John Piper: The Necessity of Pursuing Joy in God “Why, then,” somebody should ask me, “Why, then, do you insist over and over again in everything you write that we should pursue joy in God? Why don’t you just say, ‘Pursue God’?” And there are three reasons. God’s Own Idea Number one: It isn’t my idea to talk like this. It’s God’s idea. Deuteronomy 28:47–48 is one of the scariest warnings in the Bible. It goes like this: “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, . . . you shall serve your enemies.” God is so bent on having people pursue joy in him that if they try to serve him without that joy, they will serve their enemies. That’s how blood-earnest God gets in this issue of pursuing joy. So it’s not me who made up all the commandments — delight yourself in the Lord; rejoice in the Lord — that’s Bible talk, not
Delight in God
Seven ways delighting in God benefits us
Ray Ortlund: Richard Baxter, in A Christian Directory (Ligonier, 1990), page 140, lists seven benefits of looking by faith to the Lord, as to no other, for our deepest delight. Updating the language a little: 1. Delight in God will prove that we know him and love him and that we are prepared for his kingdom, for all who delight in him shall enjoy him. 2. Prosperity, that is, the small addition of earthly things, will not easily corrupt us or transport us. 3. Adversity, that is, the withholding of earthly delights, will not excessively grieve us or easily deject us. 4. We will receive more profit from a sermon or book or conversation that we delight in than other people, who don’t delight in them, will receive from many such opportunities. 5. All our service will be sweet to ourselves and acceptable to God; if we delight in him, he certainly delights in us. 6. We will have a continual feast
The All-Satisfying Object
John Piper: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) The quest for pleasure is not even optional, but commanded (in the Psalms): “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). The psalmists sought to do just this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1–2). “My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). The motif of thirsting has its satisfying counterpart when the psalmist says that men “drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights” (Psalm 36:8, NASB). I found that the goodness of God, the very foundation of worship, is not a thing
Already Not Yet 