Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
9/1 Reading Portions: 1 Samuel 25; 1 Corinthians 6; Ezekiel 4; Psalms 40-41
Psalm 40:8
“I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
WILL
This verse speaks of Christ Jesus (Heb 10:7) who, as perfect Man, ever and always did the will of His heavenly Father (John 6:38). Yet this verse also provokes our souls unto love and good works, to persevere to desire, delight in, and do the will of the heavenly Father. To be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29) is to be conformed to the behavior of Christ (Luke 6:40). The heavenly Father received no greater glory than the glory He received from His beloved Son in obediently and sacrificially surrendering His will to the Father (Phil 2:8-9). As Mr. Spurgeon’s A Puritan Catechism tells us in the first item that man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, we then ask ourselves: “What does it mean to glorify God?” If the heavenly Father is most glorified in the exaltation of the Son (Phil 2:9), then exalting the Son unto the Father’s glory can only be achieved by the redeemed soul submitting his or her will to the Holy Spirit just as Jesus did; inasmuch as a sinner saved by grace is able. In other words, to glorify God is to surrender our wills to His. We must also note that this is not a mere external act of obedience, like those attempting to keep the law of Moses in deeds and works. The verse tells us that we delight to do [God’s] will. This is the transforming work of grace in the life of the redeemed. We delight to surrender our will to God in Christ. This is why keeping Christ’s commandments to us…
are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
“I delight to do Your will, my God,”
The psalmist says of Christ;
We must also make God’s will ours,
A living sacrifice.
