"The prayer of the upright is His delight"
(Proverbs
15:8).
It
would be one thing, a blessed thing, if Solomon had written that the prayer of
the upright is received by God. Or that the Lord has made a way for those
who trust Him to come through His grace and mercy. Or that He will accept
our prayers despite our imperfections.
It is
another thing altogether that the Word of God declares the prayers of the
upright to literally delight the heart of God. First, let us
define who the "upright" are. Solomon again provides our answer: "Lo, this
only have I found, that God hath made man upright" (Ecclesiastes 7:29).
Those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ find deliverance from their
fallenness. We are made upright by His working on our behalf as God
imputes the righteousness of His Son to us as a free gift of grace received by
faith. "Christ is made unto us... righteousness" (I Corinthians
1:30).
For those
redeemed by such indescribable mercy, sincere, humble prayers offered through
the merits of the Lord Jesus elicit in the heart of God the emotional
pleasure of delight. Just as we love the communication of those dear to
us, our Heavenly Father delights in our voices whenever we turn our hearts
toward Home. "Sweet is thy voice... He shall hear my voice" (Song of
Solomon 2:14; Psalm 55:17).
I must be
honest that I find this truth to be at once most blessed and most
troubling. The reason for the former is obvious, namely, that our Lord is
so awe-inspiring and so humble that He could find pleasure in those such as
ourselves, those with finite minds and formerly rebel hearts, and who still too
often walk according to the "weak and beggarly elements" of carnality (Galatians
4:9). What a Heart must beat in the Divine character and nature that
creatures can delight Him! "The Lord taketh pleasure in His people" (Psalm
149:4).
My troubling
results from the fact that I often ponder this truth of God's delight in our
prayers. I often speak of it in sermons and personal
conversations, and I often write about it. Nevertheless, I look back
on nearly 36 years of being a believer and sadly recall too
much neglect of so great a gift, and so great a Giver. I even look
back on yesterday in the realization of so many opportunities to
delight the heart of God, and so many opportunities missed.
Wonderfully, the Lord who delights in the prayers of the Grace-redeemed upright
also "delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18). He forgives prayerlessness as we
humbly acknowledge our neglect, and does so joyfully. God is not
peevish, and holds no grudges toward children who so often forget to acknowledge
Him. Instead, He delights to forgive us, even as He delights in
our prayers. Words fail at this point, and I leave your heart to ponder
the glory of so great and good a Heart, even as I seek to also consider, and
to join David in his holy determination, "He shall hear my
voice."
"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My
face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek."
(Psalm 27:8)
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