Delight Yourself in the LORD

I am continuing my reading of the Psalms.  Today's reading was Psalm 37. This is one of the first portions of scripture that I memorized when I became a Christian:

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will 

give you the desires of your heart. 

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD; 

trust in him and he will do this.

What does it mean to "delight oneself in the Lord"?  When we are delighted by something, or someone, we are pleased.  The word "pleased" refers to experiencing or manifesting pleasure, or to be filled with wonder and delight. Therefore, when we delight ourself in the Lord, we are pleased.  The Father delighted in the Son, in whom He was well pleased.  The Son brought delight and pleasure to the heart of the Father.  In the same way, we must allow the Lord to fill our hearts with HIS pleasure.  If we make the Lord our delight, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts.  I believe that every desire that is birthed in our heart is first birthed in the heart of God.  Those dreams that we may be afraid to speak out, for fear they will never be realized, and those passions that we keep to ourselves because we are afraid we will be told we "can't do it" -- all of those pleasures in our hearts began in the heart of God -- He put them there.  Because they were birthed in the very heart of God and transplanted into us, they are meant to be re-birthed through us.  

God asks that we COMMIT our way to Him and TRUST Him.  If our desire is first for the Lord Himself, and not for those things that He can give us, and not for those dreams that we have, but for HIM alone; and if we TRUST Him, believing that He holds all things in the palm of His hand and knows the exact hour which our dreams will become reality, than He says He will do it.


So we must first DELIGHT in the LORD.  How do we do this?

1. Spend time in His presence and let Him lavish His great love on us.
2. Spend time in His word, delighting in HIS law and reflecting on His promises.
3. Spend time with Him in prayer and ask for HIS heart in all matters.
4. Spend time worshipping Him, praising Him and thanking Him for who He is and all He has done and is yet to do.

Then, we COMMIT our way to the Lord and TRUST:

1. Commit our dreams to God.  Trust that He will bring them to fulfillment.
2. Commit our purpose to God.  Trust that He will reveal HIS plan for our life.
3. Commit our Life to God.  He holds us in the Palm of His hand.  Nothing is too big or difficult for Him.  Simply trust.

I am on a journey of delighting, committing and trusting.  How about you?

*Photo Credit:  Amy Welch Mosaics