Watson on Psalm 1:2 — "But his delight is in the law of the Lord." Nine chapters on what that delight is, how it separates a child of God from a hypocrite, and how to come by it.
One free account opens 250+ books and saves your place on every device. Google sign-in or an email link. No card.
You’re on the list — we’ll email you if this goes to print.
Included with your free account
This book, and 250+ more, free to read
A free account opens the whole library to read online, on your phone or at your desk. Open a book on one device and it is waiting at the same page on the next. The PDF and EPUB of every book are yours to keep, and audiobooks play in the same app.
250+ modernized editionsNot samples. The whole work, free.
Your place, on every devicePhone, tablet or desktop, same page.
131 audiobooksFrom $4.99 each, or all of them with a $50 gift.
The Saint's Spiritual Delight is Thomas Watson's exposition of a single clause of Psalm 1:2 — "But his delight is in the law of the Lord." He opens by ranking the psalm itself: as Canticles is the Song of Songs by a Hebraism, this might be called the Psalm of Psalms, holding "the very pith and quintessence of Christianity."
The argument runs against merely negative goodness. Watson's first chapter argues that not doing evil is "but a broken title to heaven" — the blessed man of the psalm is marked out not by what he avoids but by what he delights in. From there Watson defines the delight, locates its source, and turns it into a test: the child of God serves from a principle of delight, the hypocrite does not. The Word is his delight, and so is the Sabbath.
The closing chapters are applications. Watson puts the reader to "a holy scrutiny and trial" with marks by which spiritual delight may be known, answers two questions of conscience, presses an exhortation to labor for it, shows how a Christian may come by it, and ends on thankfulness — delight, he says, animates and enlivens duty, and Christians "are never drawn so powerfully and sweetly as when the chain of delight is fastened to their heart."
Chapter 1. Negative Goodness Is but a Broken Title to Heaven
(Ps 1:2) "But his delight is in the law of the Lord."
As the book of Canticles is called the Song of Songs by a Hebraism, because it is the most excellent of songs, so this psalm might not unfittingly be called the Psalm of Psalms, for it holds the very pith and quintessence of Christianity. What Jerome said of Saint Paul's epistles, I may say of this psalm: it is short in composition, but full of length and strength in its matter. This psalm carries blessedness in its very opening; it begins where we all hope to end. It might well be called a Christian's Guide, for it uncovers the quicksands where the wicked sink down to perdition (Ps 1:1) and the firm ground on which the saints tread to glory (Ps 1:2). The text is an epitome and summary of religion: "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Ps 1:2). Every word carries its own emphasis; I begin with the first word, But.
This But is full of spiritual wine; we will broach it, taste a little, then move on.
But. This is a term of opposition. The godly man is described.
I. By way of negation, in three particulars.
a) "He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." He is no part of their council; he neither gives bad counsel nor takes it.
b) "He standeth not in the way of sinners." He will not stand among those who will not be able to stand in the judgment (Ps 1:5).
c) "He sitteth not in the seat of the scornful." Even if it were a chair of state, he will not sit in it; he knows it will prove very uncomfortable in the end. The word sitting implies two things.
1.) Sitting implies a habit of sin: "Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother" (Ps 50:20).
2.) Sitting also implies familiarity with sinners: "I have not sat with vain persons" (Ps 26:4), that is, I do not haunt their company. The godly man shakes off all intimacy with the wicked. He may deal with them, but not keep company with them; he may be civil to them as neighbors, but he will not weave himself into a cord of friendship with them. Diamonds and common stones may lie side by side, but they will not fuse together.
II. The godly man is described also by way of position, or rather opposition: "But his delight is in the law of the Lord." From this same word but, observe:
That negative goodness is not sufficient to entitle us to heaven. To be no scorner is good, but it is not enough. There are some in the world whose religion runs entirely on negatives: they are not drunkards, they are not swearers, and for this they congratulate themselves. See how that Pharisee boasts, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers" (Luke 18:11), and so on. Alas, not being scandalous will no more make a good Christian than a cipher will make a sum. The godly man goes further: he not only "sits not in the seat of the scorner," but "his delight is in the law of the Lord." We are told not only to "cease from evil, but to do good" (Ps 34:14).
It will be a poor plea at the end to say, Lord, I kept myself from being stained with gross sin, I did no harm; but what good is there in you? It is not enough for a servant of the vineyard that he does no harm there, that he does not break the trees or destroy the hedges; if he does not work in the vineyard, he loses his wages. It is not enough for us to say at the last day, "We have done no harm, we have lived in no gross sin," but what good have we done in the vineyard? Where is the grace we have gained? If we cannot show this, we will lose our wages and miss salvation.
Application: Do not be content with the negative part of religion. Many build their hope of heaven on this cracked foundation: they are given to no vice, no one can charge them with any gross misconduct, and this is the only credential they can show. To such people I say three things.
1. You may not be outwardly bad, and yet not be inwardly good. You may be as far from grace as from vice. Though no one can say your eye is black, your soul may be dyed black. Though your hands are not working wickedness, your mind may be plotting it. Though you do not hang out your sign, you may still be secretly selling your goods. A tree may be full of vermin, yet its fair leaves may cover them so they are not seen; so the fair leaves of outward respectability may hide you from the eyes of others, but God sees the vermin of pride, unbelief, and covetousness in your heart. "You are they," says Christ, "that justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts" (Luke 16:15). A man may not be morally evil, and yet not be spiritually good. He may be free from gross wrongdoing, yet full of secret hostility toward God, like the snake, which, though it has a beautiful color, still carries its sting.
2. If you are only negatively good, God takes no account of you. You are like so many ciphers in God's arithmetic, and he records no ciphers in the book of life. Take a piece of brass, though it is not as poor a metal as lead or iron, it is still not as good as silver, so little account is made of it; it will not pass as valid currency. Though you are not openly wicked, if you are not the right metal, lacking the stamp of holiness upon you, you will never pass as genuine. God has no regard for you; you are only a brass Christian.
3. A man may go to hell for not doing good, just as much as for doing evil. The one who bears no good fruit is as much fuel for hell as the one who bears bad fruit: "Every tree which beareth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire" (Matt 3:10). One may die from not eating food just as surely as from poison; a field may be ruined for want of good seed just as surely as by having weeds sown in it. Those who were not active in works of charity were sternly sentenced: "Depart from me, ye cursed, ... for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat" (Matt 25:41–42). It is not said that he took my food away from me, but "ye gave me no meat." Why were the foolish virgins shut out? They had done no harm; they had not broken their lamps, but they "took no oil in their lamps" (Matt 25:3). Their lack of oil was the charge against them.
Therefore let no one build their hope of heaven on negatives. This is building on sand, sand is poor ground to build on, it will not hold together. But suppose someone did finish a house on it: what happens? The flood comes, that is, persecution, and the force of that flood sweeps away the sand and brings the house down; the wind blows, the breath of the Lord, like a mighty wind, and will blow such a sandy building into hell. Be afraid, then, to rest in the merely negative part of religion; press on further, and be eminently holy.
So I come to the next words: "but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Ps 1:2).
Chapter 2. What It Means to Delight in the Law of God
The text gives a twofold description of a godly man: first, he delights in God's law; second, he meditates in God's law. I begin with the first, “His delight is in the law of the Lord” (Ps 1:2). The great God has grafted the affection of delight into every creature; each has, by the instinct of nature, something in which to delight itself. Now the true saint, not by mere impulse but by divine inspiration, makes the law of God his delight. This is the badge of a Christian: “His delight is in the law of the Lord” (Ps 1:2). A man may work at his trade and not delight in it, whether because of the difficulty of the work or the smallness of the income; but a godly man serves God with delight, it is his meat and drink to do his will.
To explain these words, two questions must be answered.
1. What is meant by “the law of the Lord.” This word, law, may be taken either strictly or broadly:
a) Strictly, for the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments;
b) Broadly, in three senses,
I. For the whole written word of God;
II. For those truths that are deduced from the word and converge in it;
III. For the whole matter of religion, which is the counterpart of God's law and agrees with it as a transcript agrees with its original. The word is a setting-forth, and religion is a showing-forth, of God's law. I will take this word in its full breadth and extent.
2. What is meant by delight in God's law. Both the Hebrew and the Septuagint render it, His will is in the law of the Lord; and what is voluntary is delightful. A gracious heart serves God out of sincere, free-hearted devotion; he makes God's law not only his task but his recreation. Upon this scriptural foundation I will graft this proposition:
Doctrine: Though a child of God cannot serve the Lord perfectly, he serves him willingly; his will is in the law of the Lord. He is not a pressed soldier but a volunteer, and by the beating of this pulse we may judge whether there is spiritual life in us or not. David professed that God's law was his delight (Ps 119:77); he had his crown to delight in, he had his music to cheer him, but his love for God's law drowned out all his other delights, as the joy of harvest and vintage exceeds the joy of gleaning. “I delight in the law of God,” said Saint Paul, “in the inner man” (Rom 7:22), the Greek word means I take pleasure; the law of God was his recreation, and it was a heart-delight, in the inner man. A wicked man may have joy in the face (2 Cor 5:12), like honeydew that wets the leaf; but the wine of God's Spirit cheers the heart. Paul delighted in the law, in the inner man.
Chapter 3. The Source of the Saint's Spiritual Delight
1. The saint's delight in the law of God proceeds from soundness of judgment. The mind perceives a beauty in God's law, and the judgment draws the affections after it, like so many orbs in its train. "The law of God is perfect," (Ps 19:7), it needs no supplement from tradition. The Hebrew word for perfect seems to allude to a complete, entire body that lacks none of its members or features; God's law must be perfect, for it is able to make us wise for salvation (2 Tim 3:15). The Septuagint renders it: the law of the Lord is pure, like beauty that has no blemish, or wine that has been clarified and refined. The soul that looks into this law, seeing such luster and perfection, cannot help but delight in it. The middle lamp of the sanctuary, lit from the fire of the altar, gave light to all the other lamps; so the judgment, once lit from the word, sets the lamps of the affections ablaze.
2. This holy delight also arises from the predominance of grace. When grace comes upon the heart with authority and majesty, it fills the heart with delight. By nature we have no delight in God, indeed, "Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways," no, there is not only dislike but antipathy; sinners are called haters of God (Rom 1:30). But when grace comes into the heart, O what a change there is! Grace prevails: it strips away the rebellion of the will and makes a man of another spirit. It turns lion-like fierceness into dove-like sweetness; it changes hatred into delight. Grace puts a new bias into the will; it works a willingness and cheerfulness in God's service. "Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power," (Ps 110:3).
3. This holy delight in religion also comes from the sweetness of the end. Well may we cheerfully let down the net of our efforts when we expect so excellent a catch. Heaven at the end of duty brings delight into the way of duty.
Chapter 4. The Difference Between a Child of God and a Hypocrite
Application 1. This shows us a distinguishing difference between a child of God and a hypocrite: the one serves God from a principle of delight, the other does not. "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver" (Ps 119:72). With what delight does a covetous man count over his thousands? Yet God's law was better to David than thousands. A child of God looks upon the service of God not only as a duty but as a privilege. A gracious heart loves everything that bears the stamp of God upon it.
The word is his delight. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (Jer 15:16). The Sabbath is his delight (Isa 58:13): "If thou turn away thy foot from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight." Prayer is his delight (Isa 56:7): "I will make them joyful in my house of prayer." Hearing the word is his delight (Isa 60:8): "Who are these that fly like doves to their windows?" The gracious soul flies to an ordinance as a dove to its window, on the wings of delight.
The sacrament is his delight. On this day the Lord makes "a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined" (Isa 25:6). A sacrament day is a soul's festival day; here Christ takes the soul into his banqueting house and "displays the banner of love over it" (Song 2:4). Here heavenly delicacies are set before us. Christ gives us his body and blood. This is angels' food, this is heavenly nectar; here is a cup perfumed with the divine nature, here is wine spiced with the love of God.
The Jews at their feasts poured ointment on their guests and kissed them; here Christ pours the oil of gladness into the heart and kisses us with the kisses of his lips. This is the King's bath, where we are washed and cleansed of our leprosy. After receiving this blessed eucharist, the withered soul has been like a watered garden, or like those Egyptian fields after the overflowing of the Nile, fruitful and flourishing. Do you wonder, then, that a child of God delights in holy things? He must be a volunteer in religion.
But it is not so with a hypocrite. He may be forced to do what is good, but not to will what is good; he does not serve God with delight. "Will he delight himself in the Almighty?" (Job 27:10). That he has none of this pleasure and delight appears in this: he serves God grudgingly. He brings his sacrifice with a wicked mind (Prov 21:27).
Cain was such a man. It was long before he brought his offering, and it was not the firstfruits; and when he did bring it, he brought it grudgingly, it was not a freewill offering (Deut 16:10). It was likely the custom of his father's family to sacrifice, and perhaps conscience checked him for delaying so long. At last the offering was brought, but how? As a task rather than a duty, as a fine imposed rather than a sacrifice freely offered. Cain brought his offering, but not himself.
What Seneca said of a gift, I may say of a sacrifice: it is not gold and silver that makes a gift, but a willing mind; if this is lacking, the gold is only surrendered, not given. So it is not prayer and hearing that makes an offering, but a willing mind. Cain's was not an offering, but a tax; not worship, but penance.
Chapter 5. Two Questions of Conscience Answered
But here two cases must be put.
Case 1.Whether a regenerate person may not serve God with weariness?
Answer 1. Yes; but this delight in God is not wholly extinguished. This lassitude and weariness in a child of God may arise from the indwelling of corruption, (Rom 7:24). It is not from the grace in him, but from the sin; just as Peter's sinking on the water came not from his faith but from his fear. Yet I say still, a regenerate person's will is for God, (Rom 7:15). Paul found at times an indisposition toward good, (Rom 7:23), yet at the same time he professed a delight in God, (Rom 7:22) "I delight in the law of God, in the inner man." A man may delight in music, or in any pastime, and yet through weariness of body find himself for the present dulled and indisposed; a Christian may love God's law, though at times the burden of the flesh weighs him down and he finds his former vigor and energy diminished.
Answer 2. This faintness and weariness in a regenerate person is not habitual; it is not his constant temper. When the tide ebbs for a while, it is low water, but soon there is a flood tide again. It is sometimes low water in a Christian's soul, he finds an indisposition and irksomeness toward what is good, but before long there is a flood tide of affection, and the soul is carried full sail in holy duties. It is with a Christian as with a man who is ill: when he is sick, he does not take the delight in his food that he formerly did; indeed, sometimes the very sight of it offends him. But when he is well, he returns to his meat with delight and appetite. So when the soul is distempered through sadness and melancholy, it does not find the delight in the word and in prayer that it once had.
But when it returns to its healthy temper, it recovers the same sweetness and cheerfulness in God's service as before.
Answer 3. This weariness in a regenerate person is also involuntary; he is troubled by it. He does not embrace his disease, but mourns under it, he is weary of his weariness. When he finds a heaviness in duty, he goes heavily under that heaviness; he prays, weeps, wrestles, and uses every means to regain the eagerness in God's service that he once had. David, when his chariot wheels were pulled off and he drove on heavily in religion, how often did he pray for quickening grace, (Ps 119)! When the saints find their hearts fainting, their affections flagging, and a strange kind of lethargy seizing them, they are never at rest until they have recovered themselves and arrived again at that freedom and delight in God they once knew.
Case 2. The second case is this: may a hypocrite not serve God with delight? I answer, he may. Herod heard John the Baptist gladly, (Mark 6:20), and those who fasted for strife and debate "did delight to know God's way," (Isa 58:2). A hypocrite may, out of some flimsy hope of heaven, show a delight in goodness; but it is not the same delight found in the regenerate, for his delight is carnal. A man may be carnal while doing spiritual things. It is not the holiness and strictness of religion that the hypocrite delights in, but something else. He delights in prayer, but it is rather the display of his gifts that he is after than the exercise of grace. He delights in hearing the word, but it is not its spiritual substance he delights in, not the savor of knowledge, but the shine.
When he goes to hear the word preached, it is to feast his imagination rather than to better his heart, as if a man went to an apothecary's shop for a pill only to admire its gilding, not for its curative power. The hypocrite goes to the word to see what gilding is on a sermon, and what may delight the intellect. Hypocrites come to the word as one comes into a garden to pick a fine flower to smell, not as a child comes to the breast for nourishment. This is curiosity rather than piety.
Such were those in Ezekiel 33:32: "Thou art to them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument." The prophet, being eloquent and having a pleasing delivery, they were much taken with him; his preaching was as sweet to them as a piece of music, but it was not the spirituality of the matter they liked so well as the tunefulness of the voice. It was a sharp yet fitting reproof that Chrysostom gave his hearers: "This," he said, "is what is likely to undo your souls: you hear your ministers as so many minstrels, to please the ear, not to pierce the conscience."
You see, then, that a hypocrite's delight in religion is carnal. It is not "the being nourished up in the words of faith" that he cares for, but the eloquence of speech, the novelty of the idea, the quickness of wit, the smoothness of style; he strives only to pluck from the tree of knowledge. Alas, poor man, you may have the starlight of knowledge, and yet it may be night in your soul.
Chapter 6. How to Know Whether You Truly Delight in God
Application 2. Let this put us to a holy scrutiny and trial: do we have this delight in religion? It is a matter of life or death how we answer this question.
Question:How may this spiritual delight be known?
Answer:
1. He who delights in God's law is often thinking of it. Whatever a man delights in, his thoughts continually run upon it; he who delights in money has his mind taken up with it, so the covetous man is said to mind earthly things (Phil 3:19). In the same way, if there is delight in the things of God, the mind will be constantly musing on them. O what a rare treasure the word of God is! It is the field where the pearl of price is hidden. How precious are the promises! They are the conduit that holds the water of life; they are like those two olive branches, "which thro' the two golden pipes did empty the golden oil out of themselves," (Zech 4:12). These seal up pardon, adoption, and glory: "O Lord, by these things men live," (Isa 38:16). Where there is delight in the law of God, the mind is wholly occupied with it.
2. If we delight in religion, nothing can keep us from it; we will be found in the word, in prayer, and at the sacraments. He who loves gold will trade for it. The merchant will cross sea and land to win money as his convert. Men will not be kept from their fairs. If there is delight in holy things, we will not be kept from an ordinance, for there we are trading for salvation. If a man were hungry, he would not stay away from the market for an aching finger. The ordinances are a gospel market, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will not stay away for every slight occasion. "I was glad when they said, come let us go up to the house of the Lord," (Ps 122:1). You who are glad when the devil helps you find an excuse to stay away from the house of the Lord are far from this holy delight.
3. Those who delight in religion are often speaking of it: "Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another," (Mal 3:16). Where grace is infused, it will overflow into speech. "The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious," (Eccl 10:12). David, delighting in God's testimonies, "would speak of them before kings," (Ps 119:46). The spouse, delighting in her beloved, could not conceal her love, but breaks forth into the most passionate, and no less elegant, expressions: "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand, his head is as the most fine gold," and so on. The disciples, whose hearts were set on Christ, made him the whole subject of their conversation as they went to Emmaus (Luke 24:19). The early Christians, fired with love for God, spoke so much of heaven and the coming kingdom that the emperor suspected they meant to take his kingdom from him: words are the mirror of the mind; they show what is in the heart.
Where there is spiritual delight, it will have vent, like new wine: grace is poured into your lips (Ps 45:2). A man who is of the earth speaks of the earth (John 3:31); he can hardly speak three words without two of them being about the earth. His mouth, like the fish in the gospel, is full of gold (Matt 17:27). So where there is delight in God, "our tongues will be as the pen of a ready writer," (Ps 45:1). This is a scripture touchstone by which to try men's hearts. Alas, it shows how little they delight in God, for they are possessed with a dumb devil; they do not speak the language of Canaan.
4. He who delights in God will give him the best in every act of service. The one we love best will have the best from us. The spouse, delighting in Christ, will give him her pleasant fruits (Song 7:13), and if she has a cup of spiced wine full of the juice of the pomegranate, he must drink of it (Song 8:2). He who delights in God gives him the strength of his affections, the cream of his duties; if he has anything better than the rest, God shall have it. Hypocrites do not care what they put God off with; they offer the Lord what costs them nothing, a prayer that costs them no wrestling, no pouring out of the soul (1 Sam 1); they put no cost into their services.
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground (Gen 4:3). It is worth noting that the Holy Ghost does not mention anything that might commend or set off Cain's sacrifice. When he comes to speak of Abel's, he lays an emphasis on it: "Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof," (Gen 4:4); but when he speaks of Cain, he says only, "he brought of the fruit of the ground." Some sorry thing, perhaps pulled out of a ditch. God, who is best, will be served with the best. Domitian would not have his statue carved in wood or iron, but in gold. God will have the best of our best things, golden services.
He who delights in God gives him the fat of the offering: the purest of his love, the hottest of his zeal; and when he has done all, he grieves that he can do no more, and blushes to see such an infinite disproportion between Deity and duty.
5. He who delights in God does not delight much in anything else. The world appears eclipsed to him. Paul delighted in the law of God, in the inner man; and how was he crucified to the world? (Gal 6:14). It is not absolutely unlawful to delight in the things of the world: "Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given thee," (Deut 26:11). None can better enjoy the comfort of these things than believers, for they have the best right to them; they hold everything directly from the King, and they have the dew of a blessing distilled with them. "Take two talents, said Naaman to Gehazi," (2 Kgs 5:23); so God says to a believer, take two talents, take your outward comforts, and take my love with them.
Yet though the children of God are thankful for outward mercies, which is the yearly rent they sit at, they are not much taken with these things; they use them only as a convenience for their journey. They know they need them as a staff to walk with, but when they come to sit down in the kingdom of heaven and rest themselves, they will have no more use for this Jacob's staff.
Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686) was an English Puritan preacher and author known for his practical, warm, and accessible theological writings. Educated at Cambridge, he served as rector of St. Stephen's Walbrook in London for sixteen years before being ejected in 1662 for refusing to conform to the Act of Uniformity. He continued to preach privately until the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 allowed him to obtain a license. Watson's works, including A Body of Divinity, The Doctrine of Repentance, and All Things for Good, are characterized by memorable illustrations, practical applications, and warm piety. His ability to make profound truths accessible to ordinary believers made him one of the most beloved Puritan authors. His writings have remained continuously in print and continue to nourish Christians across denominational lines.
“Updated Works has been an incredible blessing to my Christian life and ministry… remarkably faithful to the original authors while making these timeless treasures understandable for modern readers.”
