Psalms 63:1-2 KJV
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
This Psalm has a superscription over it which reads "A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah." The Bible records two times in his life when he spent extended periods in the wilderness; when he was fleeing from King Saul, when he was forced to leave Jerusalem as it was taken by his son, Absalom.
Even as good of a man as King David had his times of wilderness and trouble. David's words remind me of the Lord's model prayer "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven." In his time of trial, David's heart yearned to see the glory and power of God out in the desert as well as it was seen in the house of God. He wanted to see what was preached about in theory, manifested in reality in the real world.
So we are not the only ones who have felt that way. Those who come to me and complain that what we preach will not work in the real world forget that those, whose experiences with God are the foundation for what we preach, also had times when they felt like it wasn't happening in the real world. God is as at work today in our lives as he was back then in their lives and likely they did not see it any more clearly then than we do today. If we ever thought our connection with God was so tight that we did not need to thirst after him, we would more than likely neglect our dependence upon Him.
To thirst after and to long after God is a better grace than to feel like you get everything you ever wanted from God.
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
This Psalm has a superscription over it which reads "A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah." The Bible records two times in his life when he spent extended periods in the wilderness; when he was fleeing from King Saul, when he was forced to leave Jerusalem as it was taken by his son, Absalom.
Even as good of a man as King David had his times of wilderness and trouble. David's words remind me of the Lord's model prayer "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven." In his time of trial, David's heart yearned to see the glory and power of God out in the desert as well as it was seen in the house of God. He wanted to see what was preached about in theory, manifested in reality in the real world.
So we are not the only ones who have felt that way. Those who come to me and complain that what we preach will not work in the real world forget that those, whose experiences with God are the foundation for what we preach, also had times when they felt like it wasn't happening in the real world. God is as at work today in our lives as he was back then in their lives and likely they did not see it any more clearly then than we do today. If we ever thought our connection with God was so tight that we did not need to thirst after him, we would more than likely neglect our dependence upon Him.
To thirst after and to long after God is a better grace than to feel like you get everything you ever wanted from God.
No comments:
Post a Comment