Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
You remember the old Rabbinical tradition which speaks a deep truth,
dressed in a fanciful shape. It says that the manna in the wilderness
tasted to every man just what he desired, whatever dainty or nutriment
he most wished; that the manna became like the magic cup in the old
fairy legends, out of which could be poured any precious liquor at the
pleasure of the man who was to drink it. The one God is everything to us
all, anything that we desire, and the thing that we need; Protean in His
manifestations, one in His sufficiency. With Him, as well as in Him, we
are sure to have all that we require. 'Seek ye first the Kingdom ... and
all these things shall be added unto you.'
Let us begin, dear brethren! with seeking, and then our struggling will
not be violent, nor self-willed, nor will it fail. If we begin with
seeking, and have God, be sure that all we need we shall get, and that
what we do not get we do not need. It is hard to believe it when our
vehement wishes go out to something that His serene wisdom does not
send. It is hard to believe it when our bleeding hearts are being
wrenched away from something around which they have clung. But it is
true for all that. And he that can say, 'Whom have I in heaven but Thee,
and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee,' will find that
the things which he enjoys in subordination to his one supreme good are
a thousand times more precious when they are regarded as second than
they ever could be when our folly tried to make them first. 'Seek first
the Kingdom,' and be contented that the 'other things' shall be
appendices, additions, over and above the one thing that is needful.
Now, all that is very old-fashioned, threadbare truth. Dear brethren! if
we believed it, and lived by it, 'the peace of God which passes
understanding' would 'keep our hearts and minds.' And, instead of
fighting and losing, and desiring to have and howling out because we
cannot obtain, we should patiently wait before Him, submissively ask,
earnestly seek, immediately find, and always possess and be satisfied
with, the one good for body, soul, and spirit, which is God Himself.
'There be many that cry, Oh! that one would show as any good.' The wise
do not cry to men, but pray to God. 'Lord! lift Thou the light of Thy
countenance upon us.'
NO CONDEMNATION
'None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.'
--PSALM xxxiv. 22.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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