THE BELIEVER’S DELIGHT
“I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within
my heart.”
Psalms 40:8
The Lord Jesus Christ is the One in Whom all believers delight. Delight
suggests love, joy, satisfaction, pleasure and et cetera. Delight is
a passion or an emotion of the heart. The words in the verse above are
the words of our Lord, making reference to all that He did in His humanity,
especially His vicarious death on the cross as His people’s Substitute.
It was not the suffering, the shame, or the actually
being made sin that was His delight…It was the doing of
His Father’s will that brought Him joy, satisfaction and delight.
The child of God delights in the same…In God…In Christ…In
His gospel and in His church…In the doing of His will. It is the
Father’s will that we believe on His Son, rejoice in His Word,
and commit ourselves to His Body…His Church. This is our delight
while we are here on this earth. What a privilege! What an honour! What
a calling! What a delight! The delight and satisfaction found in knowing
Him, worshipping Him, and believing His gospel makes the sufferings
and cares of the flesh seem but little and makes them bearable in our
pilgrimage through this life. Our Lord said in John
16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in
Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but
be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” When we are
cast down in spirit and begin to murmur and complain it is always
because we are looking at “self”, rather than looking
unto Him in Whom we delight - Psalms 42:11
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted
within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the
health of my countenance, and my God.” The man that delights
in the Lord is a blessed and happy man because his faith is in The One
Who is able to, and will provide for him in all things - Psalms1:1-3
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat
of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD;
and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper.”
If He is not our delight, then we have nothing substantial to delight
in. All other pleasures and joys will eventually perish and we will
be confined to our own misery forever.
Tommy
