Danby House

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

( Isaiah 58:13-14 )

In my daily Bible reading I have just finished the book of Isaiah. I noticed that at some time in the past I had underlined a verse: the second of the two above.

Now to add some context to this I preached a sermon at Open Door Baptist Church last September called “Desires of Thine Heart.” This sermon was an attempt to understand how we can know whether or not something that we are desiring is godly and helpful, or worldly and destructive.

I think I did a reasonable job of showing how you can use godly judgment to figure out what’s going to be good for you and help you vs. what is going to bed bad for you and hinder you, but I took the long way round. I realize now that I missed the point.

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

( Psalms 37:4-5 )

Instead of asking:

How do I get the desires of my heart?

I should be asking:

How do I delight myself in the Lord?

The best way to know for sure if what I desire is appropriate is not to try to figure out if my desire is appropriate. I don’t need to figure it out. If I delight myself in the Lord then he will give it to me – whatever it is.

So that brings us back to the first of the two verses which I based this sermon on. The one that I didn’t underline.

Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

(Psalms 65:4) KJV

This is an outline for a message at Danby House. The word chosen occurs in a couple of Jesus’ parables: The parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20:1-16.

Continue reading “Caused to Approach”

Danby House

2 Samuel 7:1

And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies;

2 Samuel 11 :1

And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

Danby House

Exodus 32:7-10

And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

God blamed Moses for the sin of the Israelites.

And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? (Exodus 32:11)

Moses turned it right back on God.

Danby House

Genesis 45:5

Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Genesis 50:20

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.