The Perfect Consumer
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NIV
Desires – Before we dig deeper into this verse, let’s consider the typical Christian interpretation. Here’s an example:
Psalm 37:3–4
Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
the desires of your heart. Some take “the desires” as referring to the feeling of desire, i.e., “God will shape your heart so that it desires the right things”; but the sense is rather, “he will give you what your heart desires.” It is safe to say this to those who embrace the advice of this psalm, because as they delight themselves in the LORD, their hearts will desire the right things (Psalm 37:16, 31).[1]
You’ll notice that this viewpoint leads us to think that as long as we trust in God, we will get what we want. We will be the perfect consumers; not motivated by sheer greed but rather confident that God will fulfill our true wishes. We can decry all those advertising temptations and still fill the garage—religiously motivated, of course.
But it seems quite unlikely that this is what the poet meant. Yes, of course, God is the Father figure, and He is good to His people. But biblical history shows us that the meaning of this verse is not to get what we want but rather to have God give us our true desires, that is, to replace what we think we need with what God knows we need. And most of the time, this has nothing to do with an extra storage unit.
Jonathan Sacks makes a remark that should adjust our thinking on the matter: “Through constant creation of dissatisfaction, the consumer society is in fact a highly sophisticated mechanism for the production and distribution of unhappiness.”[2] In fact, there is a particularly important “desire” that cures the disease of dissatisfaction: suffering.
“Jews acquired an immune system against this disease because they were schooled in suffering. ‘The wisdom of suffering is the wisdom of humility. It is prosperity that tempts men to forget the limits of human nature and the limits of human power. Suffering educates men to accept their own limited natures in the same way that the discipline of a parent, however gentle, educates a child to accept ordinacy as an individual.”[3]
As Ben Zoma taught: “‘Who is rich? One who rejoices in what he has.’”[4]
Perhaps God’s intention to give us the “desires” of our hearts is really to train us in suffering so that we will not fall victim to the desires of our hearts.
Topical Index: desire, consumer, suffering, Psalm 37:4
[1] https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-key-bible-verses-on-contentment/?srsltid=AfmBOoo04FpgwywOHqHjZ-Y9EHMr2818x14sLsnRFAjvPuRSIVJLIJMt
[2] Jonathan Sacks Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Exodus: The Book of Redemption (Maggid, 2010), p. 262.
[3] Ibid., p. 264.
[4] Ibid., p. 262, citing Ben Zoma
