Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart
Psalm 34:7
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So... if I delight myself in the Lord, truly delight myself in all that he is, and my heart desires a Ferrari 599 GTO, then sometime in the near future a delivery truck better be stopping by my house, right? That's how that works, right?
This really seems like the reasoning that people use when they approach this verse. "If I delight in the Lord and I desire 'X', then I will receive 'X'. Now, obviously, this isn't the way it works; this became obvious to me when a shiny red Ferrari 599 GTO failed to show up on my doorstep at age 12. So if we know this isn't what the verse means, that we aren't really going to receive everything our heart desires, what does this verse mean?
That's what I was wondering the other day, when a different interpretation of the verse hit me.
The cause and effect nature of the verse is exactly how everyone thinks it is (if x then y) but people seem to mix up the last words, or at least the meaning of the last words. "He will give you what your heart desires" and "He will give you the desires of your heart" are two totally different ideas. The former would lead us to interpret that if we delight in the Lord, he will give us what we already desire (like my Ferrari). However, the latter leads to a different conclusion entirely. God won't give us what our heart already desires, he will change those desires to reflect His character. Just like the verse says, He will give you the desires of your heart. He won't grant the wishes that your selfish, fallen heart wants; instead, He gives you new desires. He gives you new desires that take the place of the old ones in your heart.
Throughout my life (short as it may be) I've noticed that whenever I truly am delighting in the Lord, it seems natural to follow His commandments; I want to please Him, I want to desire what He desires. I haven't noticed it, but it's the promise in Pslam 34 showing itself in my life. However, when I fall away from the Lord and am not delighting in Him, my selfish desires return.
Just thought it was kinda interesting that such a simple sentence could be taken out of context so easily.
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This is really good, Aaron. Psalm 34:7 is one of my favorites :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite verse ever! I used to have negative connotations with the word desire, so when I first read this verse I was kind of disturbed. But I've learned.
ReplyDeleteThis would make a good Chapel topic--I could see you sharing it next year and the students being really receptive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Serena - a lot of students don't understand this concept. I know I didn't for a long time. I think Schwager gave us a devotional on this at some point this year and he had some really good things to say. But then again, maybe I heard it somewhere else.... in any case, it would make a good chapel topic!
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