John Piper famously said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” This statement, which beautifully sums the Christian life, raises the question, where does God get His satisfaction? If our highest delight is in Him, where is His? John Piper answers this question in The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God.
Many Christians know the things that provoke God’s anger, but few know what makes Him delight. So much so that many Christians do not even associate God with happiness. But as C. S. Lewis said, God is a hedonist at heart, and Scripture says at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).
Hence, Piper wrote this book, so believers can learn the joys of God, bask in the excellency of His glory, and thus get increasingly more satisfied in Him. For, “we will be most satisfied in God when we know why God is most satisfied in God.”
Piper says, “Very few people think of God as supremely happy in fellowship of the trinity and in the work of creation and redemption. The volcanic exuberance of God over the worth of his Son and the work of his hands and welfare of his people is not well-known. God’s delight in being God is not sung the way it should be, with wonder and passion, in the worship places of the world. And we are the poorer and weaker for it.
My hope and prayer in writing this book is that more and more people would meditate with me on the pleasures of God; and that in doing so, we could focus our attention on his excellency and glory. In this way, our souls would be increasingly satisfied with God and changed gradually into his likeness. Thus, more and more, would God’s glory be manifest in the world through the mission of his church.”
The book has nine chapters, with each building on the previous one. The first six chapters focus on God’s pleasures in Himself and work, such as His Son, all He does, creation, fame, election, and bruising the Son. The last three chapters cover God’s pleasures in our response to him: hope in him, prayer, personal obedience, and public justice.
As expected, Piper is theologically accurate and faithful to the Scriptures that he uses liberally in this book. The Pleasures of God reminds us of this often-forgotten truth that God is a gloriously joyful God, and it shows us what captures God’s heart and pumps it with delight.
I expect the knowledge of God’s excellencies featured in this book will refresh you and increase your delight in Him. It is not very engaging and might be hard to finish, but the rich theology about our glorious triune God is well worth the effort. So I recommend reading it.
