“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4 is pretty much the same in all translations, but it is perhaps one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible.
It goes right along with Matthew 7:7-8 which says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
In American culture, we like the idea of a “vending machine God.” You put in the prayer; God gives you what you asked for. You put in the work; God gives you what you want the way you want it. It seems easy to treat God like an equal that we can make deals with: I’ll do what you want, you do what I want, everybody’s happy.
But in fact, everyone is not happy.
This “vending machine God” is nothing like the God of the Bible. God is all powerful, sovereign over all things, and completely holy—set apart. You do not make deals with God any more than a bug makes deals with a fly-swatter.
In the book of Job, as Job goes through huge amounts of suffering, Job’s friends accuse Job of “not meeting his side of the bargain” so that’s why God is punishing him. Meanwhile, Job argues his innocence with both his friends and God.
At the end of the book of Job, God speaks to Job for four chapters, but never answers Job’s question of why he is suffering. Instead, he asks Job some questions of His own. Questions like “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4) “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?” (38:33) “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?” (39:1) and “Can you draw out Leviathan [a huge fire breathing sea monster] with a fishhook?” (41:1)
God does not make deals. God does not gives us whatever we want whenever we want it. In fact, he very rarely does this.
So what does it mean that God will give us the desires of our heart?
It means exactly that. God will give us our desires. God does not give us whatever we want, instead, he changes our hearts and makes His desires our desires.
Take a look at the verses below:
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Galatians 5:16-17.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
When we are saved by Christ, He makes us new and He renews our desires. When we delight ourselves in God, He gives us our desires.
Think about some of the people in the Bible who God used to do amazing things. Joseph became Prince of Egypt, Moses freed the slaves, David fought against a giant, Esther became queen and saved the Hebrews, Ruth was accepted into the family of Israel, Mary bore the Christ, the apostles spent close time with Jesus and then worked miracles.
We tend to think that these people wanted what God gave them (even though the Bible tells us otherwise). But think about it this way, think about what happened right before the good part of the stories: Joseph was sold by his brothers, Moses was a convicted murderer, David faced certain death, Esther was taken to be part of a harem, Ruth was a widow in a foreign land that didn’t accept her, Mary had a seemingly illegitimate child, the apostles ran away and refused the call multiple times.
These were not things that humans would desire. But because these people followed God, God aligned their desires with His. He showed them what He wanted, and as they grew closer to Him, it became what they wanted.
We need to stop thinking God will give us whatever we want, and start asking Him what He wants of us.
There is another side of this coin, one that is addressed by Saint Augustine when he said, “Love God and do whatever you please; for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”
Just like the desires of your heart verse, this does not mean we can do whatever we want. It means, that if we truly love God, we will want to do the things that please Him.
While we should not follow our own desires, but instead God’s, we do not need to get caught up in trying to figure out exactly what God is desiring of us at every moment. Nor do we need to ignore every one of our desires. (For heaven’s sake, just pick where you want to go out to eat!) Rather, we need to understand that if we love God, we will do what pleases Him, and when we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us desires and satisfy those desires.
Christianity is hard (just ask our brothers and sisters in other countries about that) but that doesn’t mean it is drudgery. Christianity isn’t about always doing things we hate and having to shove aside everything we love. Loving God is joyful. Loving God is happy. Loving God is delightful and satisfying and beautiful. Loving God is not a deal; it’s a heartfelt commitment.
If you want a vending machine, go to a vending machine. You don’t tell God what to do. Can you answer his question? “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4)