The Delight and Desire of Psalm 37:4

I. Reasons why David wrote Psalm 37

A. To Caution or warn the believers
The advancement of the wicked and the disgrace of the righteous.

We are cautioned against discontent at the prosperity and success of evil-doers.

Heart deceitful. Jeremiah 17:9

Guard your heart. Proverbs 4:23

B. To Cheer or encourage himself and others

He wrote Psalm 37 to encourage God’s people to see things through an eternal
lens. To realize that the spiritual outweighs the physical.

1. Encourage himself
Written by a man who spent many years hiding and escaping from people such
as the wicked King Saul. The clear message in this Psalm is to teach how we should
respond to other people even after we have been treated unjustly.

2. Encourage fellow believers

David encouraged Asaph by giving this psalm to him on Psalm 73

II. Delight yourself in the Lord

Three ways on how we can delight ourselves in the Lord according to David:
A. Trust in God through active obedience. Ps. 37:3
B. Commit our way to Him by living under submission to His will. Ps. 37:5
C. Wait patiently for God to act on our behalf. Ps. 37:7

D – o good, even when evil abounds. Ps. 37:27

E – vil doers will not prevail. Ps. 37:9

L – ove is God’s motivation. Ps. 37:28

I – nheritance of eternal life is our blessed hope. Ps. 37:18

G – od is out strength. Ps. 37:39

H – is hand will hold us up. Ps. 37:24

T – rust in the Lord. Ps. 37:3-5

III. Desires of your heart

 A. Shaped by Jesus. Matthew 6:33
1. If we begin with Jesus, our desires won’t be fleshly in nature, because
Jesus gives us a new nature and a new heart for His desires, not ours.
2. We need to learn the art of desiring the “Best things” first.
B. Selected by Jesus.
1. The longer we walk with Jesus the more our heart becomes like Jesus’s
heart, so that after a while His desires become our desires.
C. Sealed by Jesus.
1. Christ seals His desires within us so we ask for what we should and not
always what we want. 1 John 5: 14-15
IV. Conclusion:

When we truly rejoice or delight in the eternal things of God, our desires will begin to
parallel His and we will never go unfulfilled.

This world can never satisfy our deepest longings, but if we choose to delight in God’s
way, He will always provide above and beyond our expectations.