05/08/2025
Devotional 0001 || Delighting in Obedience || Psalm 40:6–8
“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’” (Psalm 40:6–8, ESV)
David is reflecting here on what truly pleases the Lord. He teaches us plainly that even religious duties, apart from the new birth and true repentance, can be empty and not pleasing to God. To get to the heart of the matter, we learn here that sacrifices and offerings, though commanded in the Law, were never meant to replace a heart of obedience—a heart which is overjoyed to abide by the law of God. We see also that God “opened” David’s ear here, which implies not just hearing but readiness and willingness to obey the commands of our Lord (cf. Ex. 21:6). True worship is not external performance but inward submission to Yahweh.
In verse 8, David declares, “I delight to do your will.” This isn’t reluctant compliance—this is joyful obedience. God’s law isn’t a burden to the Christian. That’s the difference between a religious man and a redeemed man. One checks boxes. The other submits to the will of Almighty God as revealed to us in His Word because of the love with which Christ has for him. Verse 8 here actually looks forward to Christ, the Messiah Himself, Who perfectly fulfilled these words (Hebrews 10:5–10). Christ obeyed where we fail. Jesus delighted in the Father’s will, even “to the point of death: (Luke 22;42, Philippians 2:8).
Understand this though Church, this was not only the calling of our Savior, but this is also our calling (Luke 9:23). We are called to offer not mere religion, but lives surrendered in joyful, willing obedience to the Lord Who has written His Word on our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33). If you go to church, sing the songs, nod at the sermon, and yet refuse to yield your life to God’s Word, your religion is a lie. Make no mistake, God is not fooled by lip service. He looks for hearts that have been broken, humbled, and reformed by His grace.
Let me give you some things to think about this morning:
1. Do you actually search the scriptures to find the will of God for your life (1 Thessalonians 4:3; Galatians 5:22).
2. When you find the answers to your inquiry, do you makes excuses for your disobedience and convince yourself that you’re simply reading the scriptures wrong, as if It doesn’t actually say what It says?
3. When you obey God, is it out of duty—or delight?
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