Psalm 37:4
And he will give you the desires of your heart.
37:4
It seems to me that this verse contains an odd command, and is often misunderstood. Let’s look at the misunderstanding first.
What is God saying here? I have often heard it used by the name-it-claim-it bunch to say, “If you love God, he’ll give you what you want.” People focus in on that “God will give you stuff” part and ignore what the verse actually says.
The Bible is fairly clear on this: God is not Santa Claus. Some people believe that, if they’re good enough (ie on the good boys and girls list) they will get everything on their wishlist. The same sort of misunderstanding is done with James 4:2:
“If you just ask God,” they say, “You’ll get what you want.” Unfortunately that’s not even close to what James was saying. Let’s look at it in context:
James 4:1-4
Looks a bit different now, doesn’t it? James isn’t saying God is a vending machine. He’s saying that unanswered prayers are a result of 1) not asking or 2) asking for selfish reasons. He follows this up by saying such things show friendship with the world. Put differently, it shows that our focus is not on God. If my friendship is with — my focus is on — the world, I am standing in oppossition to God.
Think of it this way: Imagine that the world is to the east of you, God to the west. To whatever extent you turn your face to the world, you turn your back on God. This is the nature of selfishness.
Returning to Psalm 34, let’s be careful not to make the same mistake. Let’s not think for one moment that God is so starved for attention that, if we say we delight in him, he’ll reward us with whatever we ask.
So, if not that, what is God saying here? I believe it is the same thing said in other places:
Heb 11:6
If we seek after God, we will find him. If we want to know him, we will know him, for he will reveal himself to those who follow after him.
If we make him our delight, we will have our heart’s desire.
This is the heart of the misunderstanding: What the psalmist is driving at is simply that we ought to make God the desire of our heart. Every need, every desire we have will have its proper fulfillment in him.
What, now, of this odd command I mentioned? It is this: How can you be commanded to delight in something? Lord willing, I’ll come back to this when I have more time.