Lord is a delight that we will yearn for when we allow His tangible presence to touch us. As a part of the church, the believers and followers of Christ, we choose the Lord, the Only True God, as our God. We allow no one and nothing, not even ourselves to come before Him. And surely His shadow will cover us protecting and nourishing us with His supernatural provision for our bodies, our souls (mind, will and emotions) and spirits in the now and eternally.