Psalm 104:25-35, 37

25 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

26 Yonder is the great and wide sea with its living things too many to number,
creatures both small and great.

27 There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan,
which you have made for the sport of it.

28 All of them look to you to give them their food in due season.

29 You give it to them; they gather it;
you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.

30 You hide your face, and they are terrified;
you take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust.

31 You send forth your Spirit, and they are created;
and so you renew the face of the earth.

32 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever;
may the Lord rejoice in all his works.

33 He looks at the earth and it trembles;
he touches the mountains and they smoke.

34 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will praise my God while I have my being.

35 May these words of mine please him;
I will rejoice in the Lord.

37 Bless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah!

This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.

It's delightful!

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.

-G.K.Chesterton

A friend who, with his wife, runs a café that serves absolutely delicious food says that the mission for the enterprise is to offer food that is delightful. (Note: the café is called Spoonfed, in Wilmington, NC Worth a visit!) Delightful is an interesting word to use in that context, and perhaps a word in short supply in our world. I’m wondering to what extent the word has application in the spiritual realm, among religious people.

A friend confessed to me that she would start jogging when it looked like people who were jogging were having fun. We could say the same about church life. H.L.Mencken, journalist from the early 20^th century, someone with sharp and snarky wit, offered this as a description of a Puritan, which may apply to religious people of all sorts. He said a puritan is someone who is unhappy because somebody somewhere is having a good time. I’m wondering if you know religious people like that.

Scripture reveals to us a God who knows about delight. We can see that especially in the psalms. The psalm heard yesterday in church on the Feast of Pentecost (reprinted above), speaks of the joy in God’s creation and includes this interesting note. Speaking of the work of creation, the psalm says that the creator made the leviathan just for the sport of it. In this context, the leviathan may well be a reference to a whale, an extraordinary creature for sure. But that whale is not the only one of God’s creatures that points to a divine sense of humor. Whimsy mixed with beauty surrounds us in creation. Little wonder that at the end of the days of creation God surveyed all that had been made and declared that it was all good. Dare I say, delightful.

Because it is the character of creator God to take delight in creation, we also are called to live with a sense of delight. Psalm 37.4 invites us to take delight in the Lord, with the promise that God will give us the desires of our hearts. Fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus told his disciples that he came to bring them joy, that their joy might be full or complete (John 15.11). He came to give them life, and to give it abundantly (John 10.10).

We can dive into delight even when circumstances may seem less than delightful. We saw what that looks like recently in a Sunday reading from the book of Acts. Paul and Silas are stuck in prison, and we find them singing hymns and offering hymns of praise. St. Francis of Assisi, called the most admired and least imitated of saints, chose a life of poverty and encountered those in greatest need in his community. Yet across the centuries, he is remembered for a spirit of Joy. Recently, we’ve had the privilege of eavesdropping on conversations between the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, chronicled in The Book of Joy. They both knew deep personal suffering in the face of systemic injustice. Yet their joy was irrepressible and contagious. Laughter was vigorous. How do we follow their examples, especially when joy seems elusive and delight seems distant?

I’m mindful of a prayer we offer for people when they are baptized. We ask that they may experience joy and wonder in all God’s works. Joy and wonder sound like a good definition of delight. Perhaps we can offer that prayer for ourselves and those we love each morning. We can do our part to realize that prayer by identifying those things that give us delight, giving thanks for them. And we can commit those delightful things to God’s usefulness in the world.

How might you take delight in the Lord this Monday?

-Jay Sidebotham