By Pr Isaiah White
Psalm 37:4 says: “Delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.”
In Psalms, this is probably one of Christians’ favourite verses. Unfortunately, the readers and lovers of the verse focus too much on receiving the desires of their hearts from God and little do they mind the idea of delight in the Lord.
Delighting in the Lord is not necessarily a condition to receive all our desires from the Lord.
It represents specific practices. We must know that not everyone delights in the Lord.
Who are you?
In a world where God and people co-exist, people are divided into two classes:
1- People of God
2- Covenant people
People of God are those created by God, but without a faith-based relationship with Him for eternal purpose.
People of God only desire what they desire, and God provides for those desires.
In this world, even the most atrocious and evil desires will be carried out successfully because God is under the obligation not to interrupt the choices of volitional beings if His identity is to be consistent.
However they use what He gives or live their lives, is none of His business (Psalm 73:3).
Covenant people, on the other hand, are those created by God, but their relationship with Him stretches beyond creation.
Their relationship has redemptive tenets for eternal purpose. The gifts He gives are given to them, and He still participates in their use.
These have to subject their will to God’s will and their delight in the Lord. This is why Psalm 37:4 says: “Delight in the Lord.”
The chronology begins with God. Covenant people, unlike people of God, do not delight in themselves to receive the desires of their hearts.
They, instead, delight in the Lord as a reflection of what is in their hearts.
What delight means
Reading Psalm 37, one will notice specific verses where the psalter helps the reader understand what it means to delight in the Lord.
This can only be achieved by God’s covenant people, and here are the ways:
- Trust in God through active obedience (Psalm 37:3).
- “Commit” our way to Him by living in submission to His will (Psalm 37:5).
- Patiently wait for God to act on our behalves (Psalm 37:7).
Covenant people are children of God who have the honour to discuss with their Father who knows exactly what is appropriate for them when they call on Him (Matthew 7:9-11).
God gives people their desires as they trust in Him, commit their plans to Him and wait patiently for their covenant God to act. This God is the Father we delight in.
Quality of our desires
Those who delight in the Lord have a different quality of desires from those who do not.
The bad news is: the Lord in His permissive sovereignty, will even take care of the desires of those do not delight in Him.
This includes the desires of God’s covenant people. The good news is that eventually, the wicked will be judged for fulfilling their evil desires (Psalms 37:35-36, 73:17-21, Job 21:13).
For that matter, Psalms list five ways the Lord will fulfill your desires:
- The righteous will experience the Lord’s love and faithfulness (Psalm 37:28).
- The Lord will protect His children and give them strength in times of difficulty (Psalms 37:15-17, 24, 39-40).
- The righteous will receive an eternal inheritance (Psalms 37:18, 29, 37).
- The Lord will sustain them at all times, and they shall not be ashamed (Psalm 37:19).
- Justice will be done. The wicked will be punished (Psalms 37:2, 13, 17, 35-36, 38).
It is possible for a covenant person to ask for God’s provision in order to pursue their passions.
For such people, it is wrong to claim using Psalm 37:4.
It is stated in James 4:3: “You ask and don’t receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
A genuine desire must not begin with you and end with others, but must be of other interest to them.
And the Lord will fulfill all your desires. That is the reason we are called to delight before desire.
The writer is a life coach and theologian.
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