Delight Yourself in the Lord
Psalm 37:1-11
We all have some fears in life and many have exaggerated fears called phobias. Most of us are familiar with this first phobia. Hydrophobia means what? Yes, fear of water. I have collected a list of phobias, all of which appear in actual medical journals. If you put them in a particular order they can tell an interesting story.
First are phobias that are present in a good Baptist…
Chorophobia- Fear of dancing
Theatrophobia- Fear of theatres
Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope
This is something that a good Baptist does not have...
Ecclesiophobia- Fear of church
This next one may be true of some of you...
Homilophobia- Fear of sermons
Maybe you are not afraid of sermons per se, but this next one is true for you...
Megahomilophobia-Fear of long sermons
Now these next phobias tell the story of a family. This is what most young children have...
Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing
By itself a fear of bathing isn’t so bad, as long as the child does not also have this one...
Automysophobia- Fear of being dirty
At nighttime, these dirty children suddenly have this fear...
Clinophobia- Fear of going to bed
Dirty children or clean, this is what all adults have in the morning...
Catoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors
When the kids wake up they face this fear...
Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school
The lunchtime is a real problem for these schoolchildren...
Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth
And...
Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables.
Perhaps this is the real reason they are afraid of going to school...
Testophobia- Fear of taking tests
After the tests they develop this fear...
Nostophobia- Fear of returning home
Maybe they are afraid of going home because of this...
Rhabdophobia- Fear of being severely punished or criticized
For children who are homeschooled, this is something that your moms do NOT have...
Monophobia- Fear of solitude or being alone
As these dirty children grow, this is what their parents develop...
Ephebiphobia- Fear of teenagers
This next one is something that teenage girls do NOT have...
Telephonophobia- Fear of telephones
And this is what teenage boys do NOT have...
Tachophobia- Fear of speed
If parents live long enough, all of them eventually develop this fear...
Agateophobia--Fear of insanity
As these teenage boys grow up, many of them don’t get married right away because of this fear...
Hypengyophobia- Fear of responsibility
Or maybe this is the reason...
Philophobia- Fear of falling in love
Or this may be the real reason...
Pentheraphobia- Fear of mother-in-law
Eventually these young men do get married and a little later in life this fear takes over...
Phalacrophobia- Fear of becoming bald
Of course their wives develop this fear...
Scelerophibia- Fear of bad men
Finally, this is what all of us have at this time of the year...
Politicophobia- Fear or abnormal dislike of politicians
We are talking about fear, so why are you laughing? Is fear really a laughing matter? Sometimes we laugh so that we don’t have to cry. This week I traveled to Minneapolis for two days and was able to squeeze in a visit with my friend, whom I have made mention of before, who has endured 1 ½ years of infidelity from his wife. As we were talking and he was updating me on the latest mess, he laughed quite a bit. I realize that he was not actually happy about his circumstances, but sometimes in the midst of great fear and trouble, we laugh so that we don’t have to cry.
We know that when we are afraid we are not trusting God at that moment. But when you are afraid, does it do any good for someone to tell you to stop being afraid? It’s not that easy, is it? I could tell you that worry is a sin, but would that take away all of your fear? Probably not. We must get rid of the fear at the same time we replace it with something else. That something else is given to us in Psalm 37.
1 Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 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:
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.
The first principle is this: The prosperity of the wicked is temporary. This has been a burning question for thousands of years. Why should wicked people have an easy, prosperous life when I work so hard and seem to get nowhere? Don’t mistake this as a millionaire vs. a working man problem. In other words, why should I work my 9-5 job while the rich guy is taking it easy on the golf course? That may be one small application of this problem, but we must see the issue on a global and historical scale. For example, are the billions of people living in third-world countries less righteous than us westerners? On average, we Americans are no better than the billions of people who have less prosperity than us. You see, in the eyes of most of the world, the U.S. is filled with prosperous, wicked people. Are all prosperous people also wicked? Of course not, but the idea is that goodness and righteousness does not necessarily lead to prosperity.
The prosperity of the wicked seems to go against our concept of fairness and justice, doesn’t it? If I do my best to be good and do the right thing, should I not be rewarded for my goodness? Instead, even wicked people seem to be rewarded more than me—this isn’t fair! No, it isn’t fair if the only way to judge this fairness was this life. If there was no eternity and everyone lived on average 75 years and then they ceased to exist, the prosperity of the wicked would be most unfair. But as this Psalm reminds us, the prosperity of the wicked is temporary. Like grass, the wicked will soon wither and die away, but the reward of the righteous will endure forever. We have an eternal perspective. You can know if you are succeeding in this eternal perspective if your life appears foolish to those with a temporary perspective. Do you understand what I mean? If non-Christians, and even some Christians look closely at your life, it will appear foolish to them. Your life will appear as if you don’t really care about the things of this world. Your life will be lived in such a way as to be largely free from worldly concerns. A pastor at the turn of the century said this. “It’s not the ship in the water, but the water in the ship that sinks it. So it’s not the Christian in the world, but the world in the Christian that constitutes danger.”
I will never forget my first experience with an Amway salesman. Now don’t get me wrong—I am not slamming Amway or all salesman, but only the greedy ones. I was a young college student, about 19 years old when I attended this sales pitch at a friend’s home. The salesman spent most of his time showing pictures of cars, boats and other material attractions. He was appealing to our greed in order to get us to buy into the company. I told him I was not interested in cars and boats that he was promising. I will never forget the look on his face—he looked at me as if I were from another planet. I don’t mean to brag or imply that I am free of materialism—because I am not, but this story illustrates how a life lived with an eternal perspective should look foolish to those with a temporary perspective.
This brings us to our second principle: Trust and good works leads to inner security. This presidential election is fundamentally about national security. Even though we haven’t had a repeat of 9-11, it often feels as if a terrorist cloud is hanging over our heads and could rain down on us at any moment. We see reports of schoolchildren being shot by Chechen rebels and truck drivers being beheaded by al Queada sympathizers. One candidate reminds us that he defended our country in Vietnam and he will defend us against terrorists. The other candidate reminds us that he is a determined leader and will make the best commander-in-chief. Most political pundits tell us that the candidate that will be elected is the one who appears to bring the most security to the U.S.
We may never know for certain which candidate would do the best job in protecting us from terrorist attacks, but the point is that this issue of national security will never bring us true, inner security. We are mistaken if we think outer security will lead to inner security, when just the opposite is true. Rather v. 3 instructs us to “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” Safe pasture does not mean a pasture free of cow patties! Safe pasture means inner security. In other words, if you trust in the Lord AND do good, you will dwell in peace and security. Does that mean that terrorists will not attack us? We can and probably will be attacked in the future, but this should not change the level of our inner security. I care about our country and I have my personal beliefs about the best candidate, but do you think we might be placing too much trust in the president and not enough in the Lord?
The
third principle comes in v. 4 and I couldn’t possibly summarize it better than
the Psalmist: Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart. At first glance this sounds like
we can turn God into a magic genie. The big mistake would be to focus too
heavily on the second half of the verse—“he will give you the desires of your
heart.” WOW—who doesn’t want to receive all of their heart’s desire? Rub the
magic lamp and the genie will appear and grant you three wishes! We all know the
problem with this scenario, don’t we? If given the chance to be given our
heart’s desires, most of us would choose very selfish things.
So we need to carefully understand both parts of this verse. First, what does it mean to “delight yourself in the Lord” and secondly, how does this delight result in the granting of our heart’s desire. Maybe we can use an illustration from Thanksgiving, which is just around the corner. On Thanksgiving, we spend the better part of a day, , preparing and cooking the enormous meal. Six to eight hours of preparation, not including grocery shopping, and it’s all devoured in about 30 minutes. If you were the one responsible for the huge feast, how would you feel if not a single person complemented you or thanked you for the food? Not one person said, “Wow, this turkey is really moist!” No one asked you for the recipe for your stuffing. No one made lip smacking, joyous eating sounds during the entire meal. To add insult to injury, not one person asked for a second piece of your pumpkin pie! How would you feel? You would feel awful, that’s how you’d feel. You would feel insulted, embarrassed, sad and a bit angry. You spent all of that time preparing the meal so that everyone else could enjoy it. You wanted every person at the table to delight in the meal. You wanted them to be satisfied. You wanted them to have sufficient food. You wanted them to gain pleasure from the meal.
This is but a small picture of what it means to delight ourselves in the Lord. God wants us to be fully satisfied with his gifts. The Lord wants to know that we think he is fully sufficient and we need nothing else but him. He longs for us to gain pleasure by being in his presence and contemplating his goodness, love and power. Even more than that, we are to delight in doing good works of obedience. When you obey God, are you delighted with your own obedience?
I think it can be pictured in this way. In our flesh it is clear that our desires do not very closely match the Lord’s desires. But the small section of our life that does match God’s desires is a place of delight. In that slice of our lives we feel satisfied and complete. But this satisfaction and sufficiency is such a small part of life that it often goes unnoticed. How many of us could honestly say that we delight ourselves in the Lord? Not too many. But what God wants us to do is to move our desires closer to his desires. When we do this, as the picture illustrates, our delight in the Lord becomes a much larger part of our life. Moreover, when our desires match God’s desires he will grant them to us.
Is it likely that God would grant you the desires of your heart right now? Too often we desire things that are harmful for us or other people. God will not grant those desires. But when our desires match his, he is ready and willing to grant those heart desires.
Let me say it another way. I want to describe two different people to you and then you decide which person acted with the greatest virtue. Person one, we’ll call him John, struggles with his personal Bible study and prayer time. If he is lucky he gets to it once per week. Despite his resistance, one day he decides that he will read the Bible every day. John even sets his alarm fifteen minutes early so he has time to read. He finds he that during his quiet time he is very tired and does not particularly enjoy doing it, but he knows that God will honor his attempt to obey.
Our second person whom we will call Jim, doesn’t read his Bible every day, but most days. He gets true meaning end enjoyment from these daily habits. He looks forward with anticipation to how God will lead him in the new day. Now which person acted with the greatest virtue—John, who obeyed even though it was very difficult, or Jim, whose obedience came easy to him? Our tendency might be to say that John acted more virtuously because he obeyed even though it was difficult. However, this principle of delight would say that Jim was more virtuous because he has learned to take delight in obedience to God.
Many of us are not even aware that delighting in doing God’s will is even possible. Some have been Christians long enough to have settled down into a dutiful obedience, but don’t have much true delight in their lives. Let’s go back to the Thanksgiving dinner analogy again. Let’s suppose that after an entire day of cooking your friends and family did show up for the big feast. A few complimented your meal, but you could tell by the tone of their voice that they were not very sincere. It was apparent to you that they came for a free meal and out of a sense of duty. They really didn’t want to be there, except for the free meal. Even though they presented you with some hollow compliments, you would feel betrayed and used.
How do you think God feels when we obey him strictly out of a sense of duty? We are good because we are supposed to be good. We make what others tell us are good choices that Christians are supposed to do, but deep inside our heart we actually long to do something very different. Out outward actions align with God’s commands but our hearts are stuck in auto-pilot.
Now let’s make sure we understand what we are taking delight in. God wants us to delight in himself and all that he is and all that he has done for us and continues to do for us. We don’t have to delight in every act of obedience. If I have to lovingly confront someone about a sin in their life, I will not be delighting in that activity, but I can still delight in the Lord in the midst of difficult assignments. I don’t delight in the fact that I am dying of cancer, but I can still delight in the Lord.
If delight in God is both possible and necessary, then what are the steps to taking delight in the Lord? How do we move our circle of desires until it is swallowed up in God’s desires? The first step comes from what we have already been talking about—the knowledge and vision that delight is possible. If we think the Christian life in only about duty and necessity, then we will never reach a point of delight. C.S. Lewis writes, “There is a story about a schoolboy who was asked what he thought God was like. He replied that, as far as he could make out, God was ‘The sort of person who is always snooping round to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it.’” (Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 69) If this is your basic view of God, how could you ever convince anyone to become a Christian? God is the sort of person who longs to grant you the desires of your heart. The trouble is that he must first give us a new heart, which is conversion, and then reform that heart so that it conforms more and more to his own.
Second, we have to know what God desires of us—what are his commands—what are his priorities that must become our priorities? There is absolutely no substitute for personal study, prayer, small groups, church attendance, etc. But knowledge is not sufficient, so as our recent study in the book of James reminded us, we must practice what we know to be true. We must know AND do the right thing. We have to do what we already know is true. We must bring our obedience level up to our knowledge level. If we know the good we out to do and do not do it, we will never delight in the Lord.
But what happens if we trust in the Lord and do good, as the Psalmist said, but we still don’t have this sense of delight and enjoyment? There are two answers to this question. If you are a new Christian then you need to learn about God. You cannot delight in that which you do not know. But for the rest of us who know God and do not delight in him, the answer is simple repentance. Think about it—how can you not delight in our infinite God? It only means that you delight in something more than you delight in God. You value something in this life more than you value God. That is idolatry and the only solution to idolatry is radical repentance.
The more we delight in God the more our desires become synonymous with God’s desires. You will be satisfied in Christ. God will be sufficient for you and you will actually take great pleasure in God. Can my friend delight in God despite the unfaithfulness of his wife? I need to tell you, that is the only think that is carrying him through.
Rich Maurer
October 24, 2004