3/1/08
A Hunger for
God
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:6
On the grassy hillside the
people have been taught of Jesus. They
have heard him discuss the blessedness which comes from poverty of spirit,
godly mourning, and meekness.
Abraham-ben-Ahzad, Pharisee, still
senses that something important is taking place, although he is taken aback by
Jesus’ words thus far. He has weathered
the teaching about how blessed it is to be poor in spirit, and he is still
trying to figure out what Jesus meant about mourning leading to joy. He has never heard this kind of twist put on
things before.
He’s always been able to feel
quite comfortable in his role as a Pharisee, a spiritual leader in
Also seated on this grassy
mountainside is Jacob the peasant, along with his wife and five children. Jacob still senses that something important
is taking place. He has felt warmth in
his soul as Jesus has talked about meekness and mourning and being poor in
spirit. His reasons for coming to hear
Jesus are very practical in nature. He
has been concerned about the welfare of his family and their meager existence,
and it seemed as though Jesus might be able to lift them up out of this mess.
But as Jacob has been
listening to Jesus, it appears to him that Jesus is not yet getting to the nuts
and bolts of every-day living.
Instead He has talked about
spiritual truth, and true blessedness.
And as a result, Jacob is beginning to feel that perhaps his concerns
about his financial affairs are not so important after all.
Right behind Jacob is Zadok,
the fisherman, with his wife and brood of seven. Zadok still senses that something important
is starting to take place. As Jesus has
discussed the virtues of meekness, poverty of spirit, and mourning of all
things, Zadok, being the rambunctious, outgoing fisherman that he is, is
starting to get restless.
Zadok simply wants to get on
with it. He came here to see what the
possibilities are of expanding his fish business, plain and simple. He’s got personal goals, and he figured Jesus
might be able to help him reach those goals, being the Miracle-worker that He
is and all.
But something strange has
happened while Jesus has been talking all spiritual. For the first time in a long time Zadok has
had time to reflect; to think deeply
about his life and his standing before God.
He hasn’t done that in a long time.
Been too busy for that sort of thing.
Jesus doesn’t talk like other rabbis.
He gets right to the heart of things.
And as Jesus continues, Zadok
hears him introduce a new teaching:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness,
for they shall be filled.”
Zadok’s thoughts return to
one of his favorite heros of old, David.
He remembers how his mother taught him when he was young
about David tending sheep and
talking to God, and singing those songs to God.
As youth, David reloiced in
the company of his God. While tending sheep, you would often hear him singing
songs of gladness to the Good Shepherd . . . words like these found in Psalm
23: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in
green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.
Though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy
rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”
As many Christian young
people of today are taught of God, David had a firm reliance on His Father in
heaven. He felt close to God, and sensed that God was truly with Him at all
times. Perhaps you felt this way as a young person. Youth is generally a
carefree time full of learning and discovering and wondering. Today young
people are made to feel quite old; they are introduced to things that belong to
the corrupt world of adults; they are victims of broken families, and they
often have no peace or concept of who God is.
Yet it is still possible to
teach our young people the ways of the Lord, and guide their little feet in the
way of righteousness. We still have much in common with David of old, for when
our children are grown, they leave us to start a life of their own . . . and
often they come to the realization that they are alone, and in need.
Indeed, the song is true that
says “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” Have you ever felt that way?
Alone, forgotten, confused perhaps? When David was young he sang of the glory
of God. When he was older and life was much different, much more complex, David
could still feel after God and sing His praises. You
see, David had a hunger and a
thirst for God. The rougher life treated him, the hungrier he became.
David’s life was a constantly
changing life. But throughout his life, David held sweet communion with the
Lord. In his manhood he became a hunted fugitive, finding refuge in the rocks
and caves of the wilderness. It was here that he penned the words of his Song
of Hunger, Psalm 63. Please turn there
with me.
“O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.”
Psalm
63:1
Perhaps this is the key to
David’s ability to hang in there when life got nasty--he sought his God early
in the morning--he drew strength from the fountain of hope each day. This was
David’s spiritual fuel; it is ours as well.
David cries out to God the
honest, naked words of his soul--which is something we who live in the 21st
century seldom do! He cries out to God that he is hungry and thirsty for Him.
He contrasts his Father God with the pale and desolate earth around him--a
world which offers much but delivers little. It is a dry and thirsty land.
There is no water for David’s throat; and there is no spiritual refreshment for
his soul.
When we look around us at our
world, we notice that things have not changed very much. It is still a very dry
and thirsty land. It is a world that is out of step with heaven. It is a world
in which every
vile and cruel thing
imaginable is done day in and day out. The word we live in holds no promise for
us. It is a desolate place, and so we too must cry out to God, for He is our
food, our drink, our sustenance.
“So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and
Your glory.”
Psalm
63:2
David has spent time with God
you see. He has seen the power and glory of God in the sanctuary, and now He
wants to see the power and glory of God displayed in his life and in the world.
David was a church-goer. He delighted in worshipping his Lord, as we are today.
But we know that Christ is in
the Heavenly Sanctuary, and He is there finshing a work that will conclude with
His glorious return! If we see Him now...if we enter in by faith with Christ,
our Advocate and Judge. ..we will surely see His power and His glory. It is not
something you can merely read about or think about. We must experience God. He
is a Person with a capital “P”. He must be related to, not merely studied.
When we see this power and
this glory of our Redeemer God, we, like David, will feel spiritually nauseated
as we look around at what the world offers us. We will be hungry for God and
God alone.
“Because Your lovingkindness is better than
life,
My lips shall praise
You.”
Psalm
63:3
David had reached a point in
his life that he could say that the love of God was more important to him than
life itself. It takes a lot to be able to say this. As we grow closer to God,
we sense that He IS our life, and everything else in the world is somehow less
than life.
This is why Jesus could say
that He had food to eat and water to drink that His disciples didn’t know
about. The Lord Jesus was so close to the Father that doing His will and being
led by His hand were spiritually nourishing to Him. Indeed, each day before the
Saviour ate His breakfast He had already had a spiritual breakfast that would
carry Him through the day.
The lovingkindness of God IS
better than life! His opinion is supreme; His leadership is solid; His hand is
stable; His wisdom is golden; His power is nigh; His heart is broken.
To be caught up with God is
to be caught up with life. It is to see ourselves and our world as He sees.
To be caught up with God is
to turn our eyes away from self, looking into the shining and glorious face of
Christ Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. To be hungry for God is to
seek Him, period.
It is because David has
tasted of the goodness of His God that he says what he says in the next few
verses.
“Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands
in Your name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise
You with joyful lips.
When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night
watches.
Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow
of Your wings I will rejoice.
My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds
me.”
Psalm
63:4-8
David’s hunger was satisfied
daily through the worship experience. His soul is satisfied because he is worshipping
God, praising Him for who He is and what He has done. He blesses the Lord while
he lives, and it is because of this that his soul is satisfied. This is why he
follows after God and upholds His name in the world. The boldness, the
soul-satisfaction--it all comes from his worship of the Lord God. It comes from
his meditation on the Lord; hunger leads to life.
If we ever find ourselves
losing our spiritual fervor, our hunger is waning and we just don’t feel like a
child of the King the answer is worship. The great men and women of faith in
the Bible had many reasons to forget God and turn against Him. But they
continued to worship God no matter what they felt like; and God supplied the
spiritual experience.
When we worship the Lord we
allow ourselves to be touched by the hand of heaven. In the midst of our pain,
our confusion, our doubts, our worries, our weakness, God takes us close to
Himself and brings healing into the depths of our being. Things we weren’t even
looking for are presented to us--given to us. And life makes more sense.
This is what worship does. So
much of our religion is self- centered. We want to know what WE can get out of
it. What can God do for me? is our attitude so often. But the Sabbath worship
experience (and the daily personal
worship experience) invites us to look beyond ourselves to the needs, the
wants, the desires, the glory of our God! Indeed, our attitude should be “How
can God be glorified in my life
today? In my private worship experience,
how can I bring glory and praise to God? For this is what we were made for.
Our attitude should be
“What’s in this for GOD.” Our whole motivation for service, for growth, for
being, is changed. But it is only as we draw near to God in daily worship that
this will ever take place.
Deut 8:3 “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and
then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to
teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes
from the mouth of the LORD.”
Neh 9:15 “In their hunger you gave them bread from
heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them
to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to
give them.”
John 7:37, 38 “If any man thirst, let him come unto
me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
*Christ-centeredness (unto
Me)
*Service-oriented—flows out
to others
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans
write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of
the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I
could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither
cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I
am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that
you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from
Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you
may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;
and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.’”
Revelation
3:14-18
The Lord’s call for us to
hunger and thirst after righteousness is a call to a deeper relationship. As we make room for Jesus in our lives, He
will fill us with His love and presence.
He will answer our cry to be like Him.
The Holy Spirit will work closely with us, to baptize our thinking and
our habits; to bring us back to the character of Jesus.
As we grow with Jesus, spiritual hunger will lead us to commit to Him our fears, our weaknesses. He promises us that He will fill us if we hunger and thirst for Him. And to be filled with Jesus is to be filled with righteousness; holiness; goodness. All of this comes from our relationship of hunger with the Lord.