FInding Our Delight in Our God

I. Introduction

Illustration of Delighting in…

Have you ever watched a young child discover something they absolutely delight in for the first time?

I remember when Linden my oldest child, was about 2 years old and experienced his first snowy day. We bundled him up and took him outside where he stood in awe, looking up at the snowflakes drifting down with an expression of pure wonder.

He stuck out his little hands and tried to catch those little snowflakes in his mittens and his face lit up with unbridled joy.

For the next hour, he played in that snow and giggled, trying to catch the snowflakes on his tongue, packing them into snowballs, and flopping down to make snow angels like his mom.

He was utterly delighted and consumed by this new frozen phenomenon.

To delight in something means to take exquisite pleasure and joy in it.

It's a deep heart felt experience that captivates our senses,and captures our childlike ability to marvel.

When we truly delight in something, it's not a shallow diversion -

we revel in it wholeheartedly.

We savor and relish everything about it.

We just cant seem to get enough of it in our lives.

For Linden, the snow wasn't just something to pass the time, but an enchanting reality to be explored and absorbed with unbounded enthusiasm.

This summer we are going to spend time in the book of Psalms looking at what it means for us to truly Delight in our God!

This morning I want us to consider the words of David in Psalm 37:4

Psalm 37:4 ESV

4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

This is the high call and privilege of the Christian life.

As the psalmist declared in Psalm 16:11, "In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore".

Yet in our fallen human condition, we're prone to seek delight in so many hollow, empty pleasures that can never truly satisfy.

We get distracted by idols and impostors of delight.

That's why the Scriptures beckon us so urgently to reorder our disordered delights and affections around our supremely delightful God.

too many times I believe that we treat delight in God as a checked box rather than an all-consuming joy.

Think about it We spend time learning about Who God is, what He has done, And delving into all the blessings that come from following Him.

We often dutifully study about Him and even practice spiritual habits, but do we approach Him with the wonder of a child experiencing snow for the first time?

Do we fling our hearts open to the delight of knowing our Creator and Redeemer God?

Church, To delight in God means to be utterly enraptured by His beauty, enthralled by His love, & fascinated by His ways.

It's to marvel at His intricate creation with a childlike gaze.

To Delight in God means being so consumed by His radiant perfections that everything else pales in comparison.

To Put it simply

To delight in God means to find our deepest, most satisfying joy and pleasure in Him above all else.

Like a child in the snow, my desire for us as we traverse this summer through the book of Psalms is that we recapture the ability to delight wholeheartedly in our delightful God.

My prayer is that our hearts will be so enflamed with passion for God that we approach Him with unrestrained eagerness to be iN his presence and to know Him more and more each day.

Lets begin our time together looking at the command to Delight in the Lord.

The Command to “Delight yourself in the LORD"

(Psalm 37:4a).

So what can we see about this command?

1. This is an imperative statement- If you want to be a growing Christian, if you want to be a faithful follower then you will actively pursue finding your delight in God himself

It’s knowing about Him, or understanding His laws, to delight in God means that you find your joy in the character and person of God himself, not jus t in what He has done for you.

2. the 2nd thing we can see about this command is that it requires action from our lives,

As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12: 2

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

we must be "transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2).

Friends, Renewing our minds means reawakening our ability to delight fully in the Lord.

To oeby The command to delight Requires action

The 3rd thing we can know about this command is that

#3 We were created to find our highest joy and fulfillment in our Creator. ITS OUR PURPOSES!!!

As Augustine famously prayed,

"You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." Augustine

Friends we need to be reminded that the reason God in eternity past chose to create mankind was because He wanted to share himself with us.

God wanted you and me to know Him, to be able stand in awe of his goodness, He wanted us to be able to put our delight in the one who himself is delightful,

But eWe have a real problem Even though we were created to find our eternal delight in God himself, Our own Sinful nature has tragically disordered our delights away from God as our soul's true satisfaction ,and in his place we willingly put our delight in things that will not last. We revel in things that will disappoint us, We look for joy in things that will rot and decay.

FRIENDS, we were made to delight in God above all else.

in Phil 3:7-8 Paul understood what it meant to delight in God above all else,

Philippians 3:7–8 (ESV)

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

“Everything is loss compared to the knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” -Paul found his joy in Jesus. Friends this is what you were created for.

The 4th thing we can know about this command is that “ To delight in God means that You must have a right view of yourself in comparison to the holy God.

John Piper has said,

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." - John Piper

Delighting in God rightly re-orders our affections and magnifies His infinite worth.

To delight in God is Not just a command He gives us to put us in a submissive place- Its a command to get us in our rightful place- The place where we were created to be.

The place where God intends for his creation to find true joy and contentment in this life.

TRANS: lets move on to …

II. The Context of Delighting

Most scholars believe that The backdrop to Psalm 37 is at the end of David's rule as the king, when he was fleeing from the betrayal and rebellion of his own son Absalom.

It was a dark, distressing period in David’s Life. His own Son wanted to kill him and take over his kingdom.

in 2 Samuel 15:30 We see David fleeing Jeruselem for His life

2 Samuel 15:30 (ESV)

30 But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went.

David was broken, He was betrayed by a son He loved, He was abandoned by Men he led through War, We was rejected by his own people whom he loved well. He lost his home, his friends and his throne,

To many, this would seem like an unlikely time for someone to say "delight yourself in the Lord!"

Yet in the very middle of his hardship, David points us to the priority - He says I find my joy in God alone! In the midst of his dark trial he take exquisites pleasure and joy in God Himself. He sFinds delight in the very person of God. Not in what God had done in his life.

Why? Because as He penned in Psalm 62, “God alone is our unchanging rock, He alone is our unfailing refuge and He alone will be our delight amid all of our changing circumstances .”

David’s Point is simple- When God is your true delight He is all you need.

Brothers and sisters, We need to understand that our circumstances should not dictate our delight!

Whether our situation is grievous like David's or filled with blessing, all moments of the Christian life are an invitation to return again and again to delighting in our faithful, loving heavenly Father. Why because He IS all we need!

Habbakkuk 3:17-18 declares….

Habakkuk 3:17–18 ESV

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Here’s our point, Our delight in God transcends all of our circumstances and is not dependent on our situation because He Himself is our ultimate delight.

Weather we are in times of great trouble or times of great blessing- We should find our delight in God himself.

Trans: So now lets look at …

The Means of Delighting

To delight in God is an action. its something that we must chose to do.

Friends you have been created to find delight in something. We have been created as worshippers, But it is up to you to chose what and when you will find your delight in.

So how do we nurture the vital habit of delighting in God?

1. we delight in contemplating God's attributes

Our delight is rooted and grounded in the character and atributes of God.

and that must Begin with His holiness

The Great Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards said

A true love to God must begin with a delight in his holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this, and no otherwise than as (according to our way of conceiving God) it derives its loveliness from this.

Jonathan Edwards

His poiont is this Gods perfect holiness is what makes every other attribute he has perfect in all of its natiure.

friends to delight in God means that you revel in His holiness, Because That Is who he is by nature,

He is without sin, He is without flaw, He is perfect in all his ways, and everything He does is good and just and righteous and Holy Because He is Holy.

Have you ever just sat and meditated on what that means? Have you ever really thought about what that means for your life- the fact that God cannot do anything but what is good and just for you.

Our desire to know God more does not stop there

to delight in God’s Attributes means you delve into studying and learning more and more about his love, His wisdom, and his power,

To delight in God means that You want to spend time with him just getting to know Him More,

Paul in Phil. 3: 10

Philippians 3:10 ESV

10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

the 2nd way we can nurture the vital habit of delighting in God?

2. We delight in beholding God's wondrous works -

There are three ways that we can can delight in Gods works

1. We marvel at His Creation

Psalm 19:1 ESV

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

When is the las ttime you just sat and marvelled at the handy work of God, in His creation?

Looking at the beauty and precision of His handiwork

2ndly we behold gods works by

2. We marvel at His sovereign providence and governance over all things

Gd didn’t just create all things HE holds it all in his own hands, making sure that everything works exactly as he intends for it to work,

the prophet Isaiah delighted often in the sovereign hand of God,

Listen to how he worships God for His providence over all things

Isaiah 40:12 ESV

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

Isaiah 40:22 ESV

22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

Isaiah 40:26 ESV

26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.

To delight in God is to marvel at His all-powerful, all knowing, self sustaining, sovereignty over all things.

and above all to delight in God’s Wondrous works means that …

3. We marvel at His redemptive work through Christ to save us from our sin

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Friends God in Great love chose to save you- a sinner who was in Great rebellion against him.

To delight in God’s wondrous works means that we grow deeper and deeper in our understanding and love for the gospel message that we recieved through the grace of God,

Finally the 3rd way we can nurture the vital habit of delighting in God?

3. We delight in Consuming God's Completed Word -

The author of psalm 119 understood what it means to delight in God’s Word.

listen to some of the words he wrote

Psalm 119:9–16 (ESV)

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. 12 Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! 13 With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. 14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

(Psalm 119:24

Psalm 119:24 ESV

24 Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.

Psalm 119:35 ESV

35 Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.

Psalm 119:47 ESV

47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.

It's through God's Word that...

We come to know God truly and intimately, as He has revealed Himself.

We discern truth from falsehood, and find guidance for our lives.

Our minds are renewed, and our hearts transformed.

We are convicted of sin, but also experience grace and redemption.

Our faith is strengthened, and we are equipped for every good work.

We encounter the living Word, Jesus Christ, the fullest revelation of God.

We are reminded of God's unfailing promises, to sustain us through trials.

We are enabled to delight in God's beauty, wisdom and perfections.

In essence, it is through Scripture, the very Word of God, that we are brought into a life-giving, delightful relationship with our Creator and Sustainer.

His Word lights our path, sanctifies our souls, and satisfies our deepest needs and longings in Christ.

To delight in God requires Action. its something that we must chose to do.

We must actively contemplate God’s Attributes

We must actively behold Gods Works

We must actively consume God’s Word

The point is simple to delight in God means that You spend time with God!

So lets talk about the fruit that is produced when we delight in God?

IV. The Fruit of Delighting

Look at our verse in Psalm 37:4

Psalm 37:4 ESV

4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

It’s a promise from God-When we delight in Him "He will give you the desires of your heart."

Now this doesn't mean that he is going to grant our every selfish whim,

but rather it means that as we delve deeper into our knowledge of Who God is, and as our understanding of who we are in lite of His greatness, He begins to shape and align the desires of our heart with His will.

Friends the more time you spend with God the more his heart becomes your heart the more his ways become your ways and the more his desires become your desires.

SLOW: When we truly start to delight in God We begin to see that HE IS ALL WE NEED.

And When He becomes all that our heart desirers- He gives us more of himself.

Our affections become ordered aright. its in our delight in the Lord that we become more fully who God created us to Be,

Friends Delighting in God is also what produces the fruit of God in our lives

In verse 11 David describes those who delight in the Lord as those who will find peace in their life(v.11),

Psalm 37:11 ESV

11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

in verse 23 he says that when we delight in t he Lord He Guides our steps

Psalm 37:23 ESV

23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way;

In verse 31 He says that those who delight in Gods word will not slip when temptation comes upon them

Psalm 37:31 (ESV)

31 The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.

To delight in God is to experience the fullness of satisfaction and gladness in God alone as our all-sufficient portion.

Its coming to the point in our lives where we can truly say - God is all I need.

No matter how hard this life may Get I am still satisfied in My God because He is all I need.

BRING IT HOME

Jeremiah 9:23–24 (ESV)

23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

There is no greater boast, no higher delight than to know our God for who He truly is and to revel in His attributes and glories with passion and praise.

Friends, Every other delight will ultimately disappoint.

But the realty is that too often every one of us falls prey to idolatrous worship in our lives.

We chose to delight in the things that cannot bring us true joy ,that cannot produce lasting contentment in our lives,

and So I urge each one of us to confess and repent of delighting in cheap idols and counterfeits that can never satisfy.

and I Ask God this morning to reawaken our spiritual taste buds and a childlike sense of wonder for tour God.

Friends if you want to truly delight in Your God, it starts with Spending time on your knees daily praying for Him to increase your delight in Himself, letting nothing hinder or diminish it in your life

Friends If we are truly going to be all that God has made us to be than we must Make delighting in God the highest priority and pursuit of our lives.

May the prayer that Paul had for the church in Ephesus be our prayer for one another in our church today

Ephesians 1:18–20 (ESV)

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

Church Family May we taste and see that the Lord is Good and may we find our hearts deepest longings fulfilled in Him, and may our life purpose Be to Know God More and more each day so that our delight is in Him alone.

Brothers and sisters May God alone be our true, eternal, all-satisfying delight.

Prayer