Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, and he will provide for you what you desire the most.

Psalm 37:4 TPT

The word delight means “to gain great pleasure, satisfaction, and happiness.” Additionally, another meaning of the Hebrew word for delight is “to be soft, tender.” I think lovers of God are those who are soft and tender toward him, always teachable, always pliable in his hands.

Wouldn’t you like those words to be a description of your relationship with God—one where both you and he enjoy time spent in each other’s presence? If that sounds good to you, then I have great news. God also wants that kind of delightful friendship, which develops through commitment, trust, and patience.

1. First, a believer must commit his or her ways to God. This means that we invite the Lord to examine our desires and intentions—and change whatever does not fit his purpose or advance his plan for our life.
2. Second, a believer must trust God. Who is more worthy of our faith than the Father, who gave Jesus Christ to save wicked sinners? The One who would not spare his only Son will certainly provide all that his children need (Rom. 8:32).
3. Third, a believer must rest in God. When we fret about an issue or something that we consider necessary, we are neither committing ourselves to the Lord nor trusting in him. Because our human viewpoint is extremely limited, waiting patiently rarely proves easy. God, however, has infinite wisdom and knows when circumstances and timing are perfectly aligned for his will to be done.

A growing relationship with the Lord is not drudgery, though it can be hard work. But the effort is a labor of love, because humans are designed to derive joy and fulfillment from being in God’s presence. The greatest pleasure we can experience in life is walking hand in hand with a Father who adores us.

On a practical level, what does delighting our soul in the Lord look like?

1. Delight in the Word – I love to hear my wife’s voice. Sometimes, I want to be in the room she is in, just so I can speak with her. And so it must be with God’s word. He wants to speak with us. He longs to share his heart and passions with us. They are all wrapped up inside the Holy Scriptures. It would be impossible to overemphasize the importance of delighting in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Are you finding time to be in his word and delighting in what he says to you?
2. Delight in his Ways – Delight in the way of God, the way he works in your life, the way he makes you more like Christ. The ways of God include waiting on him. Waiting—yes, wait on the Lord! Wait means “to twist, to entwine, to bundle together.” We move our heart into God’s heart and learn his ways. Many love the works of Jesus, for miracles are really awesome! We love to see God work. But there must be a people on earth who have tapped into his ways. To know the ways of God is to know his heart. Delight in his ways, no matter how puzzling they may appear to you at any given moment.
3. Delight in Wonder – Think of a time when you delighted in something—maybe a sunset. While you delighted in the sunset, were you desiring food? Or new shoes? Or fame? No. As you delighted in the sunset, what you desired was the sunset. You wanted to keep enjoying the beauty of the sunset. Later on you might have other desires, but at the moment that you delight in the sunset, what you desire is the enjoyment of the sunset. In the same way, when we delight in the Lord, what we desire is the Lord—to keep beholding his glory, worshiping his majesty, seeing his beauty. So when we delight in the Lord, the desires that we have in our hearts are desires for the Lord. So what Psalm 37:4 means is that if we delight in the Lord, he will satisfy our desires for him by giving us more joy in him.
4. Delight in Worship – (Psalm 36:7-9) ⁷O God, how extravagant is your cherishing love! All mankind can find a hiding place under the shadow of your wings. ⁸All may drink of the anointing from the abundance of your house. All may drink their fill from the delightful springs of Eden. ⁹To know you is to experience a flowing fountain, drinking in your life, springing up to satisfy. Nothing brings more bliss to our souls than to worship God freely, with nothing holding us back! What beautiful freedom we experience as we delight in worshipping God!

Did you notice in the verse above the mention of the springs of Eden? In this case, the springs of Eden are a direct reference to the flowing rivers of God’s abundance and pleasure. The rivers of Eden are rivers of bliss. Can you imagine rivers of bliss flowing through you as you lift your hands in worship? All our fountains are in him, and he makes us a garden of bliss for his glory. He enjoys us!

Jesus said that if we believe in him, that out of our innermost being would flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). I wonder if the rivers flowing out of God’s original garden (Eden) have any kind of message relative to the rivers that are supposed to be flowing out of God’s garden (our lives) today.

A drink becomes a river. Out of our innermost being, from deep within us, is birthed a river. Multiple rivers are flowing through us, rivers of grace, rivers of life, rivers of truth, and rivers of salvation.

This is the year for you to delight yourself in the Lord!

We love you friend,

Brian and Candice Simmons,
The Passion Translation Project