Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Parallel translations
- WEB Also delight yourself in Yahweh, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
- KJV Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
- NKJV Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
- NASB Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
- NLT Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Delighting in the Lord brings the promise that He will give the desires of your heart. As we treasure God, our desires are shaped to match His will.
Overview
David invites the believer to find supreme joy in God Himself, with the assurance that God grants the heart's desires. Rightly understood, delighting in God reshapes our desires so that what we most want aligns with His good purposes. This is not a blank check for self-indulgence but the promise that the soul satisfied in God, supremely in Christ, finds its truest longings met.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- John 15:7If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
- Ps 145:19He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.
- John 15:16You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
- Isa 58:14then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
- 1 Jn 5:14–15And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
- Ps 21:1–2For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, the king rejoices in Your strength. How greatly he exults in Your salvation!
- Job 22:26Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
- 1 Pet 1:8Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
- Ps 104:34May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the LORD.
- Job 27:10Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
- Ps 43:4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.
- Song 2:3Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
- Job 34:9For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 37:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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