Morning
Time: 11:31 AM PST
"Delight thyself also in the Lord." --Psalm 37:4
The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are
strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the
inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as
a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true
religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors
never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or
necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it
is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do
otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men,
that no two words in their language stand further apart than "holiness" and
"delight." But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are
so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them.
They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights,
such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so
far from serving Him from custom, they would follow Him though all the world
cast out His name as evil. We fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith
is no fetter, our profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor
driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our
duty is our delight.
Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as
truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by
side in a setting of gold.
"'Tis when we taste Thy love,
Our joys divinely grow,
Unspeakable like those above,
And heaven begins below."