H.H Pope Tawadros II preached his weakly sermon at Wednesday meeting this evening from the Papal residence in Cairo. It was aired exclusively through Cristian’s channels and C.O.C channel that is affiliated to the church’s media center via internet without any audience.
The sermon was titled by “Delight yourself in the Lord” as a part of his series of musings that H.H presents threw out Psalm 37, as H.H talked about the importance of the Farewell virtue which is one of the Holy Spirit fruits. He presented a number of examples from the Holy Bible and the church’s saints whom have achieved Farewell.
H.H started from the beginning of September a new serious of sermons in his weekly Wednesday’s meeting throw out Psalm 37 titled by “Lessons of Wisdom” and the “Delight yourself in the Lord” subject is the fifth lesson in this serious.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. May His grace and mercy rest upon us, from now and forevermore. Amen.
Sermon Highlights:
Part 1: Delight yourself… 7 ways to delight yourself in the Lord
Part 2: Commit your way
Part 3: God will reveal all things
Introduction
This is our fifth in a series of wisdom lessons from Psalm 37. This Psalm is composed of 40 verses and they are essentially a series of lessons in wisdom. And so you, O human who wishes to learn what is wisdom and to live your life according to it, read this Psalm regularly and apply it in your life. Study and learn its statements and its teachings and lessons. Let us review our first four lessons:
1- Do not fret nor be envious of evildoers because success that comes from wrongdoing is temporary, is quickly cut down like the grass, and is of no heavenly/eternal value.
2- Trust tin the Lord, and do good – that we are to trust in the Lord and not in ourselves, nor in others, nor on wealth or money. In addition to that, we are to also do good; to take advantage of every opportunity to do something good.
3- Dwell in the land – that during our time here on Earth we are to both maintain a sense of being a stranger or temporary guest, while at the same time inhabiting, populating, cultivating the land and protecting the health of the environment.
4- Cultivate faithfulness,or rather, be a faithful person.
Our lesson today will come from verses 4-6, specifically focusing on the words: “Delight … commit … trust” yourself in and to the Lord. And now, as usual, let us begin with a reading of Scripture, from Psalm 37. I will read the first 11 verses.
Psalm 37
1Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
2For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
3Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and cultivate faithfulness.
4Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
5Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
6He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
7Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
8Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret—it only causes harm.
9For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
10For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.
11But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The grace of God the Father be with us all. Amen.
Delight yourself in the Lord
In and of itself, the word ‘delight’ is a very beautiful word, both in its meaning and in its effectiveness. We will take the following three verses and put them all under the same subject heading: delight.
4Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
5Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
6He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
Delight is a beautiful word and we will contemplate it together, but first, these 3 verses place before us three actions a person is to take: delight, commit, and trust. These are three verbs. We already covered “trusting” in the Lord in previous talks, and so what is new today is the delighting and committing – delighting in the Lord and committing our way to the Lord.
And these wisdoms come to us from one who had actual experience; the prophet David wrote the Psalms not out of mere philosophy or linguistic genius, but as a result of his experiences; but he wrote them as a result of his spiritual experiences with God.
And do not forget that the prophet David was a poet, a writer, a contemplative, and also a musician, and so with this pure spirit he was able to enter into deep contemplations and come out with some expressions that bring us great joy: Delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord.
And notice that each verse has a part that we do, and is then followed by a part that the Lord does:
- You delight yourself in the Lord, He gives you the desires of your heart;
- You commit your way to the Lord and trust Him, He will bring things to pass (your life will run smoothly), and He will make apparent your goodness and what is good for you.
Before I begin parsing out the meaning of the word “delight,” the wisdom lesson here is that a person who wishes to be wise and live a life of wisdom must delight in the Lord; you must take the time to sit with and delight in the Lord.
Another point here is that “Delight yourself in the Lord” means please, pay attention to the Giver before seeking to enjoy His blessings, in other words, delight in His Presence before delighting in His presents. We all love and enjoy God’s many gifts and blessings, but do not forget to delight in the Giver Himself, and this will be to your advantage because naturally, if you delight in and enjoy the Giver, you will also delight in or enjoy the gifts.
Sometimes we delight in the thing and forget about the One who gave it, and that is why our Church has us start off every [Agpeya and other] prayer, whether personal or collective, with thanksgiving, and we say to Him, “Lord, we thank You for every circumstance and in every circumstance. In all conditions we thank You. All that You give, O Lord, no matter what it may look like, it is a joy for our hearts and a blessing for our lives.”
Part 1: Delight
Let us do a simple word study on the word “delight” or “enjoy” … to rejoice! And because the word “delight” has so many meanings, I want to give you 7 points on it, like 7 rays coming out of the sun. And so let us begin with the first ray.
7 ways to delight yourself in the Lord
- Delight in the Lord’s salvation
Delight in the Lord’s salvation on the cross. Scripture says, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son” (Jn 3:16), and so the Lord Christ came on the cross to save us, but for Him to enter into our hearts He needed a key, that key is love. God loved, so He gave, and this giving is the cross. And so the first thing you are to delight in is the Lord’s cross and His salvation, which remind us of His love.
Delight in the salvation of the cross, in the salvation that Christ made available and offered for your sake, because without the cross our lives would be meaningless, there would not be a Church nor ministry nor Bible nor faith, and humans would have no way of rescue from sin.
This is why it is also a nice practice we to hold a small cross in our hand when praying, and to teach our children to do the same. We can also teach them to have a cross hanging above their bed and how to make the sign of the cross before starting and finishing any activity. Enjoy the Lord, enjoy the salvation He provided on the cross.
Some even hold a cross with a body of Christ on it so that as your hand touches the body you are reminded of your own sin, and how each one of us, the sinful man, should have been the one crucified on that cross, but the Lord Christ carried our sins and pains on the wood of the cross so that we may be saved; He became the Sacrifice on our behalf. Another practice is to have a cross hanging on the wall in your prayer room so that you can meditate upon it as you pray. Delight yourself in the work of Christ’s salvation on the cross.
- Delight in the Lord through prayer
Prayer is a human activity. It is a very easy thing for us to do and we learn it at a young age, by example, when we see mom and dad standing in prayer, eyes closed and hands lifted, standing before an icon, having taken their shoes off, all this to give the feeling and impression that one is taking a posture of prayer. Delight in the Lord’s Presence during your times of prayer.
I would like to remind you of the story of young Samuel the prophet when he heard the Voice speak to him. He went and told Eli the priest and Eli told him to go back and say, “Speak Lord, for Your servant hears” (1 Sam3:9). Eli the priest gave him this piece of advice in order that Samuel would be able to hear God’s Voice, and so with you, when you are praying, take delight in the Presence of God being with you.
I may have told you this before, that when a person is deep in prayer and the life of prayer, when they pray they hear God. For example, there was the saint who when he would stand to pray and just say, “Our Father, who is in heaven,” would hear a Voice speak back to him and say, “Yes My beloved,” then he would say, “May Your Name be holy,” and he would hear back, “Yes, through your actions and deeds and words.” And so prayer can become a form of dialogue.
But oftentimes, when things are rushed, a person is not able to benefit from them, [for example, rushed prayer]. And there is a point to note here because the Eastern Church is distinguished for its long prayers and its long Tasbeha Praises, for example, the Great Holy Friday Liturgy prayers can last around 10 hours. Why all these many and very long prayers? These many and long prayers are for the purpose of creating a sort of harmony or synchronicity between you and God, and so delight in prayer.
We hear of saints who would wake up to pray and then spend the entire night praying. When they started, the sun was behind them, and by the time they finish, the sun is in front of him. How is it possible, [to pray for such a long time]? What were the fathers seeing or experiencing that enabled them to do this? They were experiencing the delight of prayer.
And so every time you come to pray, concentrate and say, “Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening.” You can even say this during your quiet times at church, or you can say, “Have mercy on me O God, according to Your great mercy,” but lifting up your heart with very short prayers will help you delight in God’s Presence during your times of prayer.
- Delight in the Lord through the Holy Bible
Delight in coming to know Christ through the Holy Bible. The Bible is not a historical nor geographical book, nor is it a mere record of past events or facts; it is, first and foremost, a Book about salvation. And this Book about salvation contains spiritual knowledge, so we can consider the Holy Bible with all its Books and all its chapters to be a map or a guide Book for your way to heaven, to eternal life.
Whenever a person arrives at a new place they will seek out a map or a guide book to help them find their way around; this booklet or map provides the person with preliminary facts about the place. So it is with the Holy Bible, it is a Book of salvation: “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (Jn 6:63).
And so please, if you wish to delight in the knowledge of God, [in knowing God,] delight yourself by spending time in the Holy Bible every day, continually.
We know that the Apostle Paul had done great studies of the Old Testament and had taken great pride in this, and that he had been discipled at the feet of his teacher, Gamaliel, and that he had studied the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Paul said that he was “… of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee” (Phil 3:5), and so on and so forth, but when he came to know Christ in the latter half of his life, Paul made a very wonderful statement in that same Epistle to the Philippians, he said, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil 3:10).
Let’s pause together at the words “that I may know Him.” Here we are talking about personal knowledge. Yes, you are a Christian – your I.D. card says so, your Christian name indicates it, and even your mannerisms reveal it, but for you to build a personal relationship between you and your Christ, yes, take delight in this relationship.
We have all experienced friendships and we love our friends very much, and when we spend time with them we do not even feel the time pass by. Is Christ your Friend? When you spend time with Him, is there a sort of harmony that makes you joyous during your time in His Presence? This is a very beautiful experience to have and so please, learn to enjoy and delight in your time with Christ through the Holy Bible; reading it, studying it, contemplating it, and by indeed living the Word of God.
In the Book of Revelation it tells us, “Blessed is he who reads” (Rev 1:3) – yes, blessed. How lucky is the person who reads the Word of the Lord! In another place, through St. Paul the apostle it tells us, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
And so I plead with you, enjoy and delight in the knowledge of Christ, and ultimately, this will all make you a person who is wise, a person who understands this life that we are living, who understands the ways of God in your life, one who understands how to deal with others, and O, how beautiful is wisdom; it is as a crown upon your head!
- Delight in God’s work in and through others
Delight in what God is doing in and through others! God manages the life of every human being. He is a Lover of mankind, a Doer of good, and the Ruler over all. He manages every person’s life! Why do we read the lives of the saints? They were people just like us, but their lives are portraits of experiences with God; how they lived with the Lord, how they dealt with the Lord, and how the Lord dealt with them.
For example, when you read about the life of a saint like righteous Joseph from the Old Testament, you get the opportunity to observe his life; how he grew up from being a little boy to a young man, and all the experiences and series of life events he endured, and you ultimately delight in all that God did in Joseph’s life.
When you read things like, “The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man” (Gen 39:2), and you see what this success looks like and God’s part in it, and how Joseph could have been completely lost or destroyed but how the Lord got him out of the pit and the prison and so many other difficult situations, and how Joseph ultimately became a faithful person and succeeded, and how he served the land of Egypt and protected it from famines … you delight! And so delight in the Lord’s work in others – both in the lives of the saints as well as in the lives of those who are still alive.
It is said that when little children grow up with grandparents who tell them stories of old, the children grow up with a sort of background or foundation of how God deals with us and how He manages our lives. The Lord has drawn out a magnificent plan for each and every one of us and this plan succeeds, and so I am to accept this plan with complete satisfaction and obedience; the Lord manages our lives day by day.
Enjoy and delight in the Lord’s ways and deeds in the lives of others – in the lives of the saints, in the lives of the righteous. A very good thing to do is to encourage your children to read autobiographies, [especially those] of scientists and inventors and discoverers, that the children may learn how these people made their discoveries and how the Lord used them to serve life and to serve humanity.
For example, the doctor who discovered the vaccine for infantile paralysis, can you just imagine how people lived before he discovered this vaccine? Millions of people were born afflicted with this disease, and so when this doctor discovered the vaccine people suggested that it be patented and registered in his name, but he refused and said, “No, this vaccine is for the benefit of all people, that all people may be happy and every boy and girl would be born whole and well.” Enjoy and delight in what God does in and through others and in how God manages the lives of us all.
- Delight in the Lord’s beauty
There is a hymn that says, “Jesus is as sweet as sugar,” a nice song for very small children, but enjoy the Lord’s [sweetness] in the beauty of nature, which can be especially experienced in the wilderness, the countryside, and shorelines, but in general, in remote places that are not so busy with humans and human activities, and not filled with things that destroy the beauty of nature.
It is said that “God created the countryside and man-made the city,” and this is why when we go to the countryside or places with a lot of greenery, we feel extremely happy and we feel that we are coming in [closer] contact with the Hand of God.
Enjoy the beauty of nature, enjoy everything God has created – the plants, the flowers, the birds, the fish. Nature is complete, and so in the completeness of nature we can see that God loves completeness, not lackfulness. Enjoy this completeness! The Book of Proverbs tells us, “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise” (Prov 6:6), and so even from this very delicate creature that God has created, we can learn how to be orderly, energetic, active, and diligent at work.
Similarly with the bee, and with everything else in nature; we can learn from every small and big thing in nature, whether in the plant kingdom or the animal kingdom, and so on, and so just observe the beautiful nature! All this God made for you.
Observe our land and the beautiful sunshine that we have, the breezes, the shorelines, the greenery. And all this nature is not only for beauty, but God set nature to serve humanity, and so enjoy nature and enjoy God and delight in the Lord in the nature that He manages and rules over, in all its vastness and all its minute details.
- Delight in the Lord’s mercy and tenderness
Just see how the Lord is merciful and tender toward humans, and how much the Lord is ready to accept every person [who returns to Him]. For example, a person could be so cruel with others, like Zacchaeus the taxcollecter (Lk 19:1-10), and yet the Lord Himself will come to that person and meet with him, as Christ did with Zacchaeus. It was from the tree where Zacchaeus saw Christ, and when Christ saw him it says, “He looked up and saw him, and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house’” (Lk 19:5). What mercy!
Up to this point Zacchaeus had only heard about Christ from other people but had never seen Him personally. But Zacchaeus desired to delight in the Lord, so what did he do? He went and hid in the tree and waited for Christ to pass by, just so that he could see Him. And the result was that Zacchaeus [was blessed with] Christ’s uttering his name and calling him down.
And as we see by his response to Christ, Zacchaeus was so joyful and beside himself when this happened that he said, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” (Lk 19:8).
Another example of the many who were shown mercy in the Holy Bible is that of the woman caught in sin. They were ready to stone her but as for Christ, He dealt with the situation very calmly and with extreme tenderness and utmost mercy, and the result was that they withdrew. Christ then said to her, “‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more’” (Jn 8:10-11).
Enjoy Christ’s tenderness, enjoy His mercy, enjoy His longsuffering and patience toward you. Enjoy the works and the ways the Lord deals with you.
- Delight in serving the Lord
I would like to conclude this segment on “delighting in the Lord” with this point: delight in your serving Christ. I want you to know that one of the signs of delighting in God and in His works is serving, and serving includes all the other six points we discussed, because serving the Lord includes delighting in His salvation, delighting in His Presence, delighting in knowing Him, and delighting in His work and in His beauty and in His mercy.
Delight in the Lord through service, especially in serving those souls who are in need and have no one to remember them. Serving others can be done in so many ways. An especially nice thing we see with the youth is that yes, while they do participate in spiritual meetings whereby they learn and this is a very good thing, but in addition to that, many of these youth groups also go out and do practical service work, whether visiting people in their homes or visiting homes for the handicapped or those with special needs or the elderly, or making visitations to any other types of homes that host estranged peoples, but in this very nice and practical way they are serving others, and as they do this, they are having a direct experience with God.
And so beloved one, the conclusion of the matter is that you delight in the Lord, and as you delight in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. Rejoice and enjoy the Lord, and as I told you, this is not a duty but it is to your advantage to delight in your Christ and to find joy in [and with] Him. We are to delight in the Giver and not just in the Giver’s gifts and blessings.
And so place this as a motto before you in your life: if you want to be a person who is wise, learn how to make and take time to delight in the Lord, because of course, [as you can well-imagine,] a person who is always rushing and getting sucked into the whirlwinds of life, that person will not be able to delight in the Lord.
For those who feel rushed, the practice of the “short” or “arrow” prayers from the monastic tradition can be very helpful. These are prayers composed of a single statement, but when a person repeats that single statement hundreds of times – for example, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner – it becomes very effective. And why is this type of prayer effective? Because it fills up much time in which [your mind] is learning, allowing you to delight in the Lord even while doing any other activity or work you may be having to do, and in this way you can delight in the Lord through more moments and larger segments of time in your life; to delight in the Lord Who is dwelling within your home, that is, within your heart. “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” – this is what gives the heart joy and makes it truly happy.
Part 2: Commit
On the other side of the coin of delighting in the Lord is committing our way to Him. This is found in verse 5, it says, “5 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”
To delight in the Lord is to commit our way to Him and to trust Him, [to trust that] He will bring all things to pass. And so today’s wisdom lesson is one, but it has two sides, like two sides of the same coin: delight yourself in the Lord on one side, and commit your way to Him on the other.
To commit your way to the Lord is to be honest with your Christ, to reveal yourself honestly before Him, in other words, this is about how to offer a true repentance to Christ. And when here he tells us to “commit your way to the Lord,” he is telling us to rely on God, to let God be the One to direct you, and to accept everything God gives you with satisfaction.
To commit your way to the Lord means to rid yourself of your cares and worries, because when someone is living with a constant sense of cares and worries, they feel heavy and troubled. But there is another person who has cast their cares upon the Lord and they say, “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your comfort delights my soul” (Ps 94:19). And so do you see the relationship here? That as you commit your way to the Lord and trust in His care for you, you will be able to delight yourself in the Lord.
And so live a life of purity and of true repentance, and yes, we all fall, but the smart person is the one who gets back up. Christ will never asked you why you did something wrong, but He will ask you, “Why didn’t you get back up?”
Did the Prodigal Son sin? Yes, he did. Did he waste his money on wrong living? Yes, he did, but in a moment of time he awoke, came to his right mind, and made a decision to turn back and go home, and this is the moment of powerful repentance. And the entire journey back home he [must have been] anticipating the various reactions his father would have to seeing him, but [we see that] his father accepted him with loving embraces and took him in again.
And as he kept on saying things like, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight” (Lk 15:21), his father just went on giving him one gift after another: the robe, the ring, the sandals, and he [even] slaughtered the fattened lamb (Lk 15:22-23). But the most important thing, the most important thing was the father’s open embrace for him.
It says, “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Lk 15:20). The father accepted his son back and embraced him, [all] because he returned to his father, and so this is why you are to bring yourself openly before God. He says, “Commit your way to the Lord,” just as the Prodigal Son committed his way to the Lord.
Rid yourself of the worries, troubles, and cares that you face. Oftentimes a person carries all of these in their minds and it is a burden, a heavy burden, but do not forget that Christ told us, “Come to Me, all you who labor (wearied, fatigued) and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). He offers you the invitation, but I wonder, do you accept it, or not?
When the apostle Paul was aboard the ship full of criminals heading to Rome to appear for trials before Caesar, the ship met with a storm and was wrecked, and this was of course a problem because the prisoners could have escaped, but they were all saved by holding onto pieces of wood. And the apostle Paul made a very beautiful statement, he said, “And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive” (KJV)or as it says it in another translation, “We gave way and let ourselves be driven along” (Acts 27:15 BSB). Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do it (accomplish it).
“We gave way and let ourselves be driven along.” Who would have ever thought that a ship, especially the ones they had back in those days, would be destroyed by a storm in the Mediterranean Sea and yet all of its passengers would be saved? Who would have ever imagined this? Who would imagine that by holding onto a piece of wood, even with miles left ahead to reach shore, that one would be saved? And yet this is what happened. “We gave way and let ourselves be driven along.” Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.
Part 3: God will reveal all things
It says, “6He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” Not only will God bring things to pass and accomplish all things for you, but another thing God will do for you is to reveal your righteousness (your good nature) and your justice, as He says elsewhere, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Mt 25:23). Notice that he says “the joy of your lord,” and so it is the Lord and the joy of the Lord that initiates the invitation.
And to commit your way to the Lord does not mean that you do not work, it does not mean that you do not think things through, not at all, but it means that you depend on the Lord’s Hand and that you trust that He is managing your life and all of life.
“He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” The Lord will make clear before everyone that you are a just and honest person – in your life in general, at your place of work, in your home, in your relationships, and in your Church and service work.
Conclusion and Benediction
These two verbs, delighting and committing, are part of the way of wisdom; to delight yourself in the Lord and to commit your way to Him. This is the fifth wisdom lesson that we receive and learn from St. David the prophet [in this Psalm].
May our Christ grant us to be filled with the spirit of wisdom in our daily lives. To our God be all the glory and honor, from now and forevermore. Amen.
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