He delights in you.

What does God think of you right now? Have you ever searched that out? Or are you afraid to explore that thought? Some might assume that, because of the general nature and trajectory of our life, God doesn’t give a rip about you. Others know that the Bible says “God so loved the world,” but we haven’t reasoned out how he could love us. Or we wonder if he really knows us to the depths of our personality. in other words, is a part of who we are actually hidden from God so that, hidden, we become more lovable?

Psalm 18 gives us a glimpse into how much he thinks about us and the intensity of his active and passionate love for us.

In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. // Psalm 18:6-8

Closely examine God’s reaction as seen in the Psalm 18 text. Psalm 18 is showing how he reacts to the distress you are feeling, to the challenges you face. He is waiting for your cry for help. He is anticipating that you will be frustrated with certain parts of life—with failure and complacency and the “almost” but not-quite-good-enough parts of life. 

He’s frustrated with it too. That’s the beauty of what Psalm 18 is saying. It’s not what he had planned for you. And in order to fix it, he must come down.

In the person of Jesus Christ, God did come down to rescue us from our greatest enemy, our most pressing distress. Jesus came down to rescue us and was willing to go to the extreme to prove his love for us. He did that on the cross. And when he died, the earth did shake, literally. His death triggered an earthquake that shook the mountain on which he died. And his death brought our greatest relief: sin and death and hell no longer have their grip on us.

Why would he care? Why would he be willing to rescue us? Because he delights in us. 

He rescued me because he delighted in me. // Psalm 18:19

He delights in you and me. The word “delight” means that he is leaning into you, he is inclined toward you. A mother whose child is in college can care enough to send a care package to campus. And that’s great. But the mom is still separated by the miles. What really makes an impact is a mom or dad who drives the four, five, six hours to see their child up close and personal and then deliver the care package in person. That’s our heavenly Father—he doesn’t want to just send a package; he wants to deliver it himself. He wants to lean in and smile face to face with us. He wants to be close to us, to me, to you.

He delights in you; he is leaning into your life. Do you see it? I’m praying that you will this week and beyond.

Be blessed knowing that God thinks that way about you—exactly where you are at today.
Pastor Al