…he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Psalm 18:19

Whenever I see my granddaughter, I can’t help smiling. She brings joy to my heart. Usually she is smiling herself because she is a cheerful child who is generally happy. But even if she is asleep or sad, I still love to see her, and I will do what I can to see her smiling again. I am delighted in her because she is my granddaughter. She has no other claim upon me, and I don’t care whether she has been naughty or nice, whether she was sassing her mother or defying her father just a few moments before, or whether she just picked her nose or wet her diaper. Just knowing that she is my granddaughter is enough to make me smile when I see her.

Imagine a God who delights in you like that, a God who beams at you and makes a fuss over you whenever you come around. David imagined such a God, and he goes on to tell us why God is so delighted in him. It is because he is righteous, blameless, faithful, pure, and humble. God delights in him because he is such a good person. I could infer that if I am a good person, God will be delighted in me as well.

The problem is I am not a good person.

That is why I regard the good news as such good news. Jesus told those who were not good that God was nevertheless delighted in them. In fact, God imputed the righteousness of his perfect Son to everyone who believes in him so that everyone can be a delight to God. Not only does God delight in me, he delights in me as if I were Jesus, the one about whom he said, “This is my Son whom I love. In him I am delighted” (Matt 3:17, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22).