Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 107, reading from our
text, verse 9. For he satisfieth the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107 and
verse 9. Psalm 107. speaks of the experience of God's
people. And it is absolutely vital for
us that we experience the work of God in our hearts and in our
lives, and that the words of this psalm, the truths that are
set forth, the breathing set forth, are not strangers to us. We read at the end of this psalm,
Who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall
understand the loving kindness of the Lord. The Lord's kindness,
the Lord's loving kindness, is a loving kindness to be understood. And it's understood in His dealings
with His people, not just in those pleasant things. In fact,
Right through this psalm we have trials and troubles, afflictions,
as we would expect, because we are sinners and we're in a fallen
world. And if the Lord is to save us
from our sins, then we'll know something about what sin is and
its bitterness, and we will be brought to long after His salvation. It is the most solemn thing. If in this world, as sinners
and death before us, we can be careless and indifferent, not
have any exercise, any thoughts, any trials in our own souls,
and never brought to the turning point in all of the troubles
that are in this psalm, that is the crying unto the Lord,
being brought down, where there is none to help but the Lord,
and crying unto Him, and the Lord appearing and saving and
delivering. And so in beginning to look at
this word this morning, I do want to really impress upon myself
and upon you the need for life in the soul toward God that's
coming and going as a door upon its hinges, Just a token religion,
just a sometimes in the day reading or praying without a real exercise
and burden and cries of the soul after the Lord is a most solemn
sign. We have in Revelation a warning
to the churches of those that have a name to live and yet be
dead. In this psalm is living breathings
and exercises, living prayers. We must ask ourselves how much
of our religion is a living religion? How much is it? Any reflection
at all on this psalm here? It's a familiar psalm, but is
the language of it our language? Is it familiar with us? in our
daily lives. Now on to look then at the words
of our text. Verse 9, Psalm 107 verse 9. For he satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Now text is a
reason for the thanksgiving and praise in the verse before it,
in verse eight. O that men would praise the Lord
for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. For he satisfieth the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. That is a cause
for praise. That is an illustration of His
wonderful works, and it is to the children of men. And may
we have that language as well in our soul and the reason, for
He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with
goodness. So on to look with the Lord's
help this morning. Firstly, a longing soul. And then secondly, who has the
praise for satisfying the longing soul? And we may say right at
the outset, under that point, the one who has praise for satisfying
the longing soul is the one who has given that soul to be a longing
soul. And then, lastly, the longing
soul satisfied. But firstly, a longing soul. By nature, we may know indeed
what a longing is. A longing, very often, after
things that are not rightly ours. Covetousness, right from the
very beginning, when our first parents fell, they were forbidden
to eat the tree, the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil
in the midst of the garden. They had everything else, but
Satan tempted them that they should see that food, that it
was good, for the soul, they longed after it. He made it attractive
to them. They went after that. And they
fell from their innocency. They fell into sin and death
through sin. May we always remember that.
It was a longing, a wrong longing, a longing because of the temptation,
because of what Satan said before them. And we must not then be
surprised. that man by nature will have
longings, but after sin, after evil, after forbidden things,
after the things that the Word of God says we are not to long
after, we're not to covet after, we're not to seek after those
things that are not ours. God gives many gifts, many blessings
to us. We may rightly prize them and
thank the Lord for them. But where He has not given them,
the Lord preserve us and deliver us from longing after them. But we are not surprised then
that even the people of God will be very troubled by an old nature
that longs after the things of this life. And not surprising
that Satan, successful as he was with our first parents, will
also present things to us that will cause our old nature to
long, and maybe really be warned against that, warned of the danger
of longings that do not come from a new nature, that are not
for good things, that will never be satisfied by the Lord, and
though they may be realised by the soul, by the person who longs
after those things, When they have those forbidden things,
those fruits, they are but bitterness of soul and sorrow of heart. So may we know what is a longing
by nature, that it cannot be after that which is pleasing
to God, it cannot be that which God himself will satisfy, and
really a soul by nature that real being within us, spiritually
it is dead and it does not have desires after God at all. But our text, it speaks of a
longing soul, a longing soul that will be satisfied. So what
is a longing soul? We read in the beginning, of
this psalm, that the word belongs to the redeemed,
God's redeemed people who are going through a wilderness. The picture is the children of
Israel that were in Egypt, And God redeemed them. He set them
free by the shedding of blood, the blood of the Passover. When
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And it was after the Passover
that eventually Pharaoh let the children of Israel go. No other
of those nine great signs that brought Egypt to be nearly ruined
was used to set the children of Israel free. But then they
were brought out into the wilderness. And we have the picture there,
in the wilderness, we know the children of Israel, they thirsted
after water, they were hungry for food, they cried unto the
Lord in their trouble. And it has its type, anti-type,
in a spiritual way. This world, to God's people,
is a wilderness. And a longing soul is one that
has been quickened into life and so it has feelings and desires
that are longing after what this world does not have to offer. Sometimes it will not be, and
at the beginning, able to put into words what is actually longed
for, an aching void which this world cannot fill. We have the testimony in Hebrews
11 of those by faith who confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims in the world. Now a longing soul then, what
is set before us here is longing for something that this world
cannot offer. It's a most solemn thing that
those that may profess faith and say that they have a hope
in Christ, a hope beyond the grave, and yet seem to spend
their whole life miserable because the Lord hasn't given them something
that they want here below. And they're longing after that. Well, it's a most solemn testimony
if that is our testimony. What is set forth here is a soul
looking for something that is not found in this wilderness
world. is not found in this fallen world,
is not found in our own hearts, is not found by us. And it is to be satisfied not
by us, but by another. So what is it that the longing
soul longs after? For such a soul feels their unrighteousness. All their righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. One of her hymns says, nor are
men willing to have the truth told. The sight is too killing
for pride to behold. Men do not like to be told that
all their works are evil. They come forth from the womb
speaking lies. There is none good, no, not one.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But a longing
soul that feels that, And not only feels it, and this is the
important thing, because many will complain about the effects
of sin and the fruits of sin and dissatisfied with things
here, but this is not only feeling that, but there's a longing and
a reaching after something else. It's a positive longing. It is not a... full of regrets
and full of miserableness as to what is here, but something
has been set before them to look from here. And so with their
sin and their guilt and their shame and their evil and their
wicked heart, they're not longing after that, but the realization
of that has been brought through hearing in the Word of God that
there is a righteousness that is set before us in the Gospel,
and because that which God has put in that soul to make it long,
it longs after righteousness, it longs after holiness, it longs
after uprightness, it longs after that which is pure, that which
is perfect, that which this world does not have to offer. This
is the picture of a redeemed soul that longs, and I would
really emphasize this. However much we might be convicted
of sin, That in itself, though it is
something that every child of God is brought to be, but that in itself is not a token
of being a child of God, but being convicted of sin and then
being a longing soul, and it's longing after that which is the
opposite to sin. holiness, pureness, hungering
and thirsting after righteousness. And it is a soul that the longings
will change as that soul is instructed in the words of the Lord. We
read again in Hebrews that they see the promises are far off
and embrace them. A longing soul will see the promises
in Christ, promises of life, promises of grace, promises of
help, promises of heaven, and it will long after those things
that are seen afar off, that are set before them, that they
might attain unto those things. The Lord in his Sermon on the
Mount pronounced a blessing, not on those that were satisfied
and that were given to be filled, but those that hungered and thirsted
after righteousness. And we may say with our text
that the longing soul is already a blessed soul. They're looking out of self and
unto Christ. They're looking for that which
they don't have, but they do want. And it's those things set
before them in the gospel, set before them that are pure and
holy, and that answer, have a very clear answer to a new birth that
is a holy birth, a birth from above. Our Lord was so insistent
in John 3, he must be born again. Except ye be born of the Spirit
and of blood, ye cannot see the kingdom of heaven. There must
be that spiritual birth, and that birth is from above and
leads above, and will evidence in a longing soul. And as we
then go through life, There'll be those different longings.
There'll be longing for fellowship with the Lord, longing for fellowship
with His people, longing for the forgiveness and pardon of
sin, longing for the assurance of our interest in Christ, longing
for spiritual food, longing that the Lord would bless us in our
souls, that He set us free from every snare, from all bondage. There'll be many, many things
throughout our lives that will be, if we are the people of God,
result in a longing. And it is because we cannot find
it here, we cannot find it in ourselves, and we do see it held
forth before us in the Word of God. Are we a longing soul? Desiring soul? Soul that wants
and seeks and asks? You has that real need, you know,
in a natural way. If you and I haven't eaten for
a while, if we haven't drunk for a while, then there is a
real longing for food. A real longing for drink. I think
thirst is even more stronger. And I have felt and known what
that is. And you can't just forget it. You might be busy, you might
have many things to do, you might be doing these things, but unless
you eat something, unless you have something to drink, that
longing will keep coming back. It is right within. It is a very
powerful feeling. We know what that is naturally.
But do we know it in a spiritual way to be really a longing soul? And I would really urge this
point. We do not want to be deceived
in the matter of our souls. And if we're not longing after
spiritual things and after the things of the Lord, then we can
be sure we still will be taken up with our homes, our families,
our grandchildren, our work, our wives, our husbands, whatever
it is. But the soul is dead, lulled
into sleep, thinking that all is well when it is not. May we be a longing soul. We know those that are truly blessed. The Apostle Paul, he longed,
he says, a desire to depart, to be with Christ, that is far
better. This is a experience, a feeling,
a deep feeling, deep longing. that will be with a child of
God right through their journey's end. Because until they get to
glory, there will be a longing for it. While they are alive,
while they are living a life of faith and looking for those
things that are to come, there will be that longing. On to look
then, secondly, at who has the praise for satisfying the longing
soul. As we said, it is the one that
has the praise for making the longing soul. Right through this
psalm, there is that exhortation to give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And it is the
mercy of the Lord that passes by one dead in trespasses and
sins and quickens them into life and brings them to long after
that which they do not have, to long after the Lord. Our Lord
says, No man can come unto me except the Father which sent
me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. And one
of the ways, one of the effects of the drawing is to bring about
a longing. And so in this psalm, we have
many things that the people of God are being brought to pass
through that exercise their souls. God is the one that orders your
life and my life, that directs the timing of all events. One
of our hymns, beautiful hymn, He that fixed my first and second
birth, parents, native place and time, all appointed were
by Him. And it is this God that comes
and quickens and makes alive a people that are dead in trespasses
and sins, brings them to be in want. Many a time it is as through
this psalm, that there's troubles and sorrows, and many are self-procured
troubles and sorrows. But God orders those things for
good, brings good out of evil, never that we should sin that
grace might abound. But those things that the Lord
does, he does so that the apostle could say to the Romans, we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God.
to them that are called according to his purpose. And so the one
who has the praise for this is God. Though that men would praise
the Lord for his goodness, it is the Lord's goodness to make
a longing soul. It is the Lord's goodness to
quicken a soul into life. It's the Lord's goodness to reveal
to them those things that they haven't got but are set before
them in the Gospel, in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is He that sent His only begotten
Son into this world. It is He that came into this
world to live a perfect life of obedience, even unto death,
the death of the cross, and to suffer and to bleed and to die. It is He that prayed for his
people and says, I pray for them, I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them
from the evil, and prayed, I pray that them whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. It
is he, the Redeemer, the Saviour, that suffered in the place of
his people, that has earned the right has made it possible that
a people should then be brought to life from death. It is he that has the honour
and glory, he that hath begun a good work in you, will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And one of the evidences of that
work beginning is the longing and then the satisfying of that. It's the Lord that gives both.
God gave to Nebuchadnezzar the dream that he had and that he
forgot and didn't know what was in it. It was God that gave to
Daniel what that dream was and the interpretation of it. It
was God that gave to Joseph his dreams, to Pharaoh his dreams,
and that interpreted those dreams. There's always two sides to it. It's God that convicts of sin.
It's God that forgives sin. It's God that makes an aching
void that this world cannot fill, that then satisfies it with that
which is above. There's two sides to it. Are
we in either of those two sides? If we have been, if we are, do
we ever praise the Lord for it? It'll be a measure as to how
much we esteem what the Lord has done for us. Whether there
is any praise, it would be very evident in this psalm that men
are so backward. And so we have again and again
know that men would praise the Lord for His goodness. We are very backward, maybe some
of you this morning. We are backward. We are backward
to praise the Lord. We're backward to thank Him.
We take His blessings like the nine lepers did. and they don't
return like the one did to give glory to God. If the Lord has made us a longing
soul and satisfied that longing, then may we be of those that
praise Him and that we obey Him and that we serve Him. He that
believeth and is baptised shall be saved. He that believeth not
shall be damned. That work of the Lord must have
its glory and its honour, and if you and I value in, then we
will say to those round, come and hear, all ye that fear God,
what He hath done for my soul. I was brought low and He helped
me. There will be the testimony of
what the Lord has done. Created a want, satisfied that
want, created a need that there is not by nature. Why do men
not seek after the Lord. Why do men not receive the word
of the Lord? Why do they not bow before it? They have no need, they have
no want. In a natural way, when we are
healthy and strong, we don't want a physician, we're not concerned
about the qualifications of the doctors, the surgeons, nor the
state of our hospital system, or whether there is a drug or
a healing, for us at all. But as soon as we are mindful
of our malady, then all these things have a very different
view in our sight than it is. We may long after a cure or a
helper or remedy. And this is then the Lord who
has the praise to create a need and satisfy the need to bring
a people for whom he died on Calvary and put away their sin
and shed his blood to bring them in their lifetime to want that
salvation, to want himself, to need the blessings that flow
forth from Calvary and to long after those things that he has
to give. He must then have the praise
and honour and glory. Dear friend, if you are a longing
soul, take courage, be encouraged in the Lord in that longing.
You won't stop short in that. You'll still have the longing
until it is satisfied. But be assured of this, that
that longing is not a natural thing. It doesn't come from man
where it longs and hungers and thirsts after the things of God.
It proves that that soul, they are not making a natural religion,
they can satisfy that themselves. But where the Lord has made the
malady and the sickness truly known, it will be truly known
that there is only one Saviour, one name given among men, whereby
we must be saved. That it did need the eternal
Son of God to come to this world, and suffer, bleed and die to
redeem our souls. It couldn't be done any other
way, an easy way. And we bless the Lord if he has
brought us to know those real things, eternal things, those
things that we would wait upon him to do for us, that which
he's already done for us in the want and longing, and wait upon
him to do for us in the satisfying. he shall have the praise and
he shall have the honor and the glory. And if you and I are longing
soul now and the Lord comes and satisfies that longing, may we
not be backward in giving praise and honor and glory to God. I want to look then thirdly at
the longing soul satisfied. For he satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Now, I want to
again use an illustration in this. If we are naturally hungry
or thirsty, and that is satisfying, and we are given a full meal,
we are given enough to drink, we know what that feeling is.
We don't want more. Our cup is full as it were. We've
got what we desire. There is a real contrast here. A real contrast. And we will
know when the Lord satisfies that, we know it in a natural
way. There's not the longing anymore
because we have it. where there's been crying unto
God in prayer for a specific thing, then it stops because
it's been satisfied. There are those things that immediately
stop prayer. I couldn't help feeling regarding
dear Margaret Wright. For many, many months, there
has been much, much prayer put up here, Lamberhurst, Many, many
have prayed for her, prayed for her soul, prayed for the Lord's
blessing upon her. Her dear husband has seen what
she's been through, has that comfort that is well with her. But you know those prayers suddenly,
they all stop. We don't pray for her anymore. The Lord has now taken her. And there'll be times in our
lives as well, when we've been praying and praying for something,
which then it would be wrong to continue to pray for it because
we have it. Because the answer has been given,
because it has been realised. And that prayer then turns to
praise. And so where it is here, satisfies
the longing soul. In one way, it's a wonderful
thing that these specific longings, though we have set them briefly
before you, are not mentioned here. But the real feelings of
the soul are mentioned here. Feelings that we know in a natural
way, and I trust some of us know in a spiritual way. I remember when my own dear mother
was dying and she was crying night and day for the Lord to
come and to bless her. And when he did bless her, then
all of those prayers and those cryings out for the Lord to open
the ark to take her in, they all stopped. And instead there
was praise on her lips. There's a difference that At
the time, my eyes were shut to see, but looking back and what
the Lord showed me after, very, very clear to see. A longing soul satisfied as their
prayers, their asking, their longing changed to praise, changed
to thanksgiving. change that that which they have
sought after, they have found. You and I will never find righteousness
in ourselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. To see his righteousness,
to see him by faith, to see what he has finished and done, to
receive of his grace, to receive that assurance of an interest
in him, To receive the Spirit's witness with our spirit that
we are a child of God. To receive the pardon and forgiveness
of sins. To be blessed with that holiness
in Christ. The Hymn writer says, Christ
has holiness enough to sanctify us all. To actually be satisfied
and to be able to say all is settled and my soul approves
it well. He hath done all things well. You know, when Philip preached
to the eunuch, at the beginning he had an aching void, if you
like. Whom speaketh the prophet this
of himself or another man? By the end of that sermon, that
longing was satisfied. He knew who Christ was. But he
had another longing. He says, see here is water, what
doth hinder me to be baptised? So Philip says, if thou believeth
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he says, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And on that profession, Philip,
he enabled that other longing to be satisfied and he was baptised. The Lord, through his ministry,
through his servants, through the ordinances of the house of
God, through his providence, through his grace and through
his mercy, that satisfy the longing of his dear people. May we know
it again and again through our lives. For he satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness the praise is his
what must it be to be in heaven what must it be to be with christ
which is far better and all the longings satisfied faith turned
to sight and to be with the lord no more longing then no more
desiring then fully fully taken up fully with christ but here
below May we be in this text either a longing soul or a satisfied
soul, and in this text as one that gives the praise and glory
to God, for Thou alone has wrought all our works in us. May the Lord add His blessing.
Amen.