“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

I’ve always thought of delighting myself in the Lord to mean finding happiness and pleasure in Him. Enjoying Him—His love, my relationship with Him, the beauty He created all around me. And while that is certainly part of it, there is more. The psalmists and others throughout the Scriptures speak of delighting in the Lord as it relates to His precepts and commands, His Word. As I reflect on this I realize that delighting in the Lord is not only about finding delight in who God is and what He does, but it’s about delighting in what He tells us to do. We are to delight in Him by loving and obeying Him. So taking this and applying it back to what we read in Psalm 37:4… what if the verse read:

“Delight yourself in the Lord and in obeying the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

I don’t want to turn this new personal revelation into a legalistic constraint—obey God, and then He will do such and such. However the Scriptures are clear that our actions have consequences. Thankfully, the truth always remains that God loves us unconditionally and there is tremendous peace and joy found in that. At the same time, the Scriptures remind us that if we love the Lord we will obey His commands (1 John 5:3, John 14:15, 2 John 1:6). So I truly believe that our love for Him and our obedience to Him are not mutually exclusive. Growing up, I obeyed my parents not only because I had to, but because I wanted to. I loved them and I respected them. I wanted to honor them and make them proud. Certainly there were times I would have preferred to do what I wanted instead, but wisdom now tells me that those selfish desires weren’t leading me down the best path. My way would have perhaps given me the desires of my flesh, but God says that if I delight myself in Him and in obeying Him—He will give me the desires of my heart. And to not confuse my heart with that part of me that can also be confused and deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9)—I’m thinking of it as the place where my soul is knitted together with my physical body and my life on this earth—that special connection that bonds God’s heavenly Kingdom with His earthly one. That place where I exist to serve Him and serve others. Where I realize that God’s blessings are better than anything I could achieve or construct on my own. God created me (all of us) for a purpose, to fulfill His Kingdom purpose that all may know Him. My ultimate desire should be the same as Jesus prayed in Matthew 26:39,42—to do His will. As I delight myself in doing His will, not only am I helping His Kingdom come to earth but God is filling my Spirit with His—resulting in incredible blessings of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 6:22-23).

Delighting myself in the Lord “arms me for battle”. I’m filled with the fruit of the Spirit. I’m clothed with spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:10-18). God is with me and equipping me to do His good works. His purposes will prevail and He is working them out through me. The enemy is ready to distract and derail me, but I must keep me eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) and draw my strength from the Lord daily—hourly (Psalm 28:7).

We all have desires for our lives. But the most important desire we should have is to love God by obeying Him and following His will for our lives. There truly is such joy and peace found in delighting in the Lord, our Shepherd and King. As we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, everything else will come together just as He has planned (Matthew 6:33). And as I've learned over and over again... His plans are always best!