If you are like me, and I know that many of you are, you enter and camp out in dry places on occasion. It’s not that I intentionally go looking for a wilderness experience that takes me away from my relationship with Christ, but rather I allow business and laziness to gain a foothold in my day to day activities. And, when I reset my thoughts and intentions, it is then that I return to my favorite devotional book and find a renewed spirit of willingness to spend some time quieting myself by reading and digging into scripture. This morning is one of those days and I am grateful that the devotion writer took me to Psalm 37:4 which is one of my favorite verses from the Psalms. Not content to merely read the verse and call it ‘good’ I decided to do some digging into the meaning of the word “delight”.

I found a site that gave me the Hebrew definition for “delight”. I found out it is a command (hmmm…..not a suggestion) and it translates as “exquisite delicacy”. (I admit I suddenly visualized a box of chocolates….not your ‘dime store’ version either). Seeing as I have a sweet tooth my ability to relate to the meaning was one of sheer delight! Yet, the command isn’t merely to have a good time with The Lord. It’s meant to be a celebration of the PRESENCE of The Lord. In the midst of our ‘celebrating’ He then gives us the desires of our heart. So, I guess this means that I have a responsibility in my hope of God granting me His gifts.

Taking a closer look at the verses before and after the words in Verse 4 I found this: Verse 3 tells us to “Trust”. Verse 4 tells us to “Delight”. Verse 5 tells us to “Commit”. Then in Verse 6 the writer changes direction assuring us that when we have completed those actions “God will bring forth righteousness in ME (US)”……then Verse 7 tells us to “Rest” and Verse 8 tells us to “Cease…(from anger).

I confess that I don’t always ‘trust’ God. I’m pretty good at suggesting to Him how He should answer my prayers. And I’m not always consistent with  ‘committing’ each day to Him. Resting and Ceasing aren’t welcome traits either. Yet, even in those shortcomings, God is patient. He is kind and He is gracious and I like to believe that He is ‘delighted’ when I lay aside the inadequacies of my flesh and return to His presence.

Do I always ‘delight in the Lord’? Do I always ‘taste and see that The Lord is good’? Sadly, the human answer is ‘no’.  But God’s answer is ‘yes’ because in Romans 8:1 Paul writes “There is then no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus”.

The gift I received this morning was a renewed hunger to be in God’s presence. I was thrilled and content to be quiet with only the sound of my living room clock ticking down the minutes of a cold morning warmed by precious time in God’s Word. I thought about writing a list of ‘heart desires’ in my journal but I didn’t because something tells me my Heavenly Father already knows what concerns me so I will exercise a step of ‘Trust’….I will continue to pursue an attitude of  ‘Committing’ and most importantly–I will ‘Rest’ and ‘Cease’. I will  ‘celebrate’ His presence.