What does the verse of Scripture that says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will Give you the Desires of your Heart (Psalms 37:4)”, actually mean?

Ellen’s Explanation …

Well the first time that I ever heard that passage, it was explained to me by my mother. She did this weird thing with her arms as she kind of waved them up and down like one of those ‘Air Gumby – Giant Balloon’ things that they pump air into. They are placed outside of Auto Dealerships and Fast Food Restaurants in order to attract attention. 

She went on to explain that the word “Delight” meant ‘to laugh and make yourself happy.’ She also said that it meant to ‘make yourself pliable’, like the Gumby Balloon. Ellen’s explanation may have been a bit off base, or at least partially complete. However, she may have been on to something regarding the true context of the passage.

I wrote about what I believed the verse meant in my book Enoch’s Journey. In short, I said that it was similar to the manner in which someone might get a syringe and inject flavor, such as garlic seasoning into a turkey prior to baking it. I essentially said that 

“God Gives … and then He Gives … you the Desires of your heart.”

These Desires are actually His Desires for you. They are also a part of His overarching Purpose and Plan for your Life. However, He can only Infuse them into your heart and Spirit, via Holy Spirit Syringe, much like injecting flavor into a turkey, if you are in a malleable, connected, submitted, and penetrable state regarding your Relationship with God. 

John (15:1,4,5,&7) basically describes this seamless Infusion process. It tells us that if we remain Intimately Connected to God, such that He can continuously pour His Word into our hearts and Spirit, never allowing ourselves to become disconnected by the weights, cares of this world, worries, and sins which do so easily break that connection (Hebrews 12:1). If we remain connected to God and Intimately acquainted with His Holy Spirit, as well as, remain Submissive to His Leading and Lordship over every area of our lives and entire being, then He can, like the blood running through the veins in our bodies, Continuously Infuse His Revelation and Word into us.

A Definition

The Oxford Dictionary’s second and third definitions of the word Infused, intimates that the word means to permeate. Essentially the second definition alludes to steeping tea. If you soak a tea bag in hot water, the color and flavor will Infuse itself into the water such that the water no longer tastes like water. Rather it begins to taste like the tea leaves that are in the bag. Essentially you are changing the properties of the water by Infusing flavor into it.

The third definition gets a bit more specific when it discusses the process of Infusion. It equates the process to that which occurs when a nurse in a hospital begins to inject something into your veins. I have been in the hospital for a few extended stays. They had to connect me to the Intravenous (IV) drip bag. When I had to do my daily walks around the floor of the hospital, I had to take the bag, the pole that it was on, the machine that it ran through monitoring the drip rate, and the entire mechanism, which they were kind enough to place on wheels for easy transport, with me when I walked. The point was that I needed the fluids that were in the bag, which they changed regularly, as it ran out, so that I was constantly receiving, through my veins, the liquid that was in the bag, in an uninterrupted fashion.

Delight & Give

Like so many things, the King James version of the Bible does a poor job of translating Hebrew, Chaldean, and Greek into English. However, because I was raised during the era where that version was the primary Bible translation of choice for most churches, I remember most passages of scripture in King James English. So, I will make a run at translating Psalms (37:4, EAJ Translation), as it has been Infused into me.

First, the word Delight is a verb that is stated in the Imperative tense. It means to “do it right now!” Kind of like when your mother told you to clean up your room … and you said “ok”, having no actual intention of interrupting the TV program that you were watching, in order to begin the cleaning process. Then she would YELL, “NOW!” 

That is stating something in the Imperative tense. The word Delight, as used in Psalms (37:4) means to basically make yourself submissive to what is being or is about to be Infused or injected into you. Furthermore, it means to leave the means of Infusion in there or intimately connected to you, such that it can constantly flow into you. I am reminded of the aforementioned IV drip or even intimacy. The idea that supports the word Delight is to allow yourself to become initially connected to a source and then to never disconnect. You have to remain connected and “let it constantly flow.”

Now the word or verb Give in Psalms (37:4, EAJ Translation) is stated in the Future tense. Meaning, beginning right now and continuing on into the Future, until God, the God who has no beginning and no ending, stops the flow, He will Give you the Desires of your heart (Revelation 1:8 & 22:13). In other words, He will Infuse or inject those Desires into you, as continuously as you allow Him to, as He describes in John (15:1,4,5,&7).

This means that as long as you remain Intimately Connected to God, He will remain Intimately Connected to you.

This will allow God to constantly and consistently pour His Word and Revelation into you. Meaning, into your heart and Spirit, in perpetuity. Thus, God will Give or Infuse into you like a tea bag in hot water, the Desires of your heart.

But He does not stop at the point of Infusion. What good would that do? You would walk around with all of these Desires all trapped up inside of you. The tea is no good unless you drink it! 

So, He not only Births all of these Desires in your heart. Desires which you become completely consumed with, until you see them Manifested. That is called progressing toward your Purpose. Or the Journey toward the fulfillment of your Purpose and Calling via taking the required Steps on your Journey to “Was Not.”

God Gives … And then He Gives or Manifests the Desires of your heart. 

This occurs as long as you remain on the Journey with Him. And as long as you obey the words written in Psalms and John. Those words which imperatively and emphatically declare that you make yourself submissive, receptive, and make your heart permeable to God, such that He can Intimately Fellowship with you, while continually pouring His Word and His Revelation & Plans into you. And remember, you must not disconnect the IV! Take it with you wherever you go!

You must unceasingly and unwaveringly “Delight yourself in the Lord (Psalms 37:4 & 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17).”

After a while, at the appointed time, the Holy Spirit will Give or Show or Reveal to you the Desires, which He has been continuously Infusing into your Heart. Now they are REALLY His Desires … but He makes us think that they are OUR DESIRES. He does this so we might pursue Him until we see them Manifest. However, He does not stop here either. 

First He Gives … And then He Gives!

After He Infuses His Desires and Plans into your heart, He will Manifest them. Now there are a couple of provisos associated with the Physical Manifestation of the Desires of your heart. But the good part is that you have been doing them all along, while remaining Intimately connected to the Holy Spirit. 

All you have to do now, is remain submissive such that He can enter, engage, and continually pour His Word into your heart. Remember, you must remain constantly connected to Him for this to work. Finally, you have to take Him with you everywhere you go! 

That’s it! No trick questions on this test! It may take a LONG TIME to see those Desires of your heart Manifest (Habakkuk 2:3). But if you DO NOT DISCONNECT from God and remain pliable such that He can constantly Pour into you. Then the Vision will speak for itself and Manifest. In other Words:

First He Gives … And then He Gives!

Hezekiah: The Incomparable King

King Hezekiah serves as a perfect example to illustrate this point (2 Kings 18-20). The Bible says that King Hezekiah of Judah did what was pleasing to the Lord and trusted in the God of Israel. In fact, the Bible says that he was incomparable in this regard. There was never a King like Hezekiah, either before his time as King. Nor After his time as King (2 Kings 18:1-7). 

Simply stated, he remained continuously connected to His God. Such that God could Pour and Infuse Instructions, Plans, Purpose, and Directions into the heart of the King of Judah. They had an intimately connected relationship.

Hezekiah did many things as King including rededicating and consecrating the Temple (2 Chronicles 29-31). He served as King for twenty-nine years in total. But one day King Hezekiah of Judah, around the middle of his Reign heard from his contemporary, the Prophet Isaiah. God told Hezekiah to “get your house in order, brotha (2 Kings 20 & Isaiah 38).” Or “clean your room … NOW!” 

God sent the Prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah to inform him that he would become ill and die of that sickness. He was not going to recover. But Hezekiah had the Desires of the Lord Infused into His Heart.

He reminded God that He had ALWAYS done what Pleased God. Hezekiah had remained completely and constantly connected to God. Such that God’s Words and Desires remained intimately connected to and were constantly flowing from God, into the heart and Spirit of King Hezekiah as a result of their intractable relationship (Psalms 37:4 & John 15:1,4,5,&7). 

So, when King Hezekiah was literally presented with a “Life or Death” scenario, he expressed the Desires of his heart. These were Desires that God had long ago Infused into King Hezekiah via their intimate relationship. But King Hezekiah thought, as we do, that they were his.

King Hezekiah knew that he was not ready to die yet. The people of Judah still needed The Incomparable King to serve as their Leader for many years to come. Hezekiah knew this in his heart. So, when the Prophet Isaiah delivered God’s message regarding King Hezekiah’s demise, he was heartbroken and wept bitterly, after reminding God how faithfully he had served Him and walked with Him (2 Kings 20:2-3).

Now, as for the Prophet Isaiah, who was also intimately connected to God, he did his job and left. He delivered the Word regarding King Hezekiah’s demise to the King and proceeded to leave the Palace in Jerusalem. 

… But he did not get far …

He barely got to the courtyard of the Palace before God “stirred the tea!” God told the Prophet Isaiah, “get back in there and deliver a new message to the King!” Now, it was not actually new! Alpha and Omega was simply executing His Master Plan!

God told Isaiah to go back in there and tell King Hezekiah that He has heard his tears and more specifically, He has heard King Hezekiah’s Heart. Along with the Desires contained therein. Desires Infused in there by God for such a time as this. He told Isaiah to go back into the Palace, to the King and tell him that in three days he will get up out of his “death bed”, go to the Temple in Jerusalem, and he would live and not die! 

In fact, he would live for another fifteen years!

God told Isaiah the Prophet to tell King Hezekiah to make an Ointment out of figs such that your servants can spread the ointment on the boil that was the root of his terminal illness. However, King Hezekiah was not done working with God. He wanted PROOF of Manifestation!

God gave King Hezekiah a desire to live beyond this current illness and proclamation of his death. He knew that the Plans that God had for him were not completed yet. He knew that he could not die and leave his Judean people in a state where the Assyrians were potentially on the verge of overrunning them and killing them all. God had Given King Hezekiah a Desire, deeply Infused into his heart, that said that he and the people of Judah were to be the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13). And that they would not fall to any more assaults from marauding nations. Rather King Hezekiah would live to see peace remain in Judah during the remaining tenure of his Reign and lifetime (2 Kings 20).

So, King Hezekiah asked God for a sign that would demonstrate that he would indeed, as the Lord had said to him through the Prophet Isaiah, get up out of his death bed in three days and go to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. God said to him that He could either make the sundial go ten steps forward or ten steps backward to prove to King Hezekiah that he would indeed recover from his illness in three days, go to the Temple, and live for the next fifteen years serving as the King of Judah. 

Well, King Hezekiah, knowing that there is nothing too hard for God, said that making the shadow on the sundial clock move forward ten steps or degrees, is much too easy (Genesis 18:14 & Jeremiah 32:27)! He wanted God to make the sundial, thus time, thus the Sun itself, move backward by ten steps or degrees!

God Did …

King Hezekiah Did …

King Hezekiah saw the Manifestation of the Desires that were Infused into his heart via the intimate and intractable relationship that he constantly shared with his God.