“Delight & Desire”
[Psalm
37:3-6]
March 18, 2012 Second Reformed Church
How do we – the Church – grow?
If we want to grow as individuals
and the Church, the Word of God must be central to our life and worship.
If we want to grow as individuals
and the Church, we must obey Jesus and evangelize. Each of us must tell others the Gospel: Jesus came to earth, lived, died for our
sins, and physically rose from the dead.
If
we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must engage in regular
hospitality and fellowship with non-Christians and our fellow Christians.
If
we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must pray rightly, privately,
and corporately. If we want to grow as
individuals and the Church, we must pray rightly, privately, and corporately.
Psalm
37 is a psalm of David in which he shows that God is always faithful to His
people, and since God is faithful to His people, we ought to act in certain
ways. We are looking at a small section
of that Psalm this morning.
“Trust
in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.”
David
tells his readers – originally, the singers – that because God is God we ought
to trust Him. If we know God as His is,
as He has revealed Himself in the Scripture, we have no reason to worry, and
abounding reason to trust Him.
Charles
Spurgeon writes, “Faith cures fretting.
Sight is cross-eyed, and views things only as they seem, hence her envy;
faith has clearer optics to behold things as they really are, hence her peace”
(The Treasury of David, volume 1,
171).
We know that in this life, we do not
have all the answers – we do not see things clearly. Paul wrote, “For now we see in a mirror
dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even
as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV).
We cannot see how things are going
to work out in the future. However, we
do have the promise that if we believe in Jesus Alone for salvation, everything
is working out for our good – even evil – even disaster: “And we know that for those who love God all
things work together for good, for those who are called according to his
purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).
The author of Hebrews explains that
faith is the absolute assurance that certain things will happen based on the Character
and Being of God. “Now faith is the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1,
ESV). Because God is Who He is, and He
is Holy, All-Powerful, and every other attribute we are told in the Scripture,
we can believe and confess things that we have not seen and may not live to see
or understand, but we can say, “This is so,” because it is based on Who God is.
For example, I can say I have faith
that I will be resurrected – body and soul – when Jesus returns – and I can say
that with all assurance, because it is a promise that has been made by the One
Holy God Who cannot lie.
Some people look at faith as
something irrational: on the TV show
“All in the Family,” Archie explained that “Faith is believing in something
that nobody in their right mind would believe in.”
Everything
we believe in – everything we trust – is based on a set of statements – a set
of facts. Faith is not irrational. Faith tells us that based on the available
scientific evidence, the earth revolves around the sun. And we may believe there is good science
behind that – good evidence. But when
the One Holy God Who cannot lie tells us something is true, is there any room
for questioning whether or not having faith in what He has said is rational?
And since He is the One Holy God Who
cannot lie, ought we not have faith in Him – ought we not to trust in Him above
our own instincts and feelings and inclinations? If you believe something is the case, but the
Almighty God says that something else is true, Who does it make sense to trust
– to believe?
Solomon wrote, “Trust in the LORD
with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will
make straight your paths. Be not wise in
your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and
refreshment to your bones” (Proverbs 3:5-8, ESV).
Let us trust in the God who promises
in His Word: “And this is the confidence
that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears
us” (1 John 5:14, ESV).
And do good. If we believe in God, if we know Who He is from
His Word and believe in Him because of what He has revealed to us, we will also
obey Him and do good. Jesus said, “And a
second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39,
ESV).
What does that mean? It means that we should do for others at
least as much and as well as we do for ourselves. We ought to love everyone else at least as
much as we love ourselves, We are to
work to advance the life and health and well-being of everyone else at least as
much as we do for ourselves. We are to
seek the salvation of everyone else at least as much as we seek it for
ourselves.
We have heard it said that we should
“look out for number one.” And Jesus
would not disagree with that, so long as you understand that you must love your
neighbor as much as you love yourself.
You can be number one, as long as you treat everyone else at least like
number one.
God, Who is unquestionably number
one, has provided for our every need and blessed us beyond all
expectation. God tells us to do the same
for everyone else. With the blessings that
God has given us – and God has given all of us more than we need of something,
God says we are to help provide for others – to do good for others that they
might know Him and the Salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ.
Of course, we are to use wisdom and
not give to just anyone who asks for anything.
Dwell in the land. Jesus prayed, “I do not ask that you take
them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not
of the world, just as I am not of the world”
(John
17:15-16, ESV).
We ought not to try to hide
ourselves away from the world, but rather to be salt and light to the world –
to show the world what is right and true and good. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth,
but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no
longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's
feet. You are the light of the world. A
city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it
under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the
same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”
(Matthew
5:13-16, ESV). We are not to follow the
world into sin, but direct the world out of sin and show the way to Jesus.
We are also not to be complaining
about what God has seen fit to give us.
The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. God has given us what He wants us to have and
what He knows we need to be the men and women He has called us to be.
Befriend faithfulness. Faithfulness – believing and obeying God – is
to be like a close and blessed friend to us.
We ought to want to walk with faithfulness and be happy to be seen with
him. When people look at us they ought to
also immediately think of faithfulness, because we are such close friends.
Well, what does this have to do with
prayer?
God answers our prayer and gives us
what we pray for when our prayer is offered rightly – when our prayer is after
the Mind of God – when we pray for God’s Will – for what He wants. “And
this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything
according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:14, ESV).
God knows everything. God has planned out every moment of
existence. So, God will not grant a
prayer that goes against His Will. God
will only answer a prayer that is what He desires to do.
Here we are told that God wants us
to trust Him, to do good, to be witnesses to Him and to be thankful for what we
have received, and to be faithful. Do we
pray for these things? We pray for
people who are sick and out of work – and it is good and right that we do that,
but do we also pray that we would trust God, do good, be witnesses to Him, be thankful
for what we have received, and be faithful?
Do we pray that we would become who
God commands us to become and that He would fulfill the promises He has
made? God loves it when we pray for what
He desires. St. Augustine prayed, “Grant
what You command, and command what You desire." Notice two things: Augustine prays that God would do whatever
pleases God, and he prays that God would enable us to do whatever God desires
of us.
So, prayer is all about God: prayer is about our coming into conformity
with the Mind of God – that we would desire what God desires. When we desire what God desires – when we
pray for what God wants – God promises to give us our request and enable us to
do what we have asked of Him.
And so our text continues: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of
your heart.”
Are you delighted by God? Do you take pleasure in God? Are you satisfied with God? Do you look to what God has revealed about
Himself to you in His Word and delight in knowing Him? Are you awestruck by His Will and
Commands? Do you see God as He is
presented in the Scripture and desire Him – want to know Him – want to please
Him – want to be satisfied with Him – knowing that there is and can never be anything
or anyone greater? Do you desire to do
everything in your life to delight God?
Do you believe that everything He Wills and Commands and Promises is the
best that there could ever be for you and all of humanity?
Do you love God more than these?
(cf. John 21)
If you were given one choice, would
you want God – more than money, more than comfort, more than sex, more than
security, more than praise, more than food, more than honor, more than ability,
more than friends, more than family, more than fame…and God may give you any or
all of these with Him – but if you had the choice between God and knowing Him
and everything beautiful and pleasurable in all of Creation, would you choose
God?
Would you say, “My delight is in the
Lord!” Because the Promise of God is
this, if you truly delight in the Lord, God will give you the desires of your
heart. If you truly delight in the Lord
– if your greatest desire is to know Him and His Will, God will say to you,
“Yes, my son. Yes, my daughter. I will give you the desires of your heart.”
Why?
Because if our mind is aligned with God’s in prayer – if we want what
God wants – God will give us exactly what we pray for. Praying rightly is praying for what God
wants. And God has revealed an enormous
amount of His Will for us and the world in His Word – and if we read it – if
the Word of God is central to our lives and worship – we will know much of what
God wants. And if we delight in God and
pray for what God has told us He wants, He will do it.
This truth is recorded in the book
of Job: “then the Almighty will be your
gold and your precious silver. For then
you will delight yourself in the Almighty and
lift up your face to God. You will make
your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You will decide on a matter, and it will be established
for you, and light will shine on your ways” (Job 22:25-28, ESV).
As we train our minds more and more to know
God and His Will through reading and living out His Word, we will pray
according to the Mind of God, according to His Will, and God will answer those
prayers and do what we ask.
But there’s a problem, isn’t
there? What about times when we don’t
know what God’s Will is? I’m going to
ask for prayer for a friend of mine who was in a head-on car crash, and while
they checked him out with a CAT-Scan, they found something else – a major
medical problem going on. Is it God’s
Will to heal him or not?
I would like Eric to be healed; I am
praying for his healing. But there is a
fifty percent chance that is not what God wants, and God will do what God
wants. How do we pray in cases like
this?
We must remember two things: first, as James tells us, we must always acknowledge
that any request we make of God will only be answered as God Wills and is
willing. “Instead you ought to say, ‘If
the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:15, ESV).
And, we must remember that God has
promised to pray for us when we don’t know how to pray. What does that mean? Remember that God the Holy Spirit lives in
every Christian. God has promised that
the Spirit will pray on our behalf to the Father: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our
weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who
searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints according to the will of God”
(Romans
8:26-27, ESV).
How likely do you think it is that
God will answer a prayer that God offers up to Himself – according to His Will?
God the Spirit prays according to God’s
Will to offer up prayers on our behalf when we do not know how to pray rightly.
Now, that does not give us an excuse
to pray haphazardly. We are to pray,
asking for everything that we know God wants, and we are to pray with love of
neighbor in mind, and we are to pray asking that our requests be granted as God
wills, and we are to pray, giving thanks and asking the God the Holy Spirit
would intercede for us as we do not know what or how to pray.
So, I am praying for my friend,
Eric, not knowing whether or not God will choose to heal him, but praying for
his healing – in love, praying that God’s Will will be done, and the Holy
Spirit will pray on my behalf for God’s Will, and it will be done according to
what pleases God.
You see, prayer does not change God,
prayer changes us. God does not need to
be informed or corrected, but we need to come into line with the Mind of
God. We need to know Who God is and what
He wants. We need to think the thoughts
of God after Him that we would be in agreement with God in all things.
“Commit your way to the LORD; trust
in him, and he will act.”
What should you pray for? Begin with what God has said. Pray to know Him. Pray to know and keep His Will and Commands. Pray that God would bring His Promises to
pass. And then pray that God would
intercede and do His Will when you aren’t sure what His Will is. And then trust Him. Trust that God will answer your prayer; trust
that God will glorify Himself and act according to His Will.
“As for the saints in the land, they
are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight” (Psalm 16:3, ESV).
“Well,
isn’t prayer just a figment of our imagination then? If we can’t change God or change what God is
going to do, what’s the point? If God is
just going to do what He wants to do whether we pray or not and pray rightly or
not, what’s the point of our bothering to pray?”
We ought to pray for at least three
reasons:
First, God commands us to pray.
Second, prayer changes us. As we spend more time in prayer, more time
learning to pray rightly, we become more delighted in God. We progress – we grow – in holiness – in
sanctification – in knowing God, Who He is, and how to pray His Desires.
Third, prayer strengthens and grows our
relationship with God. God’s Desires
become our desires through prayer, and God gives us grace to be who and what He
has called us to be.
As
we see in the conclusion to this morning’s text: “He will bring forth your righteousness as
the light, and your justice as the noonday.”
If we are trusting God and
delighting in Him for Who He is and what He desires, our desires will become
His Desires, and God will answer our desires and do them. We will be doing what is right and pleasing
in God’s Sight, which will be all joy to us, and God will bring us to
righteousness and cause justice to come for us and for the whole earth.
If we are following God, seeking
after Him in prayer and life, we won’t have to worry about our reputation or
seeking justice for ourselves, because we will have confidence and pray that
God will take care of that for us. And
God will guard the reputation of those who follow Him – even if people
misunderstand us or lie about us on earth, God knows who we are and why we do
what we do, and if we are delighting in Him and praying according to His Mind,
our desires will come to pass. If we are
following God in holiness and praying obediently for all that God desires, we
will also trust that God will bring justice, so we have no need to seek
vengeance.
If we want to grow as individuals
and the Church, we must pray rightly, privately, and corporately.
How might we begin to delight in the
Lord and receive the desires of our hearts?
Let us read God’s Word and pray that
God will help us to understand it and delight in Who God is and what He has
said. Let us pray that God would make
the desires of our hearts that same as what God wills for us. And let us pray that God will continue to
grow us and mature us and make us holy like Jesus.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we want to have joy;
we want the desires of our hearts to be fulfilled. Lord, please change our hearts and help us to
understand Your Word and desire You and Your Will. Draw us close to You and cause us to trust
You, live for You, commit ourselves to You, and live, believing that the Holy
Spirit will intercede for us with You and will continue to work in us bringing us
ever closer to holiness until the Day of Christ Jesus. For it is in His Name we pray, Amen.
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