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
Oh, there is so much there. What a good verse. Jeremiah is speaking to God saying, “I found your word and I ate them”. Even just that picture of devouring, digesting, enjoying chewing on God’s Word, and them becoming a joy. I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten anything that is like a joy in your mouth. That’s what Jeremiah is describing. “Your words became to me a joy as I ate them. I loved eating them. I craved them, I wanted more of them. They were the delight of my heart”.
Jeremiah 15:16 shows the soul-satisfying power of Scripture.
Oh, is God’s Word, the delight of your heart? And if not, I want to lead us to pray for that to be a reality. That we would find joy in, that we would crave, that we would eat God’s Word because it’s the delight of our hearts. “For”, Jeremiah says, “I’m called by your name, oh Lord, God of hosts”. Let that soak in. This is not just Jeremiah. This is all who are in Jesus called by God’s name, the Lord, the God of hosts. The Lord Yahweh God of hosts. He’s called you to be his. He’s spoken to you, God!
When we talk about the Word of God, we’re talking about the Lord. The God of hosts over all creation has spoken to you. We’re hearing his voice whenever we’re looking at listening to his Word. So, of course, eat them. This is the words of God. Eat them. Enjoy them. May they be the delight of your heart, my heart.
Jeremiah 15:16 invites us to treasure Scripture more than the world’s pleasures.
God, we pray, Jeremiah 15:16, over each one of our lives, we praise you for speaking to us, for your Word, for access to your Word. Lord, even as we praise you for this, we pray for people, groups around the world that don’t have access to your Word. God, we pray, please bless all who are working in Bible translation for the spread of your Word to them. For all the languages that don’t have a full copy of your Word.
We pray for success in Bible translations so that they might have your Word and eat it. That it might become a joy for them. And God, we pray for all of us who do have access to your Word. Help us to eat it, to soak in it, to meditate on it, to memorize it, to hide it in our hearts, and to feast on it as joy and the delight of our hearts.
God transform our hearts that we delight in your Word more than we delight in social media, more than we delight in shows, more than we delight in sports, more than we delight in so many things. This world… games… so many things. This world pulls at us with even good things. God, we pray that the delight of our hearts would be your Word, for we are called by your name, oh Lord God of hosts. May it be so. We pray. We pray Jeremiah 15:16 over our lives. Transform our hearts to delight in your Word above everything else in this world. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
