Psalm 37:4 | A Generous King

Psalm 37:4  ESV says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

In the kingdom of God, the king always comes first. Not because he is a selfish king but because he is a generous king. The King has all the answers and all the resources. All the necessary things for a fulfilling life are found in him. So why would we search for answers anywhere else?

When we delight in other things, we short-circuit our path to freedom and a life of blessing. The farther we get from the heart of God, the more distorted and skewed our desires become. God is the ultimate fulfillment of our hearts, and when we choose to find fulfillment anywhere else, we push God away.

If we live this way in a religious life, God starts to get blamed for our dissatisfaction with life. While we find our delight in the things we can do for ourselves, we point the finger at God and begin to accuse him of not being good. It is a dangerous trap we can fall into.

Religion tends to mask our hypocrisy. Religion makes us find black-and-white answers and have a justification for everything we do. In the eyes of a religious person, they can do no wrong. Religion finds no reason to delight in God. On the contrary, religion convinces us that delighting in God is the reward reserved for the spiritual elite. Religion keeps us out of the courtroom of a generous king.

Yet this is not the path God lays out for us. He teaches us that if we feel like we are in lack, we need to turn to God. If we feel like the desires of our hearts are not being met, we need to hit the reset button. We need to surrender our other desires and rediscover purity of heart. We need to trust that God will generously give us everything we need and more and renounce the idea that he will forsake us. No one leaves the courts of the king empty-handed.

Understand that this is a radical promise. We are invited to stop trying to fulfill ourselves and become fulfilled by God—the God who created you and knows everything about you. This is the double portion of the kingdom. Not only does this posture usher us into communion with God, but God turns back and opens up the doors of opportunity and blessings that could only come from him.

When we delight in God, we receive the fullness of his heart, and we set ourselves on the path he has called us to, which is the best way to live life.

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