Delight Yourself In The Lord And He Will Give You The Desires Of Your Heart. Psalm 37:4 - What Does This Verse Really Mean?

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4 - What Does this verse REALLY mean?

Psalm 37:4 is probably one of the most misquoted verses in Scripture.  "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart."  It sounds good, doesn't it?  If we take delight in God, He will give us whatever we want?  I love the Lord.  I love studying the Bible.  I love growing in my faith, so if I delight in all these things, I can ask God for whatever my heart desires and He will give it to me?  Well, that would be nice, but that is not how this works.  What does Psalm 37:4 really mean?

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4 

What does this verse REALLY mean?

What does Psalm 37:4 really mean?  Let's start with what it does not mean.  This beloved verse does not mean that God is going to hand us whatever we want just because we ask for it.  If that were true, we would all be healthy, wealthy, and up to our eyeballs in materialistic bliss.  We would also all be spoiled rotten and probably acting like spoiled rotten children act.  I think we all know what that looks like.  You know something else?  We would still be dissatisfied.  I know there are exceptions to the rule, but most people who have it all - health, wealth, and all the things - still want more.  If we are being honest with ourselves, no matter where we sit financially, we all want more, more of this, more of that.  

The reason we all want more is that material things can never fully satisfy the human heart or cure any human condition.  True satisfaction can only be found in Jesus Christ.  We will never be satisfied doing our own will, but the more we know the Lord, the closer we are to Him, the closer our will lines up with His.  When our will lines up with God's will, then the desires of our hearts are fully met.  

When we delight in the Lord, God's will becomes our will.  God's desires become our desires.  The things that break God's heart will also break ours.  The things that bring God joy will also bring us joy.  

You see how that works?  Now that we understand what Psalm 37:4 really means, we have to ask ourselves if we are truly delighting in the Lord.  If we are, then the desires or our hearts that are in line with God's desires are given to us freely.  If we are not delighting in the Lord, then we have work to do.  We need to search our hearts to identify the areas keeping us from growing in our faith.  We can do that by spending time in the Scriptures, reading and meditating on God's Word, praying, and listening to God as He whispers sweet conviction over areas where we need to grow.

Maybe you are reading this post and you have no idea what we are talking about because you don't know much about this Jesus we speak of.  If this is you, then I invite you to go here to learn more about who Jesus is and how you can begin a relationship with Him today.

May you live abundantly in Him,

Tina

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Psalm 37:4 - What does this verse REALLY mean?