July,
2002
"Delight
in the Lord"
On
September 13, 1992, the Lord spoke the following word to me. It
has helped me through a lot of situations and called me to a constant
walk of delighting in Him. In light of the difficult times that
we have experienced and that are coming, I share it with you for
your comfort and encouragement.
"Thy
delight shall be in Me. For when the passage of time has come
and the things of the earth are passed away, thy delight shall
be in me. As you question the meaning and completeness of life,
thy delight shall be in me. As the world economic system crumbles,
thy delight shall be in Me. For what has man built that will not
be shaken and destroyed? Only those things that are built on Me.
And as you see the institutions of man fall around you, thy delight
shall be in Me.
For there
is only one place of refuge, says the Lord, the place of delight
in Me. You ask to be free from your sins, from the bondages of
evil desires, I say to you - take refuge in Me. Delight yourself
in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart. My desires
that I place there will direct you to Me. Come now - delight yourself
in Me."
He then led
me to read Psalm 37. You can read it by clicking on this link.
Use your "back" browser button to return here.
http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NIV&passage=Psalm+37&version=
I want to
spend this month and next month on Psalm 37. There are two separate
things I want to share with you. This month I want to talk about
the word "delight" and next month I want to talk about
"inheriting the land."
I hope your
heart gets thrilled with the fact that the Lord not only wants
us to delight in Him, but He takes delight in us! Wow!!!
Delight is
used two times in this Psalm - the first is us delighting in Him
in verse 4 and the second is God delighting in us in verse 23.
Psalm 37:4
says "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the
desires of your heart."
In this verse
4, the word "delight" is -
"Anag"
6026 (Aw-nag) is a primary root meaning to be soft or pliable,
effeminate or luxurious, delicate, to have delight
In other words,
God wants for us to be pliable and soft to Him and His word and
His love for us and to take delight in His presence and His word.
And when we do, He will change our hearts and place His desires
there.
Here are some
other passages that use this similar word as in …..
I delight
in……
Ps. 40:8 "delight
or desire to do Your will…"
Ps. 112:1
"delight in the commands out of fear of the Lord"
Nehemiah 9:25
"delight in the goodness of God and His blessing"
Is. 58:14
"you will delight yourself (find great joy) in the Lord"
Is. 61:10-11
"I delight in the Lord - my soul rejoices…"
So as you
can see there are many ways to delight in God and many reasons
for doing so!!!
Now Back to Ps. 37:4…"Delight yourself in the Lord and
he will give you the desires of your heart."
The word "heart" is "leb" (lehv)
It means heart,
intellect, awareness, mind, inner person, inner feelings, deepest
thoughts, inner self, inner yearnings..
I am sure
we all are familiar with the command of the Lord from the Old
Testament that Jesus summarized for us in the New Testament. In
Deuteronomy. 6:5 and Mark 12:29-30 it says, "Love the Lord
your God with all of your heart…soul mind and strength…"
Jeremiah.
17:9 says that the heart is the most deceitful thing in the world
yet vs.10 shows that the Lord is able to sort and analyze what
lies within the heart.
I am really
glad that God focuses on what is really going on in a person's
heart or inner being. He is the only one Who truly knows our hearts
and is able to change them!!! You see, that will be the true test
- what is in our hearts - and it will eventually come out in a
our actions, words, motives and life.
So I think
the true meaning of this passage is that if we delight in God
( are pliable and take pleasure in Him, in His goodness, in His
commands, and do His will) then He will change our hearts (make
them more Christlike) and we will have His will and love and desires
planted within us.
Now let's
look at Ps. 37:23 - God delighting in us!!!!
"If the
Lord delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm;"
I believe
that we all need to have our steps made firm by the Lord in these
troubling times. Remember the He and His word are the only solid
foundations we can build our lives upon.
The word for
delight as it is used here is…
"Chaphets"
2654 (khaw-fates') - to incline to - to bend - to be pleased with
- desire, favor, like, be pleased, have pleasure in.
If the Lord
delights in us He will…..
Num 14:8 "lead
us into that land flowing with milk and honey"
Deut. 10:15
"the Lord set His affection upon, loved and chose them…(us)
and therefore we are to- allow Him - to circumcise our hearts
…."
This word
is also used in the
Song of Songs 2:3 - the bride is referring to her lover
"Like
an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among
the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is
sweet to my taste……"
That is the
kind of love and delight the Lord wants to have from us and towards
us and with us!!!!! Isn't that amazing? The God of the universe,
Creator of heaven and earth, takes delight in you and me and wants
to spend intimate, loving times of fellowship together!!!
Proverbs 3:12
is sort of a parallel passage in scripture…It reads:
"because
the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights
in."
The word for
delight here is…
"ratsah" 7521 (raw-tsaw) - again this is God delighting
is us…as a Father - how do we know - by His discipline…hmmmmm
- God's ways are certainly interesting, huh?….and because
He changes our heart….heart change is a key….
This word
for delight means - be pleased with, to satisfy a debt, accept,
approve, set affection upon, pardon….
I would like
to recommend that you spend some of your quiet time today or in
the next month meditating on Psalm 37 and on Proverbs 3. They
are both wisdom passages - and we surely agree that we need wisdom
today.
So we know
that God wants us to delight in Him and He is actually the reward
- He shares His delight back to us. But of course God always has
multiple blessings -
And we have
seen that one of the blessings is that our heart gets changed
- circumcised - as we delight in Him….
But remember
Numbers 14:8 - One of the main blessings is that He promises to
lead us into the land….
That is also
what Psalm 37 is about - inheriting the land - the promises of
God……and we will talk about that next month.
For now, I
strongly encourage you to spend time each day setting your affections
upon the Lord and delighting in Him. You will find Him faithful
to meet with you every time you come aside from your busy day
and the daily grind and take refuge in Him. He truly looks forward
to it.
Do you have
a planner in which you write your standing appointment for your
time at the hair salon or to have your nails done? How about your
daily visits to the gym? Won't you also make a standing appointment
with the Lord?
I would like
to close with a poem the Lord inspired me to write in a time of
deep and intimate worship with Him…perhaps it will stir up
within you a passion to know the One Who loves you so much and
Who takes delight in you!
TO MY JESUS
There is no
pleasure like knowing You, Lord,
No depth like the depth of Your love,
That burns with the fire of Your Holy Spirit,
Reaching my inner most being with You.
There is no
beauty like that of your glory,
No face like the face of Christ,
That pierces my heart with the eyes of truth,
Reaching my inner most being with You.
There is no
fragrance as sweet as You, Jesus,
No touch as tender as Yours,
That comforts and heals and brings me such peace,
Reaching my inner most being with You.
So, I praise
You,
My Lover, My Bridegroom, my Friend.
I draw near to the One my heart loves.
I come and I yield my desires to You.
Take me and make us one.
L.O.V.E.,
Patty
© The LOVE Club, All Rights Reserved.