Five-minute study · Day 197 · Psalms 37
Psalm 37:4
A word worth stopping on: delight עָנַג anag
People quote the second half of this verse constantly: 'He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.' They rarely sit with the first half: 'Delight thyself also in the LORD.' The Hebrew verb is anag. It means to be soft, delicate, to luxuriate in something. It is the verb for savoring a meal slowly, for lingering in a garden, for taking pleasure in something with no urgency to leave. Anag is an experience. David is describing what it feels like to enjoy God the way you enjoy the best thing in your life.
Word study: delight
- Hebrew
- עָנַג
- Pronounced
- anag
- Strong's
- H6026
- Definition
- To be soft, delicate, dainty. To take exquisite delight in, to luxuriate. Describes a refined, savored pleasure, the kind of enjoyment that lingers and is not rushed.
Anag appears 10 times in the Hebrew Bible. BDB defines it as 'to be soft, delicate, dainty,' with the Hithpael form (used here) meaning 'to take exquisite delight, to make oneself merry over.' The word describes sensory pleasure. Isaiah 55:2 uses it for the enjoyment of rich food: 'Let your soul delight itself (anag) in fatness.' Isaiah 58:13-14 connects it to the Sabbath: 'call the sabbath a delight (oneg, the noun form).' Isaiah 66:11 uses it for a nursing infant satisfied at the breast.
Goldingay's commentary on Psalms 1-41 notes that anag in the Hithpael is reflexive: 'delight yourself.' The action is something you do with your whole self. It is participation, not observation. You do not anag from a distance. The word places you inside the experience, savoring it.
The promise that follows, 'he shall give thee the desires of thine heart,' has been misread as a transactional arrangement: enjoy God and he will give you what you want. The Hebrew resists this reading. The verb 'give' (natan) can also mean 'to place, to set, to appoint.' The desires (mish'alot) of your heart are what your heart asks for, its deep requests. The verse can be read: 'Luxuriate in the LORD, and he will place in your heart the requests themselves.' The delighting shapes the desiring. When you savor God deeply enough, your desires begin to align with his character. The promise fulfills itself.
Psalm 37 is an acrostic psalm. Each section begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Verse 4 falls in the dalet section. The psalm as a whole addresses the problem of the prosperity of the wicked. David's answer, spread across 40 verses, is patience and trust. Anag is the emotional center of that answer. The person who savors God is not anxious about what the wicked possess. Satisfaction has already arrived.
The contrast with Psalm 37:1 sharpens the point. Verse 1 says 'Fret not thyself because of evildoers.' The verb for 'fret' (charah) means to burn, to be hot with anger. Verse 4 offers the alternative: anag, the slow savoring of God. One posture burns. The other lingers.
Historical context · Iron Age Israel, Davidic period
An Alphabet of Trust
Psalm 37 is one of several acrostic psalms in the Hebrew Bible (others include Psalms 9-10, 25, 34, 111, 112, 119, and 145). Each section begins with a successive letter of the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet. The acrostic form served a mnemonic function: it was easier to memorize a poem when you knew the next section started with the next letter. It also communicated completeness. An A-to-Z poem covered the entire subject from beginning to end.
The psalm is attributed to David and addresses a problem that appears throughout wisdom literature: why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer? Job wrestles with this question at length. Psalm 73 approaches it through the experience of nearly losing faith. Ecclesiastes addresses it with the repeated observation that the race is not always to the swift. Psalm 37 gives the most direct pastoral advice: stop watching the wicked. Look at God. Wait. Trust. Delight.
Goldingay argues that Psalm 37 functions as a teaching psalm, possibly used in worship instruction or wisdom education. The alphabetic structure supports this. A teacher could walk students through the alphabet, each letter introducing a new facet of the argument. The dalet section (verse 4) is the emotional core: delight, savor, luxuriate. The ayin section (verse 25) is the experiential testimony: 'I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.'
The noun form of anag, oneg, became central to Jewish Sabbath practice. 'Oneg Shabbat,' the delight of the Sabbath, describes the meals, rest, worship, and fellowship that characterize the day. Isaiah 58:13-14 makes the connection explicit: 'call the sabbath a delight (oneg)... then shalt thou delight thyself (anag) in the LORD.' The weekly practice of savoring rest trained the capacity for savoring God. The Sabbath was a rehearsal space for the posture described in Psalm 37:4.
For reflection
Anag describes the way you enjoy something you are in no hurry to leave. A long meal with someone you love. A morning where the schedule is empty and the coffee is hot. David says to bring that posture to God. When was the last time you lingered with God the way you linger over something you genuinely enjoy? What would it take to bring that same unhurried presence to prayer or Scripture this week?
The delighting shapes the desiring. When you savor God deeply, your requests begin to change.
Sources: BDB; Goldingay, 'Psalms 1-41' (Baker Commentary); Isaiah 55:2; Isaiah 58:13-14