Crumbs Under the Table

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

When I was younger, I understood this to say “if I spend a great deal of time praying and reading the Scripture, He will give me what I want”.

This interpretation changes “delighting ourselves in the Lord” into a price to be paid, a means to get our way. In effect, prayer and devotion become tools to manipulate God. It conjures up a picture of a young person visiting their ‘doddering, old’ grandparents just to be able to borrow the car or get some money to do what they want.

How can we “delight ourselves in the Lord” while we secretly are desiring and delighting in something else? Do we imagine that God cannot see what is really in our hearts? Is He that easily fooled?

I think that many of God’s children start out this way. However, as we give ourselves to prayer and devotion, our desires begin to change. What we once “could not live without” begins to lose it luster as we behold Him through the Word and prayer.

The Hebrew word translated delight means to be soft or pliable; luxurious. In other words, malleable.

When we go out to eat, my wife and I will generally split one meal due to the exceedingly large portions that most restaurants now serve. However, I require that she chooses what we eat without my help! Why do I do that? I know that she enjoys eating out MUCH more than I do and if we are going to share a meal, it is much more enjoyable for me to eat what she wants rather than ordering on my own. Why? Because I delight in her. I want her to be happy!

Just as I delight in my wife’s happiness as she orders whatever she wants at the restaurant, so the Holy Spirit encourges us to delight in God. My life is His to do with as He pleases. “Lord, I want to make You happy.”

My delight in my wife’s happiness leads me to want what she wants. I want to share and partake of her choice with her! I want to know her. So the Holy Spirit encourages us to be soft and pliable before the Lord, waiting for Him to place His desires inside. “Lord, what would you have me do today? What do you want to order today?”

I believe that this Scripture should be read: “Because you love Him, be soft or pliable in His presence and He will lay or set in place His desires for your life in your heart.”