Focus: You're His Delight! (Pt.2)

Text: Ps.149:5

"The Lord taketh pleasure in his people."

You are God's delight. He takes pleasure in you. See what the Lord has done for you! Moses says, "But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day" (Dt.4:20). God redeemed and inherited you. You are eternally His - His eternal possession. 

Moses rehearsed in the ears of all Israel, "I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand" (Dt.9:26). You are God's inheritance and His purchased possession. With His great power God redeemed you from the shackles of slavery. Today, you are no longer a slave to sin, Satan and death. Moses says again, "Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm" (Dt.9:29). 

God loves you deeply and dearly, and for His love, He has rescued you from eternal damnation and secured your eternal salvation and heavenly bliss.

The Lord takes pleasure in you. Moses declares, "For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance" (Dt.32:9). The psalmist sings that "blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance" (Ps.33:12). He called and chose you to be His unique portion on earth. You are special to God - a treasure that He holds dear.

The psalmist proclaims, "For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance" (Ps.94:14). You are an inheritance God will neither forget nor forsake.

In the New Testament we read, "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you AN INHERITANCE among all them which are sanctified" (Act.20:32). You now belong to the lot of the saved and sanctified. Paul was anointed and appointed "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may RECEIVE forgiveness of sins, and INHERITANCE among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Act.26:18). God has not only possessed you as His own inheritance, but He has also given you inheritance among the sanctified - the holy ones. Paul prays that you come to know "what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…" (Eph.1:18). This Scripture makes clear that you are God's inheritance.

Again Paul says, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance…" (Eph.1:11). This Scripture tells us that beyond being God's inheritance, God has given you the privilege of having obtained an inheritance in Christ.

Paul says joyfully, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col.1:12). You have a share of the holy ones' inheritance. Truly, you are the redeemed of the Lord! You are Christ's purchased possession. You are the beloved of the Lord and the temple of the Holy Spirit. 

You are Christ's body, filled with the Spirit, and anointed for holy tasks in this world. You are God's holy nation and His royal priesthood.

Finally, the psalmist declares, "Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance" (Ps.106:40). You are God's inheritance, and He delights in you, but don't let sin put you in a position or situation where God begins to abhor you. God wants you adored, not abhorred. God delights in you. Don't let Him detest you. Don't stain your holy life. Be who God wants you to be and do what pleases Him. Beware! Behave!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter