Having fun with God in His Items

Audio Transcript

Welcome again to the podcast. In our Bible studying this week, we hit Psalm 43. And inside Psalm 43 we discover one wonderful little verse that unfolds into all kinds of implications, resulting in an exquisite query from a pastor named Robert, who lives and ministers in Wisconsin. “Howdy, Pastor John, and thanks for the way in which you may have served and inspired pastors like me, from a distance, over the a long time by your trustworthy labors. I like Psalm 43:4, a life verse for me, and one I need to higher perceive. I do know you’re keen on this textual content as effectively. ‘Then I’ll go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding pleasure.’

“If I keep in mind accurately, someplace I heard you translate the Hebrew of this textual content like this: ‘Then I’ll go to the altar of God, to God the enjoyment of my joys.’ God is the enjoyment of our joys. I can not discover the place you mentioned this, however you’re not the one one, as I’ve come to see this in different interpretations of this verse from Puritan Thomas Goodwin within the seventeenth century (Works, 4:392), to William de Burgh within the nineteenth century (A Commentary on the Guide of Psalms, 380), to traditional Hebrew students in the present day (David J.A. Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 8:166).

“So, are you able to stroll us by the Hebrew briefly, after which clarify what because of this God is the enjoyment of our joys? I’ve traditionally considered this textual content as saying what the ESV right here implies, that God is essentially the most exceeding pleasure above all different joys — a comparability. However you appear to point that this textual content is talking of supply — God is the pleasure, that’s, the giver of all different joys. That adjustments the textual content fully. In that case, develop on this. This looks like an enormous discovery!”

Nicely, that’s not fairly what I imply. I completely love what he loves right here and need to get at it, as a result of there’s something actually fairly proper. I don’t imply supply after I say, “pleasure of our joys.” What I imply is, God is the essence of our joys. God is the substance of all our joys. He’s the better part of each pleasure if we’re having fun with issues rightly. So, he’s not solely supreme pleasure — which is what the ESV brings out: our “exceeding pleasure” — however he’s additionally the most effective a part of all different joys. He’s to be what makes all our joys most pleasurable. That’s what I imply.

‘Pleasure of My Gladness’

Let’s see if that’s so, and get the verse in entrance of us right here. The psalmist is crying out to God, and he says,

Ship out your mild and your reality;
     allow them to lead me;
allow them to deliver me to your holy hill
     and to your dwelling!
Then I’ll go to the altar of God,
     to God my exceeding pleasure. (Psalm 43:3–4)

So, the psalmist identifies God as his exceeding pleasure, which the ESV, the NASB, the King James Model all translate “exceeding pleasure.” The Hebrew (śim-ḥaṯ gî-lî) has two completely different phrases for pleasure or happiness or pleasure. Actually, then, the phrase might be translated, “the enjoyment of my gladness,” which in actual fact is strictly what’s within the margin of the outdated King James: “the enjoyment of my gladness.” So, the query is, What does that literal phrase — “the enjoyment of my gladness” — imply?

The ESV and the opposite variations take it to imply that, a minimum of, he’s my finest gladness. “The enjoyment of my gladness” means, of all my gladness, he’s the most effective. And absolutely that’s proper. I imply, a minimum of it signifies that. God is supreme. God by no means made something extra priceless or extra pleasurable than himself. So sure, God is our exceeding pleasure. That’s what it means to be God, I believe, and that’s what it means to like God. However the query stays, Is that all the phrase means? Is there extra implied within the phrase “pleasure of my gladness”?

Avoiding Idolatry

So, means again — I’m guiding our pal to the place I truly mentioned that (he mentioned he couldn’t discover it). Nicely, on February 26, 2006, it’s on the DG web site on this textual content. I preached on this, and I keep in mind it so clearly as a result of it was twelve days after my prostate-cancer surgical procedure. I selected this textual content exactly for that. So, means again on February 26, 2006, I preached on this, and right here’s what I argued. I’ll quote two sentences:

God, who in all my rejoicing over all the great issues that he has made, is himself, in all my rejoicing, the guts of my pleasure, the gladness of my pleasure. Each pleasure that doesn’t have God because the central gladness of the enjoyment is a hole pleasure and, ultimately, will burst like a bubble.

Now, the rationale that perception is so essential is as a result of, with out it, all our enjoyment of God’s presents — the issues that he’s made — wouldn’t honor God the way in which that enjoyment ought to. Or to place it within the type of a query, What retains our enjoyment of pizza or friendship from being idolatry? That’s the query. Now, you possibly can reply, “As a result of we at all times get pleasure from God extra than pizza, and we at all times get pleasure from God extra than friendship, and that retains it from being idolatry.” And that’s true and that’s essential. God is our exceeding pleasure, supreme pleasure.

“God is the most effective a part of each pleasure if we’re having fun with issues rightly.”

However I believe God intends to be glorified not solely by being loved extra than pizza and extra than friendship, however by being loved in the very enjoyment of pizza and in the very enjoyment of friendship. I believe God intends for us to get pleasure from his sweetness in the sweetness of chocolate, his saltiness in the saltiness of french fries, his juiciness in the juiciness of a scorching steak, his friendship in the corporate of our mates, his brightness in the dawn, and so forth.

When Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:17, “Set [your hope] . . . on God, who richly gives us with all the pieces to get pleasure from,” I don’t assume he meant solely, “Be sure to get pleasure from God greater than all the pieces he made,” however reasonably, “Be sure to get pleasure from God in all the pieces he made” — underneath all the pieces because the supply of pleasure, over all the pieces as superior pleasure, and in all the pieces as the most effective a part of the enjoyment of all the pieces.

Thankfulness Is Not Sufficient

Now, you possibly can additionally say that — and that is true — thankfulness for God’s presents is one other key to maintain the enjoyment of God’s presents from turning into god, to maintain ourselves from turning into idolaters. To be consciously grateful that each official pleasure on this life is a present of God is an effective factor. That’s a proper factor. By all means, we ought to be grateful. It’s a sin to be ungrateful for each good factor God offers. Paul mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:4, “Nothing is to be rejected whether it is obtained with thanksgiving.”

However right here’s the problem. I need to push into this. Thankfulness will not be sufficient to maintain the enjoyment of God’s presents from turning into idolatrous. Assume with me about this. Why is that? Why is thankfulness not sufficient to maintain God’s good presents from being idols to us? It’s as a result of everyone knows that somebody could give us a present we get pleasure from greater than we get pleasure from the one that gave it. We all know this.

Being grateful to God or anybody doesn’t imply we love the giver greater than the present. It doesn’t. A cranky, mean-spirited outdated man could provide the present you’ve needed all of your life, and also you’re grateful. Sure you’re. However you don’t like him. He’s cranky. He’s a mean-spirited outdated man. You’re unsure why he gave it to you, however he gave it to you, and also you’ve needed it all of your life, so that you’re grateful for it. If we’re going to glorify God within the enjoyment of his presents, now we have to transcend thankfulness.

Style and See, Scent and Really feel

So, again to Psalm 43:4. “God is the enjoyment of my gladness” means not solely that he’s higher than the gladness I’ve in different issues — that’s, “my exceeding pleasure” — however that he’s the most effective a part of the gladness I’ve in different issues. He’s the enjoyment of my gladness. He’s what makes the enjoyment of these different issues extra pleasurable.

When the psalmist says in Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven however you? And there’s nothing on earth that I need apart from you” — wow, what an announcement — he may imply, “I need nothing above God.” He may imply that. However it feels like he means, “I don’t need something on earth of which God will not be the chief half.” “I don’t need to get pleasure from something,” he’s saying, “which isn’t additionally an enjoyment of God.” I need to get pleasure from God in friendship. I need to get pleasure from God in consuming. I need to get pleasure from God within the pleasures of the wedding mattress. I need to get pleasure from God in music and studying and rising early to see the daybreak.

Now, if we’re onto one thing right here, let’s see what another vital Christian thinkers have mentioned about this. Right here’s the way in which Thomas Traherne put it: “You by no means benefit from the world aright, until you see how a sand exhibiteth the knowledge and energy of God: And prize in all the pieces the service which they do you, by manifesting His glory and goodness to your Soul” (Centuries, 13–14). That’s not mere thankfulness. That is having fun with God in our enjoyment of what he has made. Each a part of creation is designed by God to speak one thing of God. And after we get pleasure from that a part of creation, we’re to savor God in it.

Right here’s the way in which Augustine put it in his prayer: “He loves thee too little” — chatting with God — “who loves something along with thee, which he loves not for thy sake” (Confessions 10.29.40). Now, “for Thy sake” I take to imply this: we love what will not be God correctly by loving it for what we style of God in it — not simply out of thankfulness, however what we style and see, odor and really feel of God in it.

So, allow us to go along with the psalmist to the altar of God — that’s, to the cross of Jesus Christ — and benefit from the forgiveness of sins that he bought there. And thru that present, tell us and revel in God as our exceeding pleasure — sure, and because the gladness of all our joys.