The more I read the Word of God the more I am amazed and stand in awe of how gracious and abounding the Lord is towards His creation. It would be one thing if we deserved such goodness but none of us do. All of us are, outside of Christ, worthy of the fiercest of His wrath. But, oh, to His children - those of us who love Him and seek after Him - even on our worst days He is wondrously gracious.
I saw this reality in a newly illumined way when I read Psalm 34:13-14. There, David writes these incredible words:
"Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions
suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."
Do you see the promise? His saints shall have "no lack. David is so concerned that we know this that he repeats it in a matter of two verses! The people of God, those who are lovers of Jesus, can have lives where they actually lack no good thing from the Lord. That is amazing. Think about what you lack right now in your life, your soul, your relationships, your family, etc. Then, contemplate the fact that God can and will provide where you are lacking.
Before we get ahead of ourselves and simply bask in this promise we cannot miss the conditions David lays out. he says that "those who fear... and seek the Lord" these are the ones who will lack no good thing. God is indeed gracious, and His promises are sweet and sure but attached to some of them are conditions that bring them to life for us. Lacking no good thing is the fruit of fearing and seeking.
FEARING THE LORD
Fearing the Lord means to honor Him. It means to live our lives under the reality that we belong to and are accountable to Him in all aspects of life. It means to fear in the sense of respect. To respect the Lord with the life he has given us and to respect His commands regarding how we should live and relate to others in this world. In short, to fear the Lord means to live coram deo - "before the face and watchful eyes of the Lord."
SEEKING THE LORD
This is a practical way of fearing the Lord, but it speaks to the heart and the affections. Those who seek the Lord are those whose singular focus in life is growing in knowledge and intimacy with Him. They are after Him. Their life is a picture of what it means and looks like to chase after the Lord; to want to know Him above all else and to want His glory to invade their souls and be reflected in their lives.
Oddly, the things they lack they do not pursue, fight for and seek after. They seek after the One who is the giver of all good things. They know that all they may want may not be any of what they need but they know that the Lord knows exactly what the need, so they seek after Him abandoning all that hinders their pursuit. As Martyn Lloyd Jones once noted: "My dear friends if we only spent more of our time looking for Him, we'd soon forget ourselves."
So, what is it that you lack? Ponder that carefully. Be honest and be specific and then live in the fear of the Lord as you chase after Him. Whatever you truly lack He has promised that you will lack no more.
Pastor, very well said.