Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 145. Psalm 145 and verse
16. Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest
the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145, verse 16. This is a psalm of praise by
David. And there are several things
that, before we come to the text, should really challenge us in
this psalm. Verse 2. Every day will I bless
thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. not just a
Sunday religion, every day, so consistent, marking out his whole
life. We know in David's life, as with
ours, we have from day to day, not only things that are pleasant,
but trials and sicknesses, those things that He might say, how
can we bless the Lord for this? But David says, every day will
I bless thee. And then is expectation of eternal
life, expectation of praise, not only here below, but above. And I will praise thy name forever
and ever. What a challenge to us. Do we bless the Lord every day? And do we have that expectation
of eternal life and a blessing that we shall praise the Lord
forever? It begins here below, begins
with blessing the Lord here, and it ends in praise forever
and ever. Verse four. One generation shall
praise thy works to another. An expectation there shall be,
the generations that follow. But again, do we, do we declare
the mighty acts of the Lord? Verse five, do we speak of the
glorious honour of his majesty and of his wondrous works? or
are we silent? Do we pass on what the Lord has
done for us, or do we keep it under wraps? It is again a challenge
to us, not just how we live, but how we actually speak as
well. Some think it's enough just to
live godly lives, but not speak. Others think that they should
just speak and it doesn't matter how they live, for we need both,
and both must complement the other. In the first part of this
psalm is speaking of all the works of the Lord, both natural
and spiritual, and yet in verse 10 there is a change, as it were,
a divide very clearly putting a greater blessing to be upon
the people of God. All Thy works shall praise Thee,
O Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee." Really, the heavens,
they declare the wonderful works of the Lord, the animal kingdom,
all what the Lord has done, all His works. But His saints, they
only can do what a blood-bought soul can do, and that is to bless
the Lord, which is what David was doing in verse 2. And so when we come to our text,
it is speaking of those that are the Lord's people, that are
living souls, that seek those spiritual blessings from the
Lord and He supplies those needs. It comes first in desires and
I want to speak of the living's desire satisfied. Thou openest Thine hand and satisfies
the desire of every living thing. We might ask, why? Why does it
speak of a thing, a living thing and not a person? We think of
when our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and it was said
of Mary that the Holy Ghost should overshadow her and then that
holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. We have a mystery, don't we?
A mystery of a person. In our Lord is both God and man
in one. With the people of God, they
are to everyone else, they're just a person. But we have a song. And the people
of God have a living song. And in that sense, they partake
the same of our Lord, the Holy Ghost, overshadowing them, a
spiritual birth. They are a living thing. They
are that which the Lord has made them and formed them. And indeed,
the Lord has said that His Holy Spirit shall come and dwell with
His people and with a believer. with the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was given the Holy Spirit without measure. He was filled with the
Holy Spirit. With us we are given His presence
to be with us. Well, I want to look firstly
at a living soul, a living thing that is set forth here. And then
secondly, the desires of a living soul. And thirdly, the desire satisfied
by the Lord, the hand, hand of grace opened. But firstly, a
living soul, a living thing. By nature, though we are living,
we must come into this world, we must be born first or conceive
first, as life begins from conception. But we are, as David testified,
whose psalm this is, born in sin and shapen in iniquity. He testifies in Psalm 51, of
that original sin. And we all have that. And the
sentence of the Lord was that in dying thou shalt die, in the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. It is
important for us to realise this, that though we may live and breathe
and we have our being, and the Lord gives us that, as Paul says,
to those at Athens, in whom we live and move and have our being,
Yet spiritually we are dead. And the Word puts it like this,
that the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man, as he is born
in sin, the natural man that seeks after the things of this
world, that always goes to that which is natural. So when our
Lord was saying to Nicodemus, you must be born again, insisting
on a life that he did not have, a new life, a spiritual life,
all the time he is thinking in natural terms. How can a man
that is born return to his mother's womb and be born again? He's
looking at it in a natural way. When our Lord was speaking in
John 6, not in the portion that we read this morning, but later
on, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son
of Man, you have no life in you. They all the time are thinking
of literally eating His flesh, drinking His blood. They did
not know what it was to have spiritual food. They were thinking
in a natural way. And so that natural man, he goes
after the things that please him, his corrupt nature. The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? It's full of wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. There's no soundness in our flesh
because of our sin. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The law was given that all might
be shown to be sinners, all under condemnation. Condemnation came
upon all men in that all have sinned. And so by nature we do
not have spiritual life, we do not have a capability of anything
spiritual at all, no, not even a desire, which is what is in
our text. The Word of God speaks of the
Lord Jesus Christ saying this, and this is regarding His people,
I give unto them eternal life, And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of mine hand." And this is,
of course, David saying, I will praise thy name forever and ever. He is speaking of eternal life. When our Lord spoke of himself
being greater than Abraham, before Abraham was, I am. And he speaks of Abraham, that
he is still alive, that God said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living. There is a resurrection, there
is eternal life, and that begins in a spiritual way here below. We read again, I passed by thee
when thou wast in thy blood, And when thou wast in thy blood,
I bid thee live. It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
or makes alive, the flesh profiteth nothing. When Paul writes to
the Ephesians, he says to them, Ye, you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins. By grace ye are saved, through
faith, and not of yourselves, It is the gift of God. And he
speaks of a real change, a difference, that there is an old life, there
is a new life. Paul, he says, as you have yielded
your members, servants to uncleanness, then yield your members unto
righteousness. There was a different life that
then governed how we used our hands, our mouth, our legs, how
we walked, how we talked, what our life was. The Apostle Paul
says, the life that I now live, not what he once lived, but the
life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me, and that what I am, I
am by the grace of God, that he is not now what he once was. The Lord had made a change. He'd quickened him into life. He'd given him life, and that
life is eternal life. It is then a very distinct thing,
a blessed thing, to be a living soul. We must be clear we're
still in. a body of infirmity. We're still
in a body of death. We're still subject to the same
old nature, lusts and desires and propensities. We have the
infirmities of the flesh. And the apostle makes it clear
that one of the other evidences of a living soul is that there
is a conflict going on between that soul and the body that it
lives in. Paul says in Romans 7, that the
good that he would, he does not, the evil that he would not, that
he does. The wretched man that I am. He says, if I do that which I
would not, is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. And so he is earning this sin,
which is part of his old nature, the animal nature if you like,
his body, his fallen nature, but he's been given a soul, and
be given life, spiritual life, and that life, it wants to do
good, it doesn't want to do evil, but because of the flesh, it
can't fully perfect, it can't fully do that, because of the
warfare within. We read in Romans 8 verse 1,
that what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own Son, and in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh. And it is a work
of God that puts in the soul, in man life, a spiritual life,
that is evidenced in the way that it is set forth in the scriptures
of truth. We do not become sinless beings,
we do not become angels, we do not become of those who do not
have conflicts, but we do become of those that have a new nature,
a living soul. Let my soul live, says the psalmist,
shall praise thee. May we be very mindful of our
souls. At death, the soul returns to
God that gave it. Everyone has a soul, but by nature
that soul is dead. But it shall still return to
God. It is that which is in us, our
bodies are as a tabernacle. And at death that soul returns,
the body returns to the earth, and we read in Ecclesiastes,
who knoweth the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to
the earth, and the spirit of man that goeth upward. And we must be very clear of
that. But here below won't be the realization of death, but life
for the people of God. The first time they see the Lord
will be here, not on his judgment throne. It is here below to see him by
faith and to know him and to walk with him, but for those
that die outside of Christ, that die dead in trespasses and sins,
the first time they shall see the Lord is as their judge on
the judgment throne. Though the first thing here is
a living song, we've mentioned some of those things that mark
out a living soul. But in our text there is a specific
thing that we want to look at this morning, and that is its
desires. So in our second point, the desires
of a living soul. I think in all of the ways you
could describe a living song, it is perhaps in the desires
that it's more clearly seen than anything else. Remember, a desire is not yet
something that is possessed and had. But it's wanted, it's sought
after, it's longed after, there's a real feeling for it, a desire
for it. A desire of a natural man without
being a living soul is after the things of this world. They desire wealth and pride
and fame and a name. They desire those things that
are natural, earthly, those things that will perish and you cannot
take with us at death. There'll be carnal desires, lustful
desires, fleshly desires, unclean desires. All of those things
come forth from an unclean heart. And that is a heart that we all
have, and don't think that there will not be. In some measure,
those same corrupt desires still arise, even in the hearts of
God's people. that they will have other desires,
new desires, that the world does not know anything of. We said in verse 2, every day
will I bless thee. And one thing that is with a
living soul and its desires, they are not just one day or
for one time. It marks out their life, how
they walk and how they act. And that is very important. There's
many people in times of trial, they'll pray and then they get
an answer and they forget and they never walk in the ways of
the Lord. In one of Mr. Ransbottom's books,
he speaks of a man that, I think it was every Christmas time,
used to come into the house of God and say, I know I should
regularly come here. I know I should come here. But
he never was seen from one week to the next. And one year he
was not there. And the reason was he'd taken
his own life. Very tragic case. People can
have, every now and again or in certain circumstances, a desire
like that when it comes to Christmas or Easter or one time they attend
a place of worship. But it all just dies, it doesn't
continue. But with a living soul, those
desires are what pursue them and that they feel day by day
and in the night season as well. One of the things that will be felt
by this living soul is the vanity of things here below. We read
in Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And there will
be nothing that will satisfy a living soul here. It's like
the children of Israel in the wilderness, in the desert. There
is no food there for them. It had to be given them from
heaven. It had to be the manna from heaven. And when the Lord begins with
the living song, we read of the marks of those that have faith
in Hebrews 11. They testify that there are strangers
and pilgrims in the earth. There's an aching void which
the world cannot fill. There's an emptiness in the things
of time. There's that which the soul wants
that is not satisfied from where it has looked before, where it
has gone before. And it's important that this
is one of the marks of a living soul, that they cannot find And
sometimes it is we try and try to find, we pursue the same things
that we used to, go to the same places, but just feel empty,
out of place, want to get out of that place, not happy with
the company that we've used to take. Maybe the friends that
we've had, the conversation is light, is trifling, is superficial
and everything doesn't seem to have the solemnity and the marks
of eternity that we feel stamped upon our own soul. And so then
there is a desire after God. The psalmist in Psalm 42 expresses
it very well. He says in verse 1, As the heart
panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? And really, when we think of
it, Those by nature, they say, depart from us. We desire not
the knowledge of thy ways. O Pharaoh, who is the Lord that
I should obey him? Man does not want to think that
there is a God, trying to eradicate the idea that there is a God
that created and made the heavens and the earth. He doesn't want
to be accountable. He doesn't want to seek after
God. that this is the mark of a living
soul, he does. And he seeks after God. Yes,
he might seek when he's first awakened and try many different
religions if he's not been brought up under one truth, or even if
they have, many of the Lord's people, they've gone from one
place of worship to another trying to find out God. seeking where the Lord is. God
is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, to be
had in reverence of all them that are about him. Many places
that you go into you say God is not here. This is a religious
social club. This is just a worldly expression. They have worldly music and worldly
means of communicating the word and they do not have the fear
of God in this place. But the soul that pants after
God, you go after and seek that he might find out where the Lord
is. And the psalmist in Psalm 38,
he speaks again and feeling this
is David, feeling his iniquity, feeling his sin, feeling the
evil of his heart. These things are felt by this
living soul. But when he's feeling these things,
then it brings the desires after God and after mercy and pardon
and life. And so After testifying and saying,
my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, there is no soundness
in my flesh, I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared by
reason of the disquietness of my heart, then he says in verse
9 of Psalm 38, Lord, all my desire is before Thee, my groaning is
not hid from Thee, My heart panteth, my strength faileth me. As for
the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. And there's
that real desire after the Lord, a longing after the Lord. It says in verse 11, my lovers
and my friends stand aloof from my store, my kinsmen stand afar
off. We read in the Proverbs that
the heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger intermedleth not
with his joy. And so it is an inward thing,
an inward longing and desire and moving of the heart and the
being after God. When shall I come and appear
before God? What a difference between a natural
man, one that is wanting the true and the living God, and
seeking Him. And our Lord said that no man
can come unto Me, except the Father which sent Me draw him.
The work of our Lord upon Calvary, His sufferings, His death, His
putting away the sin of His people, was that He might give them eternal
life, their debt taken away, the sentence against them, fulfilled
by Himself, the wrath of God extinguished on Himself, and
all that the Lord did was that His people might be brought to
Him, that they might be reconciled, God and sinners reconciled, that
they might be brought nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. And when the Lord works then
in a sinner's heart, They are drawn to Christ, they are drawn
to God, they are drawn to seek after that God who they have
offended and sinned against, but in whom is hope and mercy. A returning to the offended Father,
a returning unto God against whom they have sinned. And we
may ask ourselves then, do we have these first two marks? an aching void that the world
cannot fill, and then a desire after God, a hunger and thirst
after Him. These are desires of a living
soul. And so the Lord pronounces the
blessing in Matthew, Matthew chapter six, we have the, or
Matthew, sorry, chapter five and verse six, with the beatitudes,
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. There is the desire after righteousness. We are all unrighteous, we are
unholy, unholy thoughts, not like God, not righteous at all. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, even our best works are stained and dyed with sin. But we read in Jeremiah, this
is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness,
and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, that is
the church of God, the Lord our righteousness. But there'll be
a hunger and thirst and desire after holiness, after righteousness,
after uprightness, and that is put in the soul by God himself. They are the desires of a living
soul. Amen. I believe also they'll
be joined to that, the people of God. They desire to be with
them, being let go, we read of the apostles, they went to their
own company. And this token of being the Lords,
we know that we've passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. And so there'll be a desire after
the Lord's house. I know with myself that was one
thing that really was a marked difference. Along with these
other things that I've been speaking of, I trust I do know them, have
known them. But by nature, I desired not
the Lord's house. I didn't want to go. I went on
sufferance. There's no desire for it. But
as soon as the Lord gave life, then there was a desire for the
house of the Lord. When shall I come and appear
before God, and then it was the Lord's Day, the best day of the
week, and those times of opportunity to gather with the people of
God, and the sadness when it ended, and to return then to
another working week. A living soul is one that is
being prepared for heaven, prepared for the innumerable multitude
there, to be in the house of the Lord forever and ever. In
my house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. And so there is that desire then
to be with the people of God and to gather with them. Then
there's a desire for knowledge, for teaching. One sends when
the Lord first gives life, how ignorant we are, how little we
know of the things of God. You think of the Ethiopian eunuch
that Philip was directed to. The Lord had given him life. He was a living soul. He was
seeking in the word of God. He couldn't understand it. Understandest
thou what thou readest? How can I accept some man guide
me? Desire that Philip would come
up into the chariot. and he began at that same scripture,
speaking in Isaiah 53, of the Lord's sufferings and death,
and he preached unto him Jesus. But he had that desire for him,
a real appetite for knowledge and for teaching. The promise
is, all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, great shall
be the peace of thy children. There are so many today, they
want to be teachers, not those that are being taught. They take
up with some idea and then they want to be the teacher, whether
singularly or quite separate than a church. But with the people
of God, they're made teachable, they're given a hearing ear,
they're given an appetite for the word of truth, they want
to hear, they're attentive unto the word of God. The desire is
that they might be taught, they might profit from the Word. By nature, we come into the house
of God just as a door upon its hinges. There's no concern with
us whether we've profited, whether we've learnt anything, whether
we've been blessed, whether we've fed under the Word or anything. But when we have a living soul,
there is that desire After the Word, there's things that we're
looking for, praying for, wanting from the Word of God. Then there's
our sin, the sin that in being quickened into life, we're very
aware of. Paul says that when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. The knowledge of sin. is more
and more felt in the people of God. A living soul feels the
corruptions and feels the sin. I often think with this, concerning
our Lord coming into this world, you get a little hint of it when
he says, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer
you? And in Hebrews, who endured such
contradiction as sinners, against himself. And there's some of
us who may have quite enjoyed company and maybe in pubs or
places that today if we were to go in, it would pain our hearts
to hear the language, to see the dress, to see what was going
on and to think that our Lord came into this world and he beheld
and he heard all the sins and all that was going on, how that
must have pained him, how it must have grieved him. How many
of us sometimes have longed to get out of a certain atmosphere
or place, and we've been able to, but with our Lord here below
all the time dwelling with sinners. And so where sin is fell, then
the desire will be also for forgiveness and pardon. to be washed and
cleansed, to be forgiven our sin, to be given the Lord's mercy. God be merciful to me, a sinner. And then there will be desires
after spiritual food. This is what we read with John
6, how that our Lord was insisting
that They don't just go after natural food. We began our reading
in verse 26. He said to them in John 6, 26,
Verily I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles,
but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the solemn man shall give unto
you." Now, so what we have is spiritual food set forth, and
though desires are not just empty desires, they're, it's laboured
for. The Lord sets his people to labour
for it. And where we have a real desire,
that is what we will do. Labour in prayer. Praying and
putting these desires into prayers. Asking the Lord, seeking the
Lord, coming to His house, using the means of His grace. These desires are not just empty
desires. living desires from a living
soul. We read in Psalm 37 and verse
4, Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee
the desires of thine heart. Where our delight is in the Lord,
our desires will be right desires. Those living desires. Our text says, Thou openest Thine
hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. There
will be living things. Until the end of the world, there
will be souls quickened into life, and they will have desires. And they'll have those desires
that the Lord Himself is able to satisfy. And those souls will
prove it, that in no other way will those desires be satisfied. So I want to look then in our
third point, the desires satisfied by the Lord. Now openest Thine
hand. Now I know that many times the
Lord answers the desires of His people to where they want the
Lord to come in for them and help them in providence and he
feeds them, he gives them their houses or health and strength,
those natural things. But I believe here above all
is the hand of grace and that hand that opens and gives them
those things that are very distinct from this life. We're not to
think that, well, A Christian's life is the Lord providing us
with a nice house, good health, nice wealth and ability to use
it. No, these marks, it is a spiritual
life, they're spiritually discerned, and here are spiritual blessings. The blessing of the Lord, it
maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it. The Lord in John 6,
after he'd insisted that they, except they eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you,
he said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. And Jeremiah says, thy words
were found and I did eat them and they were to the joy and
rejoicing of my soul. And our Lord, in the portion
there, John 6, labour not for the meat that perisheth, but
that which endureth to eternal life. And in his rebuffing of
Satan and his temptations in the wilderness, when Satan said,
if thou be the Son of God, command these stones that they may be
made bread, the Lord said, it is written that man shall not
live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. And so, in a great way, the way
that the desires of a soul are satisfied is through the Word
of God. It's through the Holy Spirit
bringing the Word, whether it is through the red Word or the
preached Word, or the Holy Spirit coming and blessing the soul,
bringing that Word to remembrance, with sweetness and with power,
that blessing that makes rich, that blessing that reveals God,
that makes Him precious, that takes away our fear, our condemnation,
that satisfies our soul, that is a very clear answer to our
desires and prayers, remember What our text says, the desires,
they are satisfied. Satisfies the desire. Now we
might be hungry, we might have a meal, but we still feel hungry. That hunger is not satisfied. But what is spoken of here is
at the time of having this, that soul has all that they want.
They do not need, they do not want anything else. They are
blessed with what the Lord has given them. They are satisfied
with that desire. That desire is satisfied in the
Lord. And these are blessings that
are only known in a spiritual way. Maybe we could think of
those in the scriptures that have been satisfied in this way.
We think of dear Mary at the tomb when the Lord was taken. And she thought he was the gardener.
They've taken away my Lord. I know not where they've laid
him. Her desire was after the Lord. And the Lord only needed
to speak one word, Mary. And she was satisfied. It was
her Lord, my Lord and my God. You think we mentioned the Ethiopian
eunuch. Was he satisfied with that sermon? Would he come to the end of the
sermon and say, Philip, I don't understand this. I still can't
work out what you're saying. I can't believe that Jesus is
the son of God. No, he was satisfied. Through
that sermon, he believed, and he wanted to be baptized. There
was a satisfied soul. You think of Cornelius. The angel
appeared to him. Thine arms have come up to remembrance
before God. He had been a seeking soul, a
desiring soul, seeking after God. The angel says, go, call
for Peter. He will speak to thee words whereby
thou and thy house shall be saved. Were they not satisfied, the
Holy Spirit fell on them, blessed the ministry, they were blessed,
they were fully satisfied. The same as those of Macedonia. Paul trying to go to Bithynia
and Asia, no, no. But a vision, come over into
Macedonia and help us. And there they were, by the riverside,
praying where prayer was wont to be made. Were they satisfied? That was the beginning of the
Philippian church. The Lord blessed them through
Paul's ministry, come over into Macedonia and help us. The Lord
directed, the same as Philip was directed, to the eunuch,
and the word blessed in that way. And those two on the way
to Emmaus. Sorrowful, we trusted it should
have been he that should have redeemed Israel. That's what
they were looking like. Anna said, spoke of the Lord
Jesus to all them that look for redemption. In Israel, they'd
been looking, and they'd been looking, they saw the Lord crucified
and slain. But as they came on that way,
and the Lord drew near with them, gently reproved them, and then
in all the scriptures, he opened up concerning himself. And they
said later, their heart burned within them while he did that.
Those are blessed times, when under the preaching of the word,
our heart burns. We're drinking in the truth,
is precious to us, food to our souls, and at the end of that
journey, the Lord made himself known to them in breaking a bread.
Were they satisfied? Certainly they were. It was evening
in the day, they said, the day is fast spent, and yet they could
go back, all of that journey right back to Jerusalem, come
to the disciples, the Lord is risen indeed. and at the pier,
and they say, they tell what were things done in the way and
how the Lord was made known to them. I trust I know some of
those times of real praying and praying and anxious, crying unto
the Lord for His blessing and that aching void and longing
after the blessing of the Lord and the Lord coming, softening
my heart, drawing near, speaking through the Word, or just giving
peace and quietness in the soul. Those things, they come from
the Lord. If the Son shall make you free,
ye are free indeed. And if He give peace, then who
can make trouble when the Lord is with His people, with their
Joseph in the prison, with him in the pen, With him falsely
accused, the Lord was with Joseph. In a spiritual way, these are
the blessings the people of God long after and seek after. I
always remember my own dear mother on her deathbed, dying of cancer,
and the week or so before her death, and she'd always lived,
she'd always attended the place of worship, saw the things of
God, but never had what she really wanted. And night after night,
and she used to pray non-stop, open the ark and take me in.
She was blind with the cancer, she couldn't see. I used to creep
up the corridor sometimes and write down her prayers. Somewhere
I've got them all written down, what she used to pray. But when
the Lord came and blessed her, then all of that crying and praying,
it all stopped. And all she could say was that
the Lord is lovely and blessed, and pointing us to Him, that
I'm a miracle of grace. And the difference between not
having the blessing and the blessing was really, really marked. I didn't, I wasn't able to discern
it at first. Afterwards, looking back, and
under the Lord's blessing, I could clearly see been a strength for
me over the years, many, many times. The reality of a true
faith in the face of death, that is what we want. That is what
we want, our desires satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. I will
not let thee go, says Jacob, unless thou bless me. And that's
the blessing we want, if we have a living soul. Well, if those
of you Have those desires and you long after the Lord. This is a beautiful word of promise
really, isn't it? Thou openest thine hand and satisfyest
the desire of every living thing. Dear soul, be encouraged, be
encouraged that the Lord has made you what you are, given
you spiritual life, given you these desires. Keep desiring,
keep praying, Keep seeking after the Lord. Remind him of this
work. Ask him to open his hand and
to satisfy the desires of your soul, to bless your soul. And then you will be like David,
to return and to bless the Lord. You also say, come and hear,
all ye that fear God. And I will tell what he had done
for my soul. This is what the Lord does for
his people. Spiritual blessings are not known
by the world. They are not even imagined by
them that know not the Lord. But they are very real to the
people of God. They are precious. And we do
so desire the Lord to visit our souls again and favour us with
these blessings that make rich and add no sorrow with them.
Thou openest Thine hand and satisfyest the desire of every living thing. The Lord add His blessing. Amen.