Delight Yourself (in the Lord)

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
ESV

Sounds great, doesn't it? Of course, we only hear the "give you the desires" part of the verse. We think - I can get whatever I want - what's the formula. Oh - "delight myself" - I can do that.

But this verse is not what it might seem to us. I actually love this verse - not because I want to get what I want but because of what it means to my relationship to the Lord.

The word "delight" in the Hebrew is the word anag which means "to be soft and pliable." That gives a whole new spin on it. If I'm greedy and selfish and wanting my own way - I'm not going to get the desires of my heart. But if I'm soft and pliable in the Lord's hands, when I will.

So how does that work? I believe that as we yield ourselves in a wonderful two way love relationship with God - worshipping with abandon, learning and growing from His Word, praying without ceasing - seeking to be changed into His image - that He will begin to mold us to become more like Him. The more like God we become - the desires of our hearts will become like the desires of His heart.

Pretty cool, huh?

The Psalm goes on to say: Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

The word "commit" means "to roll." The idea is to start a boulder rolling down a hill - you give it a push and you are committed, there is no turning back. So too with our lives - we roll them towards God - to His way, not our way - even if we would have taken another track for that boulder to roll in.

It says "he will act." God will move on your heart, take you towards his heart, mold your desires and then act to bring out what he has done into the open day so that others may glory in him.