Delight

Delight is one of my treasured words.* When daily life begins to weigh me down, this word causes my spirit to feel featherlight and unencumbered. Delight is like a passel of adorable kittens tumbling into my heart.

I often encounter the word delight in my Bible reading. One concordance said there are 213 occurrences of some form of the word in the Bible. I decided to take a closer look at it.

Merriam-Webster defines delight as “a high degree of gratification or pleasure: joy; extreme satisfaction.” In the Bible, many Hebrew and Greek words are translated as delight, but most of them generally mean to take great pleasure in.

Take a moment to think of some things that give you great pleasure. (You already know one of mine. For CW, a vintage red truck with a Christmas tree in the back pushes his happy button.) Now for a look at what delighted people in the Bible and what delights God.

People delighted in other people, and it caused them to gladly do things that might otherwise have been disagreeable. Shechem, a Hivite, wanted to marry Dinah, an Israelite. Dinah’s brothers would only give their consent if Shechem was circumcised. Shechem “lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter” (Genesis 34:19). That was true delight!

Paul wrote in a letter to the church at Thessalonica, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). Here, delighted signifies being willing (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). Paul was pleasurably willing even to lay down his life for the people if necessary because he was so attached to them.

People delighted in what they knew was good. As Jesus taught in the temple courts about the Messiah, “the large crowd listened to him with delight” (Mark 12:37). The Greek word here, hédeós, means “highly agreeable (enjoyable), i.e. gladly received because so sweet to the beholder” (HELPS Word-studies). The listeners recognized Jesus’ doctrine as superior to any other teachings they had ever heard (Gill’s Exposition), and it filled them with pleasure.

Paul wrote to the church at Colosse, “For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is” (Colossians 2:5). This Greek work is chairó. It is closely connected with grace and means “to experience God’s grace (favor), be conscious (glad) for His grace” (HELPS Word-studies). When Paul saw how the church remained steadfast in their faith in Christ against all opposition and how they served the Lord in unity, he experienced God’s grace through them. I think he was delighting in the goodness of God.

People delighted in hard situations. Paul said, “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). He not only endured these; he rejoiced in them. He knew it was in such situations that Christ would shine brighter through his life. And when the law of sin waged war to make him a prisoner, he could say, “in my inner being I delight in God’s law” (Romans 7:22). Even in his struggles, Paul found pleasure in God’s goodness.

People delighted in things that weren’t good. In Psalm 68:30, David referred to “nations who delight in war.” These were people who had “pleasure in arraying themselves against the people of God” (Barnes’ Notes). In Psalm 70:2 (NASB), David spoke of those “who delight in my hurt.” It is hard to imagine taking great pleasure in such things, but when someone is delighting in the ruin of God’s people, it is feeding a dark, wicked heart.

People delighted in the things of God.

• “I delight to do your will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8 NASB).
• “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2).
• “My soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation” (Psalm 35:9).
• “O Lord, let your ear be attentive . . . to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name” (Nehemiah 1:11).
• “I delight in your decrees” (Psalm 119:16).
• “I delight in your commands because I love them” (Psalm 119:47).
• “I delight in your law” (Psalm 119:70).

Good things happen when we delight in the things of God. David said in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” A footnote in my study Bible points out we can only experience great pleasure in someone when we know them well. To know somebody well takes quality time together, so we can know God better by reading His Word and talking with Him.

I picture rolling a ball of snow to make a snowman. You start by packing a small bit together to concentrate it and then add more layers. With God, the more layers we learn of His goodness, the bigger the ball of delight we experience. That leads to wanting to know Him even better and delighting in Him more. As our delight in Him increases, the desires of our heart increasingly become those things that delight the Lord.

That brings us to what God delights in. Three of the four Gospels record God’s voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism saying He was well pleased with His Son. Matthew also repeated the same words spoken by God several centuries earlier through the prophet Isaiah foretelling of the Messiah’s coming: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight” (Isaiah 42:1).

God is delighted in qualities such as truth. David prayed, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity” (1 Chronicles 29:17). We also read this in Proverbs: “The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight” (Proverbs 11:1); “The lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful” (Proverbs 12:22); and “The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him” (Proverbs 15:8).

Other qualities also give pleasure to God. The Lord spoke these words to the Israelites through His prophet Jeremiah: “but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight” (Jeremiah 9:24). It should not surprise us that such things give Him pleasure because they are characteristics of God Himself. Matthew Henry said, “God delights to show kindness and to execute judgment himself, and is pleased with those who herein are followers of him as dear children” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary).

Indeed, God is pleased with those who love Him. “The Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4). He “delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love” (Psalm 147:11). The Hebrew word ratsah used in these two verses is the same one used in Isaiah 42:1 above when God speaks of delighting in His Son. That is an amazing thought—and a little difficult to grasp—that God receives the same pleasure from me as He does from Jesus.

That is just what He does, though—when we obey Him. Of all nations, the Israelites were the people whom the Lord chose to set His affection on (Deuteronomy 10:15), but they had a history of straying from Him. During those times, He was not pleased with them (Deuteronomy 28:63). Moses spoke to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land: “⁹The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, ¹⁰if you obey the Lord your God and keep His commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 30:9-10). When we are living according to His Words, I believe He sees Jesus in us—and that delights Him.

God delights in our wholeness. David said, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant” (Psalm 35:27). Well-being means “completeness, soundness, welfare, peace” (Strong’s Concordance), specifically “peace with God” (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Living at peace with God pleases Him because He created us for that relationship.

I’ll end our delight scriptures with one from Isaiah about what is in store for those in whom the Lord delights. “⁴For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, ⁵even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off’” (Isaiah 56:4-5 NKJV).

God will give them a place. His house refers to His temple or place of worship, and His walls are the walls of Jerusalem, where God dwelt (Barnes’ Notes). At that time, only Jews were permitted to enter and worship, but Jesus has now made it possible for all people in whom God delights to enter His kingdom. “He will himself be . . . their habitation” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary).

God will give them a name. Children were important in the Hebrew culture; they carried the family name into future generations. But the Lord was giving them a better name, that of “being regarded as the children of God, and treated as his friends” (Barnes’ Notes). And that name, which is given to all those who delight in Him, “is written in heaven, where it shall live and flourish throughout all ages” (Calvin’s Commentaries).

Delight is

• encountering the beauty of God’s creation
• spending time with Jesus
• observing God’s grace at work in the world
• knowing God delights in me
• tasting now what will be mine eternally

This is why delight is a word in my treasure chest.

*Treasured Words are words that have special value to me. Hearing them causes brilliant light and comforting warmth to radiate from a place deep inside me and fill my soul with a sense of well-being.

Scripture quotations are from NIV unless otherwise noted.

Hebrew and Greek definitions and commentary notes are from Bible Hub. See Resources.