Why God Answered David

David plainly tells us why God answered his prayers. “He also brought me out into a broad [large] place; he delivered me because he delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19, NKJV). Delight here means “to take pleasure or joy.” David was saying, “I bring pleasure to God. He delivered me simply because he takes pleasure in me.”

Our God takes pleasure in you and me as well! You see, we who trust in the Lord are his holy remnant. Remnant simply means “those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” They have been called out of a lazy Christendom and are totally devoted to Jesus.

To us, God says, “You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah [My delight is in her], and your land Beulah, for the Lord delights in you” (Isaiah 62:3-4). Why does God come to my rescue, so willing to deliver me? It is because he delights in me! I am a pleasure to him, and he enjoys my friendship.

A precious young man once told me, “I have never been convinced that I have truly been accepted by the Lord. I seldom feel good enough for him, like I just do not measure up. I keep trying to appease him by doing something good for others.”

So many Christians feel this way. Over the years, I have known many older Christians who never had assurance in the Lord. They felt unworthy, unclean, unloved. They never believed they were a delight to the heart of God, so they were always trying to work out something in their lives to please him. If they failed in one area, they did three things in another area to try to make God happy.

Beloved, this can never be! When you come to Jesus, you cannot make up anything to him. He makes it all up to you because that is who he is. He says, “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25).

No matter your failures or shortcomings, God makes it all up to you!