1 Kings 15: Delight – Part II
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
The significance of the name Tirzah in Hebrew is “favorable” or “she is my delight”; yet we have the picture in today’s reading of something once valued being left behind for richer fields and stronger walls. If we were to name our own capital, what would it be? Would there be sacred places within the limits of this city along with places of commerce? Would these places welcome all and be a gathering place where new ideas are as important as tradition, and old wisdom as important as new growth? When later generations excavated, would they find a site with remnants of a life well lived, open in hospitality to weary strangers who harbored there awhile before moving on?
Tirzah, a place of favor and delight, but abandoned. What happens with us that we tire so quickly of a place and her people that we move on without taking much time to think?
Consulting a concordance, we find a great number of times that writers of the sacred text use the word delight. God delights in Jesus. The crowds listened to Jesus with delight. We delight in God, God’s Law, and God’s holy ones. We delight in our salvation and vindication by God, God’s justice, mercy, righteousness and kindness. With St. Paul in his letters to Corinthians, we even delight in the weakness, hardships, persecutions and difficulties suffered for Christ’s sake. (2 Corinthians 12) We find delight in our family, friends and work. We may delight in the obstacles, hardships and rejections. And we must certainly delight in all gifts we receive from God.
We can spend hours with this word and still not plumb its depths, but let us linger a bit longer over the words of the prophet Zephaniah (3:17) who tells us: The Lord your God is with you, God is mighty to save. God will take delight in you, God will quiet you with love, God will rejoice over you with singing.
So we may want to return to the places of Tirzah that we have abandoned. We may want to excavate the secrets that lie hidden there, the secrets that we ourselves have left behind. And in these hidden places, we may once again realize just how much God takes delight in us.
For a quick analysis of how the population in the USA sees God, click on the image below. As a Christmas gift to ourselves, we might want to reflect on our own view of God and the world we inhabit. 
Tomorrow, as we end another year and prepare to celebrate newness, a prayer for a fuller understanding of God’s delight in us.
Adapted from a favorite written on December 22, 2009.
Images from: http://thepreachersword.com/2013/03/20/whats-your-view-of-god/ and https://dailybible.co/p/HkbSZDfoEg/web/
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