Journal Guide - Trust, Delight, Commit - Psalm 37:3-5

Hi everybody. It’s Pastor Dave Shepardson. Today in our devotion journal, we are looking at Psalm 37:3-5. If you have the Alone With God journal, use that, or you can use another journal if you have one. If you would like to order a copy of the Alone With God journal, you can do so at wordbymail.com. You can also download a copy of the journal page here. Either way, grab something to write with, open your Bible, and get ready to hear from the Lord in his Living Word. I read from the New Living Translation (NLT).

Let me pray and prepare our hearts.

Heavenly Father, please prepare our hearts for your Word, Lord. Please give us your heart for these verses, Lord. Please speak to us and apply these verses to our lives, personally and specifically today, by your Spirit, through your Word, and in your name, Jesus, amen.
We’ll start with meditating on these verses. And as we begin today, I just want to encourage you to allow the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind a current situation or circumstance in your life that God wants to apply these verses to.

Let’s read the scripture, and then I’ll go back and comment on each verse. Then, I’m going to ask you to write out your meditation on these verses. This is all in the Meditate section. So, we are just going to write out what is God’s Word saying. Or, what are the spiritual principles that we see here? Just as it says in your journal under Meditate.

Psalm 37:3-5 (NLT)
3 Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.

So, let’s look closely at the verses today. Verse 3 says, Trust in the Lord. This is putting your full and complete faith, trust and faith in a person. Have you ever heard of the trust fall where you turn around, close your eyes, and you fall backward, trusting that the person behind you is going to catch you? That’s the trust that we can have in the Lord. The Lord will catch us and so we can trust him completely.

Next in verse 3 is Trust in the Lord and do good. This just means do what’s right. Trust completely in the Lord and make a commitment to do what is right in the sight of the Lord. And guys, honestly, most often, we know in our hearts what is right in the sight of the Lord. We’ve just got to have the trust; we’ve got to trust God completely and do what is right.

And then verse 3 says, Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. This is the first of three if/then statements that I see here in these verses. We call them “conditional statements.” Verse 3 says IF we will trust in the Lord and do good, THEN we will live safely in the land and prosper. That’s the if/then statement. So, the then part, then we will live safely in the land and prosper, is a reference to God’s protection and his provision. It doesn’t mean that we’ll never stub our toe, and it doesn’t mean that we’ll have all the money that we’ve ever wanted. But what it does mean is that God will be with us. God will be leading us and guiding us. He’ll be protecting and providing for us, and that is truly what we need. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Then verse 4. Take delight in the Lord… This is living in delight in your relationship with the Lord. It’s delighting in our joyful communion with the Lord. It’s taking delight in the Lord, not just keeping the Lord there for when you’re in trouble, and you need a life preserver, or you need help. But it’s actually delighting in your daily relationship with him. And again, this is an if/then statement. IF we are taking delight in the Lord, if we’re taking delight in our relationship with him, THEN he will give us our heart’s desires.

And again, let’s not misunderstand this. This doesn’t mean God will give you whatever your fleshly heart desires. It means that as we are delighting in the Lord, then our heart’s desires will be aligned with the Lord’s heart. Our heart’s desires will be aligned with our complete trusting in the Lord. And so, as we take delight in the Lord, our hearts get aligned with the Lord’s will and with his heart, and then he gives us our heart’s desires. That is awesome. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Then verse 5, Commit everything you do to the Lord. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Everything. Guys, we can’t put God in a box outside of anything else that we are doing in our lives. May everything we do be committed to the Lord. There’s nothing in our lives that is separate from him.

And then the end of verse 5 says, Trust him, and he will help you. If everything we do we commit to the Lord, and we trust him, then there is no compartmentalization in our life. We’ve committed all that we’re doing and all that we are, all of our entire lives to the Lord, trusting him completely. And then the promise is he will be there to help us, to strengthen us. As we trust him, then he will be there to help us. He will be with us to lead us, and guide us and be our strength.

That’s the end of my comments on the Meditate section. Now, you write what stands out to you here. And remember, in this first section, we’re just writing what is God’s Word saying. What are the spiritual principles that we see here? Don’t start applying these verses to your life yet. Just write down what God’s Word is saying here, just like the journal says.

Alright, next is Apply. How does God’s truth in these verses personally and specifically apply to my life today? Is there something in my life right now that God is wanting me to trust him with and trust him in? Is God calling you to trust him and do what’s right in a very specific area of your life today? If so, have the courage to write that down right now in your Apply section of the journal. And his promise in his Word is that if you will apply these verses to that specific area in your life, then God has promised to be with you, to protect you, and to provide for you and to help you.

And you can take delight in the Lord in this same area. You can take delight in the same area that you’re applying these verses to, trusting that he will align your heart with his heart in this matter. And also, in this area (I hope you can just stay focused on one area at a time of your life), what is it that you need to commit to the Lord, trusting him completely, knowing that he’ll help you in that area?

So right now, in the Apply section of your journal, make it real. Write down what area in your life the Lord is specifically speaking to you about in these verses. Where do these truths personally and specifically apply in your life today? Write that down under Apply.

Okay, step number three is Respond. And in your journal, it says, what action will I take today in response to this truth? This, guys, is application put into action. This is response. What will I do, what action will I take? What will I do today in response to God’s Word? This can be a commitment in your heart, a commitment of your mind, a commitment in your actions, a commitment to address something in your life maybe in a situation or in a relationship. What response will you commit to in light of these verses today? Make it real. Make it tangible. And guys, this is a really critical step because obedience is what transforms our lives. So, when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, a response of obedience is when our lives begin to truly be transformed. Take some time, and under Respond, write down how you will respond to these verses in your life today.

And finally, step number four in your devotion journal is Pray. And it just says, write a prayer to align my heart with the will of God on this truth. And that’s my hope for you, that you would stop and write out your prayer to God. It’s really important because writing your prayer forces you to focus your mind and really pray according to what the Holy Spirit has impressed on you today. Go ahead and write your prayer to God with what God has impressed on you in your time with him in these verses.

Thanks for meeting God with us in his Word today. Let’s pray together to close.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this time. We thank you that your Word is living and powerful, and it is sharper than a double-edged sword, Lord. And we thank you for using your Word, lit alive by the power of your Holy Spirit, to transform our lives more and more into your image, Jesus. We pray it in your name, Lord Jesus, amen.

Thanks for joining us today. See you next devotion day. God bless you.