Lesson 4: Delighting in His Will
"In sacrifice and offering You have not delighted, but You have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do Your will, O my God’…” (Psalm 40:6-8).

If the Old Testament is occupied with the Will of God as its supreme subject, the New Testament is in all its parts a presentation and explanation of it, both as to nature and possibility.

For the purpose of a general survey, we shall divide the New Testament into its three principal sections of historic, teaching, and prophetic books. These include:
1. Historic. The Gospels and Acts.
2. Instructive. The Epistles.
3. Prophetic. The Revelation.

In the first we have the story of the life of Jesus, and the first chapter in His larger life resulting from the work He accomplished. Also His teaching, containing unified truth, which became clear in the subsequent light of the Spirit's teaching.

In the second we have the unfolding of truth for the individual believer and the Church, by men indwelt and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

In the third we have, for the most part, visions of the closing scenes of the present dispensation and the accomplishment of Divine purposes through Divine power.

In all of these the subject is the Will of God.
The life of Jesus realized it, and His teaching declared its nature and necessity. The men whose doings are recorded in the Acts lived wholly in, and only for, that Will. The achievement of all is the triumph of righteousness and love by the complete submission of humanity to it.


1. Historic. Taking these in the order named, we come first to the historic books. The roots of the New are in the Old. We therefore go back to the Psalms (our key verse above) for the keynote of this lesson. No one will deny that this belongs to the New Testament, for we understand that these words had their perfect fulfilment in the person and experience of Jesus.

Underlying everything in the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the continual sounding of this note of perfect music, "I delight to do Your will, O my God." In the life of Jesus it was the reason for all He did, and the inspiration of all He said. Whether living as a boy in His parents’ home, or working as a man at His trade of carpenter with Joseph; whether going to the Jordan for baptism, or to the wilderness for temptation; whether preaching to the crowds, or working wonders of love among the needy — His life was always filled with delight in the Will of God. Once only in the history of the human race has there been a life true to the Godly ideal: Jesus.

When Mary and Joseph found Him in the Temple, He said to them, "Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house?" (Luke 2:49). His Father's Will for Him was that He should be a disciple among the teachers of His people, and that was the explanation of His staying behind at Jerusalem.

Let's reflect on, even memorize: "In sacrifice and offering You have not delighted, but You have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do Your will, O my God’…” – Psalm 40:6-8.