The Bible tells us that what we do can either please God or displease Him. Do you know how to bring the Lord delight?

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It’s easy to imagine the shepherd David, watching over his sheep on a starlit night, being full of wonder and amazement at the sight of the night sky, full of stars. It is breathtaking!
King David undoubtedly had such a night in mind when he wrote about the relationship between God and mankind:
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).
David felt small, yet he recognized that the great God is mindful of humans. God cares about us, and what we do matters to Him.
As David also wrote: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way” (Psalm 37:23).
Any of us who value our relationship with God should consider what He delights in. How can we delight the Lord?
What the Lord does not to delight in
Before we look at how to make God happy, it might be helpful to look at an example of what doesn’t please God. Israel’s first king provides a prime example.
At God’s direction, Saul took the army of Israel into battle against the Amalekites, crushing this nation that had ambushed Israel on its way from Egypt to the Promised Land (1 Samuel 15:2). Their evil was so bad God commanded Saul to kill all the Amalekites and their livestock (verse 3).
Rather than obey God’s explicit command, Saul chose to spare the life of Agag, the Amalekite king, as well as the best of the livestock (verse 9). When the prophet Samuel confronted Saul with his failure to obey God’s clear instructions (verse 19), he did what many people do. He shifted the blame to others (verse 21).
He didn’t stop there. He also justified his act by claiming that the people kept the best of the livestock to make an offering to God. Shouldn’t an offering please God?
Delight the Lord by obeying
Samuel then responded with some of the most memorable words in the Bible: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams” (verse 22).
Saul believed that making a sacrifice of the best sheep and oxen would satisfy God. He was wrong. God wasn’t looking for sacrifice, but for obedience.
Years later, David compared animal sacrifices with obedience, writing, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire” (Psalm 40:6). Instead, doing God’s will and remembering His law are what really matters (verse 8).
And in David’s psalm of repentance after sinning with Bathsheba, he wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit” (Psalm 51:17). A broken spirit is one that no longer stubbornly resists the will of God.
The point is, when we delight “in the law of the LORD” (Psalm 1:2), God delights in us. That’s why this passage begins with “blessed is the man” (verse 1).
Delight the Lord by obeying from the heart
True obedience goes beyond the letter of the law. As Jesus explained in the Sermon on the Mount, believers must have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, who were known for their meticulous observance of the law (Matthew 5:20).
Throughout the remainder of Matthew 5, we read of various laws. Jesus taught that merely keeping the physical demands of the law is not enough. True obedience comes from the heart.
That’s why He likened hate to murder (verses 21-22) and lust to adultery (verses 27-28). We must avoid actual murder and adultery, but we must also bring our “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Delight the Lord with truth
Controlling our thoughts requires an understanding of truth. The source of all truth is Jesus Christ, who declared that He bears “witness to the truth” (John 14:6; 18:37).
Unfortunately, our world is under the influence of Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44). Whether we recognize this influence or not, it is always there, permeating our environment.
When we stop to think of all the ways God has blessed us, our perspective changes. God notices, and this pleases Him.
God hates lies (Proverbs 6:16-17), which should be abundantly clear from the fact that one of His 10 Commandments, the core of His law, prohibits lying (Exodus 20:16). Truth, on the other hand, delights Him.
God’s feelings about lies and truth are clearly expressed and contrasted in one of the proverbs: “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who deal truthfully are His delight” (Proverbs 12:22).
To live truthfully, we must strive to seek truth. When we do, we delight the Eternal.
Delight the Lord by seeking wisdom
Closely related to truth is wisdom. From the biblical point of view, wisdom is understanding how to live a life in line with God’s will. We can find biblical wisdom in the book of Proverbs, which is devoted to wisdom.
This is clear from the book’s opening statements, which asserts that its purpose is to teach “wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:2). This introduction goes on to explain that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (verse 7).
King Solomon was the primary author of this book. He is well-known for wisdom, having requested it from God early in his reign.
God had appeared to Solomon in a dream, asking, “What shall I give you?” (1 Kings 3:5). As a young ruler, perhaps uneasy with the demands of office, Solomon asked God for the wisdom that would make him a just king, one who could “discern between good and evil” (verse 9).
The biblical account tells us that “the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing” (verse 10). What Solomon sought—the ability to “discern between good and evil”—is what we should all seek. That is another thing God delights in.
Delight the Lord in prayer
Another aspect of the believer’s life that brings God joy is prayer, which the apostle John compared to a sweet-smelling incense (Revelation 5:8). We should come to understand, as David did, that God truly is mindful of His human creation.
As our loving Father, He wants to hear our prayers. Solomon knew this, pointing out that “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Proverbs 15:8).
Notice that not just any prayer pleases God. It is “the prayer of the upright” that delights the Lord. If prayer comes from a selfish heart, or if it is some memorized words that really mean nothing to us, it will not delight God.
Prayers that delight the Lord
One way to be sure we are on the right track with our prayers is to include praise and thanksgiving. When we praise God, we recognize His awesome power and character. We humble ourselves before Him.
The same is true for thanksgiving. When we stop to think of all the ways God has blessed us, our perspective changes. God notices, and this pleases Him.
That’s why David committed himself to praise and thanksgiving. He knew that these elements “shall please the LORD better than an ox or bull” (Psalm 69:30-31).
Before you can delight the Lord
There is a problem, however. It’s a problem Paul spelled out in his letter to the church at Rome. He told them that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).
This blunt statement comes after an emotional chapter about the struggle to live righteously. Paul admitted that he, like all humans, ended up doing the very things he didn’t want to do and too often neglected the things he intended to do (Romans 7:15).
God is gracious and merciful, however. He provides what we need so that we can please Him.
Right after Paul wrote that those who live “in the flesh cannot please God,” he told the Roman Christians that they were “not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (Romans 8:8-9) if they had received the Holy Spirit. Of course, they were still composed of flesh, but with the Holy Spirit, they were now “spiritually minded” and subject to the law of God (verses 6-7). With the Spirit, we are able to please God.
Delight the Lord through His Spirit
Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to delight the Lord. Without the Spirit, we won’t know spiritual truth and wisdom, and we won’t be able to fully obey from the heart.
Even our prayers will be lacking because our hearts will not be upright. With God’s Spirit, however, we are empowered in prayer: “In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings” (Romans 8:26, New American Bible).
It is through the Holy Spirit that we can obtain spiritual wisdom and understand truth. Paul explained this to the church at Corinth when he said that “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11).
We also need the Holy Spirit to obey God from the heart. That is something God has known all along, and it is why He promised to make a New Covenant with His people.
What distinguishes this New Covenant from the old is the Holy Spirit. God told Jeremiah: “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). In this way, we will be able to keep the covenant with God.
When we have the Holy Spirit within us, our prayers and our worship will delight the Eternal because we worship Him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
What about you? Do you understand how to delight the Lord, and are you ready to begin?
Study further in our articles “How Do You Know You Have the Holy Spirit?” and “How to Please God.”