June 14, Morning
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"Delight thyself also in the Lord." — Psalm 37:4 · KJV
The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it simply states a recognized truth. The life of the believer is described here as a delight in God, and by that we are assured of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly people and mere professors of religion never look on faith as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either because they hope to gain by it or because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delighting in religion is so foreign to most people that no two words in their vocabulary 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. Those who love God with all their hearts find that His ways are ways of pleasantness and all His paths are peace. The saints discover such joys, such brimming delights, such overflowing blessedness in their Lord that, far from serving Him out of custom, they would follow Him even if all the world cast out His name as evil. We do not fear God because of any compulsion; our faith is no shackle, 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 closely 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. It is when we taste His love that our joys divinely grow, unspeakable like those above, and heaven begins below.