Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
Where are you going to get that? There is only one answer, dear
brethren! to the question, and that is--God, and God alone is the food
of the heart; God, and God alone, will satisfy your need. Let us bring
the full Christian truth to bear upon the illustration of these words.
Who was it that said, 'I am the Bread of Life. He that cometh unto Me
shall never hunger'? Christ will feed my mind with truth if I will
accept His revelation of Himself, of God, and of all things. Christ will
feed my heart with love if I will open my heart for the entrance of His
love. Christ will feed my will with blessed commands if I will submit
myself to His sweet and gentle, and yet imperative, authority. Christ
will satisfy all my longings and desires with His own great fulness.
Other food palls upon man's appetite, and we wish for change; and
physiologists tell us that a less wholesome and nutritious diet, if
varied, is better for a man's health than a more nutritious one if
uniform and monotonous. But in Christ there are all constituents that
are needed for the building up of the human spirit, and so we never
weary of Him if we only know His sweetness. After a world of hungry men
have fed upon Him, He remains inexhaustible as at the beginning; like
the bread in His own miracles, of which the pieces that were broken and
ready to be given to the eaters were more than the original stock, as it
appeared when the meal began, or like the fabled feast in the Norse
Walhalla, to which the gods sit down to-day, and to-morrow it is all
there on the board, as abundant and full as ever. So if we have Christ
to live upon, we shall know no hunger; and 'in the days of famine we
shall be satisfied.'
O brethren! have you ever known what it is to feel that your hungry
heart is at rest? Did you ever know what it is to say, 'It is enough'?
Have you anything that satisfies your appetite and makes you blessed?
Surely, men's eager haste to get more of the world's dainties shows that
there is no satisfaction at its table. Why will you 'spend your money
for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth
not,' as Indians in famine eat clay which fills their stomachs, but
neither stays hunger, nor ministers strength? Eat and your soul shall
live.
II. Now, turn to the next of the elements of blessedness here--Joy.
'Thou makest them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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