Pleasure in His People

Pleasure in His People

For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.

Psalm 149:4

We as parents, take pleasure in our children. We celebrate their birth. We take note of every detail as they grow. We make much of their first efforts at creativity. We encourage them as they attempt and achieve success. We delight to see them develop, mature, and arrive at independence. These are all very natural and healthy interactions between parents and children. Our text today lies along this line of thought. An earlier verse in the Psalm mentions, ‘the children of Zion.’ The verse following our text refers to ‘the saints,’ thus identifying the particular objects of God’s pleasure. From these things taken together, we conclude that one of the blessings and benefits of our adoption into the Family of God is that He takes pleasure in us. If you have ever observed the sheer joy and satisfaction in the eyes of a small child, when his or her father and mother show their approval, you have gotten a glimpse of this in action. God sees us in Christ. God approves of us as His justified, adopted, and soon-to-be sanctified children. We are in Christ, and as such, God, not only approves of us, but more than that, takes positive pleasure in us. In this blessing of adoption we revel and rejoice today.

Our most Gracious and Loving Father,
we rejoice that You take pleasure in us, for Jesus’ sake.
We delight in Your approval,
and we bask in the sunlight of Your love.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning