Psalm 86:4

Psalm 86:4

The Garden of Delights

This Psalm started with the plaintive cry from David, “I am poor and needy.” There followed a chain of requests, very personal and with an air of desperation, “Guard me, save me, have mercy on me.” The plea that we are meditating upon today is rather different. It’s one thing to pray to God to guard and save us, it’s another to ask Him for joy! Most of us will have pleaded for God’s help, on many occasions, but few will have prayed for joy.

Joy is much more than happiness or contentment; it is those things, but it embraces fully the thing that many people are chasing in today’s world – wellbeing! It is grounded in faith and trust and having a clean heart and a pure conscience. Those two doors of faith are the entrance into a Garden of Enchantments. Peace reigns there, all cares and anxieties are barred from entry. The Garden rings with the sound of praise and laughter, it is Eden on earth and those who enter leave the world’s enticements behind and are wrapped in the beauty and wonder of God’s Garden of delights. In such a place there is no room for unhappiness or fear, anger or lust. The sounds are accentuated, and the colours of the garden glow and those who enter may taste the sweet wholeness of fellowship with our Father. I’ve been there, occasionally, it defies words but it is a place of unhindered joy. 

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