 “Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. For I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
– Jeremiah 15:16
Are those not some amazing phrases to describe a reaction to God’s Word when we find them? We open up the Bible, so, “Your words were found and I ate them.” We take them in. Like picture sitting down to a feast of good food and just diving into it, eating it. “Your words became to me a joy,” like enjoying. Picture not just any meal. Picture a great meal. You just sit down and you enjoy eating, like every bite is so good.
Jeremiah 15:16 Calls Us to Delight In God’s Word
Has God’s Word become a joy to you and is it the delight of your heart? Praise God that He has called us by name and may we grow in our dependence on Him through delighting in His Word.
“Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.” My heart loved them. My heart was leaping with joy over your words. Why? Because, “I’m called by your name, O Lord God of hosts.” What a great picture. His Word toward us, is connected to His love for us.
The whole picture here is God, so picture it. Picture when you open your Bible, this is the Word of a God who has called your name. He loves you and he cares for you. He knows you. So He sent his son to die for you. Keep in mind this is the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of angels armies, the God who rules and reigns sovereignly over everything in the world. This God knows you, loves you, has called your name, and has spoken to you. He gives us words that satisfy and delight our hearts. Word to become your joy such that you want to just eat them and that you want to digest them.
This Verse Reminds Us to Consume God’s Word
This is Bible reading. That’s what Bible reading is. Bible reading, memorizing, studying, and meditating, it’s all about eating God’s Word, letting them become to you a joy, the delight of your heart, because the God who spoke them has called your name. He’s the Lord God of hosts, and he loves you, and he is speaking to you through his Word.
Jeremiah 15:16 Leads Us to Praise God For His Word
Oh, God, we praise you for your Word. We praise you for its goodness. It is good. Your Word brings delight to our hearts. God, help us to grow in our experience of this delight in your word. God, I know, I’m guessing there are some people listening right now who think, “I open up my Bible and it doesn’t have that effect on me.” Oh, God, I pray that you would change that. I pray that you’d transform that.
Lord, I know that will come. I know that will come. You promised that it will come through more and more and more exposure to your Word. God, please, please, for anybody who doesn’t really feel that kind of delight in your Word, God, help them. God, help them to press into your Word, to read it, to memorize it, to meditate on it, and in the process to find the delight in it.
This Verse Leads Us to Ask God to Become Our Joy
God, wean us off the pleasures of this world, filling out stomachs so to speak with the trivial things in this world. Lord, help us to fill our stomachs with the truth of your Word, to eat this, to let this be our joy. As we do, God, to experience a depth of intimacy with you, the Lord God of hosts who has called our name. God, we praise you for your Word, our joy and delight. God, we praise you for your Word. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
