I can have anything I want. This was my first thought when I read Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
From the time I was a little girl, I was a perfectionist. When my mother would ask me to do something; I did it right away. My handwriting was neat and my bed had no wrinkles. Doing things right didn’t come from a sense of loyalty or love, but out of a desperate search for approval. I craved the approval of others like oxygen.
When I found Psalm 37:4 and Psalm 20:4, I finally felt like God made sense to me. Like a simple ‘1 + 1 = 2’ equation, I figured: I could do something and in return God would give me what I wanted. I could achieve a certain outcome because of my own behavior.
So began my journey of trying to please God to get what I wanted.
“Follow your heart. It will never lead you wrong.” In point of fact, Jeremiah 17:9
Explanation:
Delight yourself in the Lord
The key to Psalm 37:4 is found in the opening phrase: Delight yourself in the Lord. In essence, God is promising that for those who make him the object of their desire, he will fulfill that desire.
That’s not a tautology or an empty truism. It’s one of the most vital truths of Scripture, reflected in the broader context of the book of Psalms and beyond.
Psalm 16, in particular, addresses the theme of delighting in God more fully. Like Psalm 37, it too contains a verse that often gets yanked from its setting and made to stand on its own: “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” The phrase is typically used as an expression of gratitude for temporal blessings from God. And while that’s certainly an admirable sentiment, it’s not the primary focus of the passage at hand.
In this case, to do justice to the parallel structure of Hebrew poetry, it’s necessary to treat Psalm 16:5-6 as a unit: “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”
Answers & Comments
I can have anything I want. This was my first thought when I read Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
From the time I was a little girl, I was a perfectionist. When my mother would ask me to do something; I did it right away. My handwriting was neat and my bed had no wrinkles. Doing things right didn’t come from a sense of loyalty or love, but out of a desperate search for approval. I craved the approval of others like oxygen.
When I found Psalm 37:4 and Psalm 20:4, I finally felt like God made sense to me. Like a simple ‘1 + 1 = 2’ equation, I figured: I could do something and in return God would give me what I wanted. I could achieve a certain outcome because of my own behavior.
So began my journey of trying to please God to get what I wanted.
Answer:
“Follow your heart. It will never lead you wrong.” In point of fact, Jeremiah 17:9
Explanation:
Delight yourself in the Lord
The key to Psalm 37:4 is found in the opening phrase: Delight yourself in the Lord. In essence, God is promising that for those who make him the object of their desire, he will fulfill that desire.
That’s not a tautology or an empty truism. It’s one of the most vital truths of Scripture, reflected in the broader context of the book of Psalms and beyond.
Psalm 16, in particular, addresses the theme of delighting in God more fully. Like Psalm 37, it too contains a verse that often gets yanked from its setting and made to stand on its own: “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” The phrase is typically used as an expression of gratitude for temporal blessings from God. And while that’s certainly an admirable sentiment, it’s not the primary focus of the passage at hand.
In this case, to do justice to the parallel structure of Hebrew poetry, it’s necessary to treat Psalm 16:5-6 as a unit: “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”