Active Delight

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

I ran across this verse yesterday in 2 Samuel 22:20 and I pondered what it meant for God to delight in me. To me, the word "delight" means that I enjoy something. I would be "delighted" with a gift, or your company, or dessert! Was this the kind of delight David was talking about? It didn't really seem the same to me, so I looked it up at Crosswalk.com in the Hebrew lexicon.

The word translated here as "delight" was used 71 times in the Old Testament. It was used when Boaz was committing himself to Ruth as her kinsmen redeemer(Ruth 3:13). It's the word used when Isaiah says that God's word will not return without accomplishing what he desires, what he pleases (Is.55:11). It's also the word he uses to say that it was God's desire, his pleasure, to bruise his servant (Is.53:10). It's the delight that is used when Shechem delighted in Dinah that resulted in her kidnapping and rape and ultimately his murder (Genesis 34).

At first it seemed that there were a lot of different meanings. But as I studied each entry, I saw that each time, the delight resulted in something. It was not a static delight like my delight of receiving a gift or experiencing something. It consistently resulted in action. It is the desire of actively seeking. The desire that takes us where we want to go and accomplishes the goal. It found a redeemer for Ruth. God's word accomplishes his will. Jesus was bruised, crucified, killed for us. Dinah's innocence destroyed. And in 2 Samuel 22:20, it resulted in David's rescue.

This is the kind of delight God has in his children. A delight that results in action. It is not a stationary, effect-less delight. God is not far away, uninvolved or removed from his children. Jeremiah 9:24 says that God delights (same word) in loving kindness, judgement, and righteousness in earth. That means that he will accomplish these things. And because we are his, I believe it is through us and in us that these delights will be accomplished.

I like accomplishing what I set out to do. There is little more frustrating to me than to look back over my day and to admit that I have accomplished nothing. In the Psalms, the word is used 17 times but only 5 of those times does it refer to mankind's delight (and one of those five is our delight for war!) People on the whole are probably not exceptionally good at using our desires or delights to accomplish great things. But according to the psalmists, the greatest delight we can shoot for is to delight in our God. Delight in a way that moves us towards him. Delight in a way that improves us and honors him. So I'll leave you with these verses to ponder... and a wish that you have a delightful day!

Psalm 40:8 (NIV)
I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.

Psalm 73:25 (NIV)
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

Psalm 112:1 (NIV)
Praise the LORD.
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who finds great delight in his commands

Psalm 119:35 (NIV)
Direct me in the path of your commands,
for there I find delight.