Does God really command Christians to be delighted, joyful, and satisfied in our lives?
Psalm 37:4
So many people cling to the second half of Psalm 37:4 that they forget the first! Everyone loves the promise, “…and he will give you the desires of your heart,” but only a few remember that the first half of the verse is actually a command from the Eternal God, and as such, it requires the same obedience that all his commands do. The word “Delight” here is imperative… a command! Can it really be that God commands all believers to be delighted, joyful, satisfied, in their lives? Knowing that joy is a gift from God (and it is: “The fruit of the Spirit is … joy,” Gal. 5:22), we forget that Christian joy is actually a partnership between God and the believer. God has his part, we have ours. To realize that we have a responsibility to rejoice as Christians can be a turning point in our daily experience of joy. And the focus of our joy is always properly God himself! So it is here, in Psalm 37, as it also is in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always…”
“To realize that we have a responsibility to rejoice as Christians can be a turning point in our daily experience of joy.”
The great Puritan writer, Richard Baxter, gave 10 admonitions to the joyless Christian, who disobeyed these repeated commands. I have modernized them as follows:
- You insult and dishonor God if you judge him not the worthiest object for your delight.
- If you do not delight in God, your thoughts of God will be seldom, and perhaps unpleasant and unwelcome.
- Your talking of God will be seldom.
- Lack of joy will keep you away from holy duties (i.e. church, Bible studies, personal devotions, etc.) in which you should have communion with God.
- It will corrupt your judgment and make you think that a little (of God) is enough.
- If you delight not in God, your heart won’t be in anything you do.
- Lack of joy makes people quarrel with the Word of God, and every small weakness and fault of their minister will offend them.
- Lack of joy inclines people to carnal and forbidden pleasures.
- Want of delight in God and in holiness leaves the soul a prey to sorrows. Every affliction that assaults it is allowed to do its worst and make a full blow at your naked and unfortified heart.
- The lack of delight in God and in holiness is the way to apostasy itself. Few people will hold fast to a way of living they have no delight in, especially if all other delights must be forsaken for it.
It is clear from these warnings what a serious thing it is to disobey this command to delight in the Lord. The only safe and prosperous way in the Christian life is to be constantly provoking ourselves to rejoice in the unchanging God and His unchanging rewards. If he deserved praise yesterday, he deserves it today, for he hasn’t changed. If he deserved to be thanked yesterday, he deserves it again today, for your reward is as secure as ever!
