Psalm 18 plays. The psalmist being it, he said, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. My God, my strength, and whom I will trust, my butler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. So shall I receive from my enemies. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me, but the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations also of the hells moved, and were shaken because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his mouth, and bowed to heavens also, and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a turtle, and did fly. Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind, and made darkness his secret place, as within and round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed, heavel stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered into heavens, The highest gave us bogs, hailstones, and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them. He shot out lightnings and destructed at them. In the channels of waters were sitting. The foundations of the world were discovered. That thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. He sent from above. He took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from them which hated me. For they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because He delighted in me. Amen, we'll end our reading at the verse number 19. You know, folks, there are statements in Holy Scripture that require a second reading because on their first reading it appears that they could not be possibly true. But true they are, because God the Holy Spirit has saw fit, as the divine inspirer of Scripture, to record such statements on the pages of Holy Scripture. One statement that falls into such a group is one that we find at the close of the verse 19 of Psalm 18, where David states that God had brought him forth into a large place, and he had delivered him because he, referring to God, he delighted in me. Now we can understand as Christians why we can delight ourselves in the Lord. Amazingly, we are commanded to do that by the Lord. Over there in Psalm 37, verse four, we are commanded to delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart. We would think that knowing the Lord as we do, even with our finite understanding of him, that there is much in our Lord that we can delight in. And then why the need for this command, and yet it's given to us in Psalm 37 and the verse four, delight thyself also in the Lord. And surely much delight comes through the soul when we consider the Lord himself. We could think about the delight that comes to the soul when we think about the person of the Lord. God reveals himself to his people under many guises within his word. He's depicted in scripture as being the Christian savior, their redeemer, their advocate, their husband, friend, brother, shepherd, and so on and so forth. And we can also rely ourselves on the fact that within the Godhead, there is a specific interest with the child of God. God the Father, he keeps us, God the Son, comforts us. We could console ourselves, we could find delight in the fact of the power of the Lord. God's power ought to delight the heart of the child of God. His power firstly to release us from the prison house of sin and to bring us into fever with God. That took omnipotent power to bring you into a state of salvation, into a state of fever with God by His salvation and by His redemption. Yes, and also keep us, he keeps us and prevents us from making spiritual shipwreck within our lives. And just in his power in the third instance to bring us to glory, whether that be by him raising us from the dead, from the grieved, or whether that be meeting him in the air. The power of God, what delight there is. And then we think about the pardon of of the Lord. Great delight is brought surely to the heart of every child of God when we consider the perfect atonement that Jesus Christ made for us upon the cross of Calvary and the forgiveness of sins and the pardoning of our sins that really flows out of that atonement, that sacrifice of the Saviour. We can think about the provision of the Lord, from God's gracious hand, God crowns every day with new mercies and new grace. A new strength which certainly gladdens and delights the heart of every believer. We can think about the peace of the Lord when the world around us scrambles to find peace. Peace of mind, peace of heart, peace of soul, peace of conscience. The Christian is possessed with a peace that the world cannot give. And praise God, the world cannot take away. We can delight ourselves in the promises of the Lord, God's promises, found within this wonderful book cover the full spectrum of the Christian's needs and concerns. When we read these promises, when we receive them by faith and claim them by faith, then we find comfort and delight and hope for the child of God. We can think about the preservation of the Lord. We live in a world of danger, yet God preserves us. Physical and spiritual dangers from which we are preserved by our God. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me on to his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And then we think about the paradise of the Lord. We're thinking about heaven itself. What delight that brings to the heart of the child of God. To know that we'll be brought to paradise. To see if pleased that the dying thief was brought to. Today Christ said thou shalt be with me in paradise. As one preacher said, surely, if our hearts were right, we would delight in Him on account of the glorious paradise of blessedness set before us, where we shall forever view the unfolding of His glories, enjoy the riches of His grace, and drink of the river of His pleasures. All of these truths give us good reason why we delight ourselves in the Lord. in the verse number 19. He delighted in me. Just let that statement sink down into your heart for a moment. Think about it. Meditate it. Meditate upon it. Use upon it. Turn it over in your mind. The Lord delights in me. I want to help you in your meditation on that truth. but to develop a number of thoughts that arise from the statement here in verse number 19. What do you think in the first place would be about the essence of God's delight? The essence of God's delight. Whenever we come to read the scripture, the word of God, we're made aware that God, because of his holy nature, takes no pleasure in the lives of the wicked or the ungodly, the unsaved. Sin will not permit him to do that. He is holy. He is righteous and thereby he takes no pleasure in the wicked, sinful lifestyle of the sinner. However, God does take delight in the sons of men. His delights, we read in the book of Job, were with the sons of men. And he does take delight in a band or a group of individuals, the sons and daughters of men, who by God's redemptive work have beheaded the sons and daughters of God. Psalm 149, we read this statement if you want to turn there, Psalm 149 and the verse four, Psalm 149 and the verse four, for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. The word pleasure in the verse here can be justly replaced with the word delight. Some of the verse could read, for the Lord taketh delight in who? All people know his people. They are his on two counts. They are his by creation. And the term delight here in Psalm 18 and the verse 19 really means to incline to or to be pleased with or to favor. Now as to the reason why God delights in me, I will never know, at least on this side of eternity. delight in me, my many faults, my numerous feelings, the countless sins, my often backslidings, my cowardiceness, my disobedience, my worldliness, my coldness, my un-Christlike behavior, my prayerlessness, The lack of dedication to the cause of Jesus Christ all would dictate that he shouldn't delight in me. And yet he does. Now there are some preachers and they will tell you that God delights in you because he foresees the good that you would do. But I don't ascribe to that teaching. For that line of teaching The good that we would do is the reason why God delights in us. That's the logical reasoning of that particular line of teaching. But instead I ascribe to the teaching that God delights in us because he has sovereignly chosen to do so. He would say of Israel, I loved you because I loved you. Not because you were of a great number. He would say there in the book of Deuteronomy, But he said, I loved you because I loved you. It was my sovereign choice. It was my prerogative to love you as a people. And thus I believe again that follows through with regard to God delighting in his people, that it is his prerogative, it is his sovereign choice to delight in his people. Having been brought into union with Jesus Christ, as God looks upon His people, He sees Christ in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And thus, because of Him, it is because God sees Christ, that then He delights in us. Brother, sister, if you and I stood apart from Christ, you would find nothing in us to find any delight. you find nothing in us in which he could delight in. However, because we are in Christ, because we are tonight clothed in his righteousness, because we are clad in the garments of his salvation, because we have been made comely by his comeliness, because we have been accepted in him, because we have been washed in his precious blood, because we have been adorned with the graces of his Spirit, Because of these things and these things alone, are we tonight the object of God's delight? The Spurgeon, the Baptist preacher, as he meditated upon the truth that God takes delight in his people, he said this, what condescension is this on Jehovah's part? to the Ever-Blessed One, were it not that He condescends to men of low estate. The thought of the Lord's taking pleasure in us is a line of joy never to be exhausted. of Jesus Christ. Reverend Edward Cooper answered the question why God takes pleasure in us in this way. He says, the Lord takes pleasure in his people because they are his people. Those whom he has purchased by his blood, renewed by his spirit and redeemed by his power. He taketh pleasure in them because in them he himself is honored and glorified because he sees in them the travail of the soul, the fruit of the sufferings and mediation because of the work which he has already begun in them, because they have already exhibited some traces of his own image, some transcript of that mind which was in him, who was meek and lowly of heart. For Christ's sake, the Godhead takes delight in the sons and daughters of men. For Christ's sake. And the wonderful thing is, brethren and sisters, Wonderful little thing is that the entire Godhead takes delight in every Christian. Just let that truth grip your heart. Let it thrill your heart. We sung about all that thrills my soul is Jesus. Let this cheer, maybe you're depressed, downcast spirit this evening, child of God, that the triune Godhead delights in you. That God the Father, he delights in you. And he looks upon you as a father looks upon his children. Like an earthly father rejoices over his child, so God rejoices over us. Zechariah 3, 17. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save thee. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. Oh, the marvel of it, the wonder of it. God looking upon his children this evening as he sees them in Christ, and it causes the heart of God to sing. He sings over us. The Father, he delights in us. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, delights in you. He sees you as the reward of his agonies. He sees you as the reward of his sufferings. He sees you tonight as the purchase of his blood. He sees you tonight as the partakers of His glory, and His inheritance, and the saints in light, as we read in Scripture. He takes delight in His people, and God the Holy Spirit delights in you. He delights in you, because He's dwelling in you. He's living in you. The Spirit of God has now come to take up residency care, he takes a special interest in your conformity to Jesus Christ, your sanctification. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, try to engulf him delightfully and redeem man and woman. The truth is astonishing. God delights in me. We may find it hard to believe And yet we must accept it by faith. We must not pry into matters that can only be understood by one who is infinite. And so we accept the truth that God delights in me. Delights in me. I want you to notice the second truth that arises from these words. I want you to think about the exclusiveness of God's delight. The essence of it now, the exclusiveness of God's delight. David says here at the end of the verse, It cannot be said that God delights in every human being. God has no delight in sin, and therefore the perpetrators of sin cannot expect God to delight in them. That would be contrary to God's nature. Psalm 19 reminds us that God is angry with the wicked every day. He's angry with the wicked every day, the psalmist says. Consider not for a moment, not seem incredible to you that the God of heaven should take delight in any of his creatures. God is eternally happy in himself. He is infinitely blessed. He is supremely glorious. No one and nothing outside of himself. He is the self-satisfied God. And yet he delights. He delights in men, and redeeming everyone. His delights are not enhanced or diminished by the welfare or adversity of any other being. But here he says that he delighted in David, and he delights in us. I can understand why God would delight in the holy angels, those angels who remained in their holy state. They did not fall with Lucifer, the son of the morning, when he wrote up a rebellion against God and took with him a third of the angels. They left their first estate, but the holy angels, the two thirds that remained loyal, we could say, to God. We could understand why the text would say, he delighted in the holy angels. of all of his failings, of all of his own Christ-likeness, he delighted in him. To take delight in us, that is certainly astonishing, it's incredible. If we only let the truth enter our hearts, I believe we would think it to be mind-blowing, the wonder of God's grace to us. And so, we have God taking delight in David here, and we exhibit in our lives what David exhibited in his life, then I believe that God will delight in us too. Why would God treat David any differently than one of us? We are redeemed as much as David was. We are as much a child of God as much as David was. And therefore, God delighting in David, I believe that if we would walk as David, Here in this psalm, I believe that God will delight in us as well, brethren and sisters. What then did God see in David that caused his heart to delight in him? What brought him pleasure? What brought pleasure to the heart of God from the life of David that caused God to delight in him? And thereby, what can we do that will bring delight to the heart of God? Well, in the first instance, David loved God. He loved Him. Look there at the opening verse. David says, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The love that David had for God obviously needs to be traced back to God. As John puts it, we love him because he first loved us. And therefore, our love for God is but the byproduct of God's love for us. God's love is the initiating cause. He loves us, and thereby, as a consequence, becoming the object of that love, we, in a reciprocal nature, we then enter We love him because he first of all, he loved us. That's what John says. We love him because he first loved us. John got the order right. And so David was just in love with God. How does our love for God tonight? Let me ask you, are you still in love? Are you still in love with the Savior? Or is your love for Christ being slubbered by a love for the world? And sadly, being on an increase in your life? Do we love Christ as we loved Him at the first? The night we got saved, the day we got saved. And we say in the words of the hymn writer by Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. You see, God delights in those that love him. It delights his heart. And then God found delight in the fact that David extolled God. Look there at the verse three. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength and whom I will trust, my buckler. Lord of my salvation, my high tower. In these words, David, he deflects attention all the way from himself and on to God. Yes, he speaks about his love. I will love the Lord, my strength. But he immediately stops talking about himself and he starts talking about his God. He starts to extol his God. He starts to exalt his God. He starts to honor his God. He says, God is my rock, he's my fortress, my strength, my buckler, salvation, high tower. In other words, he's my all in all. He's everything to me. If you read through the entire psalm, you'll find that David frequently is found at stalling God and ascribing certain things to him. Let me quickly go down these verses. I'll just read the portion of the verses. Verse number six. He heard my voice. Every time you read the word he, we're speaking about the Lord. He heard my voice out of his temple. Verse nine, he bowed down in the heavens also and came down. Verse 10, he ruled upon the cherubim that fly. Yea, he that fly upon the wings of the wind. Verse 11, he in the darkness had secret place. Verse 14, he sat by the Zoros and scattered them. And he shot out lightnings and discomfited them. Verse 16, he sent from above, he took men. He drew me out of many waters. Verse 17, he delivered me from my strong enemy. Verse 19, he brought me forth into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. Verse 20, he recompensed me. Verse 30, he is a butler to those who trust in him. Verse 33, he maketh my feet like hinds feet and setteth me upon the high places. Verse 34, he teacheth my hands through war. Verse 70, great deliverance giveth he to his king. It's all about the Lord. And surely, does that not bring delight to the heart of God? Brethren, sisters, we live in a generation where we're told that it's all about us. All about you. That's what people are told. It's all about you. You know, for the Christian, it should be all about him. All about him. God delights in the person who extols him by living life. By living life. He's extolling his God in the sand. No wonder God delights in him. God's not going to delight in a person who's always complaining about the Lord. That's not going to bring delight to the heart of God. Did you extol him today? Your work colleagues? Your family? Did you uplift his name? Oh, to be people who extol God in them. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, and he recompensed me, for I have kept the ways of the Lord, and am not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away thy statutes forbidden. I was also upright before him, and kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. No wonder God delights in David here. Here's a man who's walking with God. Here's a man who with what is taught in scripture. Here's a man who keeps himself as best he can from iniquity and from sin. Here's a man who walks righteously in the world. Now he's not speaking about some kind of personal righteousness. He is speaking about the righteousness that David is speaking about here. It's the outworking of an inward righteousness that had been given to him. A righteousness working itself out in righteousness. David here, he simply speaks about keeping his way, not departing. Keeping going on, when others have departed, I have not wickedly departed from... Did you notice that? He calls departure from God wicked. I have not wickedly departed from my God. So here's a man, as I've said, David lived a life of obedience and righteousness that aligned itself with God's statutes, his word, and that delighted the heart of God, and that led to God recompensing him or rewarding him. Fourthly, David prayed to God. Verse three of the chapter, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be pleased. Verse six. In my distress I called upon the Lord, I cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Here's language that points to prayer in the life of the psalmist here. Here's a man, even in days of distress, that took himself off to God in prayer. And God loves to hear the prayers of God's people. Let me quote the verse. I've quoted it before. I've maybe even preached on it in this prayer meeting. Proverbs 14 verse 8, the prayer of the upright is his delight. God's delight, the prayer of the upright is his delight. Did you know that you delight in the opportunity to bring delight to the heart of God? To pray delight, it may be inaudible, it may be audible, No heart of delight, but heart of your father. Is it not the case, you, your parents? Is not your heart's delight for a child to come and to bring maybe something that they cannot do and say, Daddy, can you help me? That brings delight to the heart of a father. It was at least in my heart. light to the heart of God. And so when we love and explore and obey and pray to our God then I believe we delight our God and he The text needs to be taken in its entirety. Verse 19, Psalm 18, he brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. David could point to his deliverance and he could inform others. He delivered me. He brought me into a large place. And brethren, sisters, we can do the same. We can look at our deliverance as evidence that God delights in us. He delivered us from our sin. He delivered us from the power of darkness. He delivered us from the dominion of Satan. He delivered us from the curse. He's delivered us from hell. And I can point to that deliverance and say, there's the evidence that God delights in me. He has delivered me. He has brought me into a large place. Our salvation. But wonder of wonders, in His sovereign purpose, He chose to delight in you. And then He chose to prove that to you and give you evidence of that by saving you from your sin, by delivering you from your enemy. Brethren and sisters, To think that God delights in me, despite what I was before, and despite what I have been after my deliverance from sin, it is humbling. It is humbling. May we then, as we think of this truth, may we come then to delight ourselves in God more and more, God would tarnish his delight in us, spoil his delight in us. Let's walk with him, let's live for him, let's be like him. And all we say and do, God will bring delight to the heart of our God. He delighted in me. lasting veneer of the Lord. May the Lord bless His word to all of us. Let's bow in prayer together, please. Let's stand down for prayer, just briefly, to your position, for the opportunity to do that. Our great and loving Father, it's thrilling to read these words. The Lord delight in me. Father, we believe that Thou art the God who delights in my children. Now we admit, Lord, that you do not delight in us when we stray, when we backslide, when there's unconfessed sin in our lives. And yet, dear Father, we rejoice that the blood of Christ cleansed of us from all sin. And thank thee that there is a place of cleansing, a place where sin can be pardoned again. Oh, to bring delight to the heart of our God tonight. in a manner that brings delight to the heart of God. Rejoice that the delight of God is sourced and found in the sovereign purposes of God. A great fact that we cannot fully understand or delve into with our finite minds, but God It's your prayer. Continue on to be with us. We pray this in Jesus' precious name.