"SHARING HOPE THROUGH SCRIPTURE FOR LONELY HEARTS"

"SHARING HOPE THROUGH SCRIPTURE FOR LONELY HEARTS" 

Ps 37:4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Some explanatory thoughts, application, and a prayer:

1. This Psalm was written by King David, the one who had been a shepherd boy, spending many lonely nights out in the fields, and by the boy who had slain Goliath the giant also. This verse actually says 2 things to us. One, it speaks of God's call to us, and then, it speaks of God's promise to us. By the way, interesting to note, that the name Goliath comes from a word meaning, to exile, to be away, to remove, all of which are in a very real sense an apt description of loneliness. God through David was able to destroy Goliath, and I believe that God can help you if your heart is lonely. May it be so Lord, may it be so.

2. Let's take a closer look at the 2 parts to this verse. Ps 37:4a Delight yourself also in the LORD.

(1) God calls His people to "delight" themselves also in the LORD." The word delight, means, to trust in, to rely upon. So, essentially, God is saying here, to put your trust in Him. Interestingly enough, trust in God grows when a believer's life and soul feed on the faithfulness of God in times past. May I encourage you to pause right now, and count your blessings from the past, give some thought to what Your Faithful and loving God has done in the past. Think of His mercy, His love, His peace, His grace, and His power towards you in the past, in your walk with Him. 

(2) God then in this verse, promises to give something to His people. Ps 37:4b And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Now what does this mean? First of all, I do not believe it means, that God will simply give you what you want when you ask Him for it. Like going into a place to eat, and picking from the menu, and then giving your order to the server. No, not that. But, rather, I believe it means, that if you do what God says in the first part of the verse,  Ps 37:4a Delight yourself also in the LORD. That He will then place within Your heart the desires He has for You. 

3. So, the trust part of the verse, can be looked at as "I'm committing" myself to You Lord, and commit, means to take the whole of one's life and give it to God. See Pro 16:3 Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.
The NT counterpart to this, is "to cast all of your cares upon Him, for He cares for you" 1st Peter 5:7

4. God is always with us. No matter how we may feel. In fact, it's so easy to walk by our feelings, and not by our faith. Faith is believing that something is true, even though we can't prove it by our senses. Faith is also taking God's Word to heart and putting legs on it, or acting upon it. 

5. Here are the next 2 verses in Ps 37, in the NLT version

Psalm 37:5  Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.

Psalm 37:6 He will make your innocence as clear as the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

May I encourage You to just ponder what is said in those 2 Verses, and then take them to heart. Your God is faithful, and He cannot lie, He makes promises, and He keeps them. He only asks, that You believe Him, and act upon His Word. 

A Prayer:

Father, thank You for being so gracious and loving to us. You are indeed always with us. And, we will one day always be with You in heaven. Right now Lord, in times of trouble and loneliness, we ask for Your Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and our minds with grace, mercy, peace and love. Perfect love casts out fear, and a lot of other things. Cast out of hearts those things that cloud seeing You by faith, and let the knowledge of Christ be like the noonday sun.
In Jesus name. Amen.

Pastor Bob Grenier