Psalm 37 contains a very famous verse. I hope you’ve heard it. Verse 4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This is an interesting concept. When our connection with God becomes the delight of our hearts, all the yearnings of our lives are satisfied. Lewis argues that it’s as reciprocal as the role of a mirror. We look in it and it returns exactly what it receives. He gets a little deep in his explanation, but if you give it a moment to sink in, I think it will bless you. He writes, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. If it were possible for a created soul fully to ‘appreciate,’ that is, to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme blessedness. To praise God fully we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God, drowned in, dissolved by that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression. Our joy is no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds.” Here Lewis touches the core of Psalm 37: when God becomes our delight, we discover the fulfillment of desire—not in possession but in worship, not in taking but in beholding and reflecting.
Psalm 37 goes on to list several contrasts between the wicked and the righteous. The wicked live for themselves and abuse others to get what they want. The righteous, on the other hand, seek justice and equity in all relationships. The wicked take—the righteous give. Verse 21 puts it this way, “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously…” Verse 26 continues that the righteous, “are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing.” The psalm repeatedly says that the righteous will inherit the land forever, while the wicked will end in destruction. This is not just theological poetry—it is the law of life written into the fabric of creation. When we align our hearts with God, generosity becomes natural. When our joy is found in the Lord, giving is no longer a loss but a celebration. It becomes the overflow of a satisfied heart.
The wicked seek to fulfill their own interests at the expense of others. Therefore, their best interests are never truly served. The righteous seek the welfare of others and, in doing so, discover that they have served their own best interests as well. The bluebird of happiness is the most elusive thing. If you pursue it, it always flies away. If you ignore it and do what’s right, it lands on you. Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.” William Allen White, the journalist and philanthropist of Emporia, Kansas, demonstrated this truth when he gave Peter Pan Park to the city in memory of his daughter Mary, who was killed in a horseback riding accident. When he presented the deed of the property to the mayor, he said: “This is the last kick in a fistful of dollars I am getting rid of today. I have always tried to teach you that there are three kicks in every dollar—one when you make it … the second kick is when you have it … the third kick comes when you give it away.… The big kick is the last one.” Psalm 37 is right—delight in God leads not only to joy but to generosity, and generosity leads to a life of blessing.