Isn’t the command to delight in God the same as saying we are commanded to "pursue pleasure"?
Answer 29.
First, we need to take inventory. There is no actual passage that says, "God commands you to pursue your own happiness".
Second, even if such a command were "found" or even "construed", such a directive would be only but a minor one, subservient to all the other commands, such as "pursue love", "love God with all your strength", "obey God and keep His commandments." Therefore, attempting to make a pursuit of pleasure so weighty that it deserves to be called "hedonism" or a "philosophy of life" is a gross distortion of revealed Scripture. The pursuit of pleasure, must behave just as all the legitimate commands from God’s Word behave: they must be second to the greatest commandment, love God. Since the pursuit of pleasure is not permitted to rise above all the others in importance, it is a false commandment to say that the pursuit of pleasure is our "highest calling" or our most important duty. Elevating the "pursuit of pleasure" to the rank of a weighty command is the equivalent of majoring in the minors–but that is a topic for
Context
It is true that there is a passage of Scripture which says in part to "delight in God". However, to quote that fragment of the passage is misleading. The entire thought within that passage is about God making us a promise. Here is a paraphrase of Psalm 37:3-6.
If we cultivate faithfulness toward God,
And if we do good,
And if we trust in the Lord,
And if we delight in Him,
Then He will give us the desires of our heart (which are desires for ourselves to become righteousness and to be safe from evil men)
And He will also give us discernment as enlightened and penetrating as the noon sun.
If one were to hear Christian Hedonists quote a fragment of this promise one might believe that God was placing a premium on delight above other qualities, for which God would reward the obedient soul with everything his heart could desire (gold, jewels, even the birth of children or grandchildren).
But the more proper understanding of this passage is that God desires for us to cultivate and grow our faith, do good, trust in Him more, delight in Him and His Word, and then He will give us discernment to judge between good and evil and He will give us other gifts of spiritual righteousness which we desire. Delight by itself will not accomplish this.
But if we knowingly fragment the passage, and understand that delight alone will not get us the discernment or righteousness we desire, can we still not say that "delight is a command"? This is not a point I am ready to concede, though I understand that some might see doing so as being of small consequence.
Breaking thoughts and promises apart like that, into smaller fragments, then calling each fragment a command is not a very good method for Bible study, nor is it the best exegetical approach. Sometimes fragments must stay within the confines of their broader context. What would only delighting in God accomplish? It would not get you the desires of your heart, nor would it get you the righteousness or discernment you seek. It takes the balanced life focused on godly behavior to gain these things.
An Inferred Command?
All that said, what if we did say that this passage at least implies that delighting in God is a command. Perhaps we can call it an "inferred command". For the moment, let us consider that.
What does delighting in God mean as an "inferred command"? The root word for "delight" in this instance means "to be pliable and soft, ladylike, delicate, and delighted". In context it can just as easily mean we should be pliable and moldable as clay is in the hands of God; ladylike in being subject to Him and taking our orders from Him; delicate and self effacing allowing Him to control and lead us; and allowing His control to be more favorable to us than would be our own attempts at control.
To argue from this passage that it is a full fledged command for us to pursue our own emotionally gratifying pleasures in God is a mighty stretch that brings valid Bible interpretation to a dangerous tearing point. It would be far more proper to interpret this passage as:
"and take comfort in and look favorably upon God’s leading and control, and He will give you what your heart desires: safety and righteousness."
Asking men to take comfort in God’s leading and asking men to look favorably upon God’s sovereign controlling influence is a far cry from calling this passage a "commandment to pursue our own pleasure in God".
Since this passage cannot support, nor really infer, a commandment to pursue our own pleasures and happiness, and since this passage in no way bolsters the idea of elevating the pursuit of pleasure to some weighty commandment, Christian Hedonism must again turn elsewhere for even one passage of Scripture to validate its claim "that we should pursue happiness with all our might."
For more insights into Psalm 37, please consider reading Delight Yourself In the Lord: Command or Promise?
