“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:3-4 seems a little short and simple to study for a full week, but the longer I sit with these two verses, the more I’m finding new troves of treasure in each of them. Truthfully, I find myself focusing on that last part – the Lord giving me the desires of my heart – with much more excitement and passion than I feel in the instructions before those words. I spend so much time chasing a calling or a desire of my heart, that I forget the instructions he has so beautifully laid out before me: Trust in Me. Do good. Dwell in the land. Befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in Me. 

I’d love to spend this week together turning our attention to those things and seeing how the Lord transforms and grants us the desires of our hearts when we put things in their right order.

Dwell in the Land

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 

Psalm 37:3

“Dwell in the land…” has a little bit of a double meaning, I think. There’s the obvious physical meaning of committing your life and energy to where you are, not where you aren’t. Dwelling speaks of letting roots grow down, digging in, and settling in to stay. We are to live where we are and embrace the cities we live in. This physical sense of “dwelling in the land” is necessary to doing good. He has placed you in the your city and in your neighborhood because He wants you there to reveal the gospel, not because He wants you to hide out in holy huddles or perceived safety and comfort.

But, how do we “dwell in the land” while still being set apart and holy? How are we to be in the world, but not of it? I think it’s a heart issue. Rejecting the people around us because of their lifestyles, or choosing to simply talk about how terrible something or someone is without taking steps toward engaging in relationship and conversation with them is not what God has called us to do. Where do we see Jesus during his time of ministry on earth? With the people the church called offensive and unclean, unworthy and too messy.

We have to move outside of our realm of comfort to places of discomfort. We have to talk about faith and other issues. Most importantly, we have to relate with grace and love rather than going to war with the culture around us. This is how we remain set apart as we engage with the culture and the people in our hometowns and workplaces.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past few years dwelling in a lot of different lands. For me, dwelling in the land has looked like learning the language, learning the culture, and participating in usual daily life according to the land I was living in, not demanding it change to suit my American way of life.

Learn the languages of the people around you – how do they express and receive love? What do they need to hear from you? How can you better communicate about Jesus and His love and forgiveness?

We also must learn the language of the One in whom we truly live – our Father. This verse speaks to our truest and deepest dwelling place with Christ. Where we truly abide is with the Father.

Learning His language means learning to listen to and discern His voice, and the only way we can do this is by spending time with Him. The more we learn His language, the greater ability He gives us to learn the language of those around us. As a result, the deeper our trust grows, and the more good He empowers us to do.

Chelsey