1 Chronicles 29:17-19 — “O YHWH our Elohim, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours. 17 Since I know, O my Elohim, that You try the heart and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You. 18 O YHWH, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers, preserve this forever in the intentions of the heart of Your people, and direct their heart to You; 19 and give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies and Your statutes, and to do them all, and to build the temple, for which I have made provision.”
This passage is part of king David’s prayer to Yahweh just before Solomon was to build the temple. David is thanking Yah for the abundance that was provided the temple’s construction. In particular, notice verse 17 — “…You try the heart and delight in uprightness…”
This passage dovetails with something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately that has encouraged me. Here it is: “Is Yahweh filled with joy by what He sees in me?” It’s just a simple thought, yet the very idea of bringing joy to the Creator of the Universe is profound and makes me want to serve Him more. Like David, let us allow the knowledge that Yahweh delights in uprightness to motivate us to willingly offer ourselves to Him.
3 John 1:4 — “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” We are Yah’s children, and, like John, Yah is brought great joy in knowing His children are walking in His ways.
To conclude, here’s a good prayer (based on the 1 Chronicles 29): “Heavenly Father, I thank You and acknowledge that all abundance is from Your hand. I know that You delight in uprightness; please preserve forever in my intentions the will to serve You with joy. Give me a perfect heart to keep Your commandments so that, ultimately, You may be filled with joy by what You see in me. Amen.”
Proverbs 15:8 — “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to YHWH, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.”
(All Bible passages NASB — Hebrew transl. added.)
Exhortation Station 
Yes!!!
I love how it’s worded, “…preserve this forever in the intentions of the heart…” It’s so easy to get a glimpse of glory and get fired up with good intentions to be faithfully about YHWH’s business, but another for those intentions to be preserved and carried through. “Father, may you in your mercy help our distractable natures and help our intentions to be preserved, so that when you try us we will come through to the end with those intentions carried out.” What a thing! — when we finally see YHWH, to be able to see that that was the case in our lives.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amen, so true. This makes me think of when the Bible speaks of “salt covenants.” It also makes me think of how we are the “salt of the earth” (Matt 5). Salt preserves things, and as children of Yah, we must be diligent to preserve what’s been entrusted to us.
LikeLike