The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God

by John Piper

THE SOURCE OF TRUE SATISFACTION.

Isn’t it true—we really don’t know someone until we understand what makes that person happy? And so it is with God!

What does bring delight to the happiest Being in the universe? John Piper writes, that it’s only when we know what makes God glad that we’ll know the greatness of His glory. Therefore, we must comprehend “the pleasures of God.”

Unlike so much of what is written today, this is not a book about us.us. It is about the One we were made forfor—God Himself. In this theological masterpiece—chosen by World MagazineWorld Magazine as one of the 20th Century’s top 100 books, John Piper reveals the biblical evidence to help us see and savor what the pleasures of God show us about Him. Then we will be able to drink deeply—and satisfyinglysatisfyingly—from the only well that offers living water.

What followers of Jesus need now, more than anything else, is to know and love—behold and embrace—the great, glorious, sovereign, happy God of the Bible.

“This is a unique and precious book that everybody should read more than once.”“This is a unique and precious book that everybody should read more than once.”
J.I. PACKER
Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia

Includes a study guide for individual and small-group use.Includes a study guide for individual and small-group use.

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Paperback, Revised, 309 pages

Published 2012 by Multnomah Books (first published 1991)

tags: theology, spirituality, faith, christianity, christian non fiction, religion, god, nonfiction, christian living, christian

Book Quotes

“The greatest joy is joy in God. This is plain from Psalm 16:11: "You [God] will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever." Fullness of joy and eternal joy cannot be improved. Nothing is fuller than full, and nothing is longer than eternal. And this joy is owing to the presence of God, not the accomplishments of man. Therefore, if God wants to love us infinitely and delight us fully and eternally, he must preserve for us the one thing that will satisfy us totally and eternally; namely, the presence and worth of his own glory. He alone is the source of full and lasting pleasure. Therefore, his commitment to uphold and display his glory is not vain, but virtuous. God is the one being for whom self-exaltation is an infinitely loving act. If he revealed himself to the proud and self-sufficient and not to the humble and dependent, he would belittle the very glory whose worth is the foundation of our joy. Therefore, God's pleasure in hiding this from "the wise and intelligent" and revealing it to "infants" is the pleasure of God in both his glory and our joy.”

― John Piper

topics: Eternity, Faith, Glory, God, Joy, Pleasure

“Our obedience is God's pleasure when it proves that God is our treasure. This is good news, because it means very simply that the command to obey is the command to be happy in God. The commandments of God are only as hard to obey as the promises of God are hard to believe. The Word of God is only as hard to obey as the beauty of God is hard to cherish.”

― John Piper

topics: Faith, God, Obedience

“In all of knowable reality, God is unique. He is knowable not like the multiplication table or the table of elements; he alone is knowable as the one totally in control of being known. He is not at the disposal of the human mind. He is known when he wills to be known. Yet he is known in and through created reality, which is known naturally. Therefore the glory of God is exalted most not when we know God apart from observation and reading and study, but when we know God as a result of his free and gracious self-revelation in and through our earnest observation of and meditation on his work and Word in history.”

― John Piper

topics: Belief, Faith, God, Knowledge, Revelation, Study, Truth

“... the mind was designed not to defend what we want, but to discover what is ultimately true, which should shape our wants and satisfy them more deeply with God. The purpose of the mind is not to rationalize subjective preferences, but to recognize objective reality and to help the heart revel in God.”

― John Piper

topics: Faith, God, Intellect, Mind, Objectivity, Truth

“Without a spiritual wakefulness to divine purposes and connections in all things, we will not know things for what they truly are.”

― John Piper

topics: God, Knowledge

“I recall hearing one of my professors in seminary say that one of the best tests of a person's theology was the effect it has on one's prayers.”

― John Piper

topics: Prayer, Theology

“The true dimensions of a soul are seen in its delights. Not what we dutifully will but what we passionately want reveals our excellence or evil.”

― John Piper

“El amor de Dios es una sensación encantadora y afectuosa de la perfección divina que lleva al alma a renunciar y a entregarse en sacrificio a Dios, a desear por sobre todas las cosas agradarle, a deleitarse más que nada en el compañerismo y en la comunión con él, y a estar listo para hacer o sufrir cualquier cosa por su causa o su placer.”

― John Piper

“In Jesus Christ, he says, meet infinite highness and infinite condescension; infinite justice and infinite grace; infinite glory and lowest humility; infinite majesty and transcendent meekness; deepest reverence toward God and equality with God; worthiness of good and the greatest patience under the suffering of evil; a great spirit of obedience and supreme dominion over heaven and earth; absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation; self-sufficiency and an entire trust and reliance on God.”

― John Piper

“Scriptures lead us again and again to affirm that God’s will is sometimes spoken of as an expression of his moral standards for human behavior and sometimes as an expression of his sovereign control even over acts which are contrary to that standard.”

― John Piper

“terms are an effort to describe the whole of biblical revelation. They are an effort to say yes to all of the Bible and not silence any of it. They are a way to say yes to the universal, saving will of 1 Timothy 2:4 and yes to the individual unconditional election of Romans 9:6”

― John Piper

“was titled “The Excellency of Christ.” In it Edwards unfolds the glory of God’s Son by describing the “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Christ.” His text is Revelation 5:5–6, and he unfolds the union of “diverse excellencies” in the Lion-Lamb. He shows how the glory of Christ is his combining of attributes that would seem to be utterly incompatible in one Person. In Jesus Christ, he says, meet infinite highness and infinite condescension; infinite justice and infinite grace; infinite glory and lowest humility; infinite majesty and transcendent meekness; deepest reverence toward God and equality with God; worthiness of good and the greatest patience under the suffering of evil; a great spirit of obedience and supreme dominion over heaven and earth; absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation; self-sufficiency and an entire trust and reliance on God.4”

― John Piper

“have also assumed that the mark of this people is not merely that they are “chosen before the foundation of the world,” but that they have willingly responded to God in a certain way. In this chapter I have focused mainly”

― John Piper

“¡Qué el deleite infinito y eterno de Dios en el mismo Dios pueda ahora fluir en nosotros a través del Espíritu Santo! Ésa es nuestra gloria y nuestro gozo.”

― John Piper

“But if you want to glorify the worth of a spring you do it by getting down on your hands and knees and drinking to your heart’s satisfaction”

― John Piper

John Piper

John Piper (1946 - Present)

is a Calvinistic Baptist Christian preacher and author currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His books include ECPA Christian Book Award winners Spectacular Sins, What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God's Passion for His Glory, and bestsellers Don't Waste Your Life and The Passion of Jesus Christ. The evangelical organization Desiring God is named for his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986).

In 1980, after what he described as an "irresistible call of the Lord to preach", Piper became Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he has been ministering ever since. Piper hit the evangelical scene after the publication of his book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (1986) and has continued to publish dozens of other books further articulating this theological perspective. In 1994, he founded Desiring God Ministries, which provides all of Piper's sermons and articles from the past three decades, and most of his books online free of charge, as well as offering for sale books, CDs, and DVDs and regularly hosting conferences.

John Stephen Piper is a Reformed and Baptist theologian, preacher, and author, currently serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of numerous books.

Piper's motto in ministry, preaching, and teaching is: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." He calls those who live out this motto Christian Hedonists. Piper places a heavy emphasis on the objective and absolute nature of truth and is confident in the Christian's ability to grasp that truth through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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