Delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:1-4)

I woke up this morning with so many thoughts about this wonderful Psalm.  Here’s what I have to share from Psalm 37:1-4.

I love how it starts.

¹Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not envious toward wrongdoers.

In these economic times, it’s so easy for your thoughts to navigate that way.  “How come I’m loosing my job and Mr. X has a Lamborghini?” etc.

And like good Hebrew Poetry and modeled nearly after one of Solomon’s Proverbs, it is constantly contrasting the situation between the believer (psalmist) and the object of his envy.

²For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.

The Lord is speaking through the Psalmist and sets the tone in the first two verses.  You may think the evildoer is doing well, but his life will fade like grass (actually James tells us that ours will, too).

Instead of fretting because of the evildoer or envying what he has do the following (I love how the Psalms do this).

³Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Put your trust in the Lord.  Step 1.  Don’t look toward man.  Step 2 is to do good.  Don’t grow weary while doing good because in due time you’ll reap a harvest. (Galations 6:9).  Step 3 is to dwell in the land.  Christ is a picture of the good land in the Bible.  We need to dwell in Him and have Him dwell in us (John 15:4).  Not only that but we should allow His word to dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16).  This produces the fruit in the church life:  “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”  That’s how we accomplish Step 4 of Psalm 37:3:  cultivate faithfulness.

⁴Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:1-4 is, to me, the thesis statement of the entire Psalm.  It sets up the argument against fretting because of evildoers and the arguement for trusting in the Lord (the contrast).

Here in verse 4 we have the climax of the argument to trust the Lord.  Not only should we trust Him, but our delight should be in Him. Once we are delighting in Him, He will give us the desire of our heart.

I think so often this verse is mis-understood as God will give me a Mercedes if I delight in Him.

I believe it means that if we delight in the Lord then even our desires will change; they will be that which will delight Him.  Song of Solomon 2:3 I think is in alignment with this belief.

Song of Solomon 2:3
[ THE Shulamite ] Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, So is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

Here’s an example from my marriage.

Mercier LOVES basketball.  So does his son.  Their respective favorite teams (Lakers, Suns) are a bit of a rivalry.  I thought this year for Mercier’s 72nd birthday, I’d get tickets for him and his son to see the Lakers vs Suns at Staples Center.

Come to find out Mercier REFUSES to go to Staples Center but loved the idea.

So, I stumbled upon the fact that the NBA has a development league (d-League) team here in Anaheim:  The Anaheim Arsenals.  They play at the Convention Center across from Disneyland.  Pretty nice area, local, not too scary (and the ticket prices are more reasonable).  Mercier thought it’d be fun, too.  I bought the tickets for the President’s Day game.

A coworker was asked, “Do you even like basketball?”

I found myself saying, “Yes.”

“Really?” he says.  Because anyone who knows me knows that I hate sports.

“Do you really even want to go?” he asked.

I began to tell him that I do.  And I’m very excited.  I told him that I decided this would be fun which caused me to get excited.  Seeing me excited (delighted) in the anticipation of participating in an activity I normally detest absolutely warms the heart of my husband.

Now, how much more so, will our desires change when we delight in the Lord?  How much more so will our affections change we decide to cultivate faithfulness and dwell in the Land (in Christ)?

And how much more do you think that will delight our LORD and Savior, the Lover of our Souls?