◄ What Does Psalm 37:4 Mean? ►

Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4(NASB)

Verse of the Day

Earlier in this Psalm, we are told not to fret about evil-doers nor to be envious of those that work iniquity, for when our mind is correctly focused on the Lord, then our hearts are not weighed down with the troublesome behaviour of the wicked, nor overwhelmed with the continuous influx of evil in the world.

Rather, we are instructed to keep the eyes of our heart upon Jesus Who has promised to carry all our burdens and to comfort us in all our affliction so that we may offer solace to others who are also weighed down by the cares of this world and oppressed by evil-doers.

As we change our focus onto the Lord, so our faith in Him is excited within our heart and we are encouraged, by David, to trust in the Lord and do good – to feed on His faithfulness so that we may become strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. We are to believe His promises and hold fast to the Word of truth.

Just as fretting should be overtaken by trust when God is the focus of our attention, so faith expands into joy when we delight ourselves in the Lord and make Him the singular joy and rejoicing of our heart. Delight yourself in the Lord, we are told. Be captivated by His beauty and wonder. Make Him the cornerstone of your hope and linchpin of your life, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of a Man Who delighted Himself in the Lord. His was not an easy path. Indeed, He learnt obedience by the things that He suffered. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus delighted Himself in His God and Father throughout His life, and even endured the Cross and despised its shame for the JOY that was set before Him. I seek not My will but the will of Him that sent Me, was His daily desire.

When the will of man is aligned with the will of God, as was intended in the beginning, then the things that delight our Heavenly Father will naturally become the joy of our own heart. When we delight ourselves in the Lord and take pleasure in the things that are uppermost on God's own heart, we will discover that they become the joy of our heart – and we will be able to spiritually appraise all things and to say with Paul that we are one with Him and have the mind of Christ.

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, forgive me for the times when I have delighted myself in wrong things. Keep me from fretting over evildoers in this increasingly confusing world, and help me to keep the eyes of my heart on Jesus and to delight myself in the things of God. Align my thoughts to Your thoughts, I pray, and my will to the will of God. May the desires of my heart unite with Your perfect will and eternal purposes, for Your everlasting praise and glory. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.