Title: Longing for God / Psalm 34:1-10
Content Title: Hunger for God/Psalm 34:1-10
What flame is burning in your heart? What was the main content of the conversation over the past week? When you are alone, have you ever thought of the Lord and how should you live as a child of the Lord?
But if you are full of lust for pleasure, riches, and fame, then that flame is not the flame from the Holy Spirit toward God. No matter how much the world fills you, there is no ultimate satisfaction.
We can explain what we believe in Jesus in various ways. 'Regenerated, born again, became a people of heaven, became a member of God's family, etc.'.
But the difference between believing in Jesus and not believing in Jesus is that the direction of our longing has changed.
Before I believed in Jesus, I tried to fill with the things of the world and lived a life of satisfaction with it. After believing in Jesus, no matter how many things and good things I give, it may be good temporarily, but it does not give me eternal people.
There is only true satisfaction when the Lord is on the throne of my life.
Lot longed for the world with a life of being chased. Abraham longed for God in the life he was called to go.
George Bower, president of Operation Mobilization Mission, said, "The outward sign of a true disciple who follows Christ is 'longing for God'."
The background of the text is 'a poem that David wrote when he was driven out from the presence of Abimelech'. Abimelech means 'king of the Philistines' and his real name is 'Achish'.
Like David, we have never been driven out of our lives by pretending to be crazy, and we have no need to do so.
David did this because he had a longing for God.
The longing for God is acknowledged and loved by God.
* How should our longing for God be expressed?
1. It was expressed as worship to God.<Verses 1-3>
The first meaning of 'song and celebration' in verse 1 is 'to bow down', which has the same etymology as 'worship'. Those who yearn for God bow before God, and those who long for the world bow to the world.
In other words, those who have a longing for God are those who live true worship. But those who do not have worship for God have lost their worship or
One of the most important goals of Sunday School education is to help children live a life that kneels before God instead of kneeling in the world.
It is clear that our address is to live on our knees before God.
What and to whom have you been kneeling until now?
David had a holy resolve toward God that he would always worship only the Lord.
A life of worship is a blessed life. Living a life with your back on worship is a pitiful life.
Do you have expectations and joy in worship?
Those who live in the flame of longing for Jehovah have anticipation when worshiping, and there is joy from God.
Worship is the most important element of our lives. Success in worship is the success of everything, and failure in worship is like failure in everything.
If there is no emotion in worship, check the extinguished embers, rekindle the flame toward God, and pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to burn.
The second is 'halal', from which the word 'hallelujah' comes from. 'Halalu' is an emphatic method of 'halal', and it is a plural imperative, 'everyone praises you'. 'Jah' is a shortened form of 'Jehovah', and 'Hallelujah' is 'Praise the Lord'.
David confessed that he would continue to live a life of praising the Lord for the rest of his life.
There was a man named Nutledge, who participated in the Vietnam War as an aviator in the United States Air Force and was captured by the Vietnam War at the beginning of the war. He was released shortly after the end of the war. The prayer and confession of faith he offered to God in prison was published in a book called [In Front of Enemies].
There is no emptiness in the life of the worshiper. When I don't worship God, the world sweeps away my soul. It makes me a loser on its knees in the world.
However, as David confessed, those who worship God and do not stop singing will never perish.
God guarantees his life.
Abraham's life built an altar to the Lord wherever he went. However, there is no record that Lot worshiped God because his longing for God had cooled. Had he been a true worshiper, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah would not have been so disastrous.
Like David and Abraham, we pray in the name of the Lord that the holy flame toward God may burn.
2. It was expressed as an earnest prayer to God.<Verses 4-6>
Those who do not have a relationship with God when they face the crises of life have no help. You lose the object to cry out to. However, we should be thankful that there is a God to whom we can cry out, no matter what the circumstances, whether good or bad. This is the greatest value in life.
As David confessed, ?쏷his poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.??We believe that the God who saved David will also save us.
Here, 'to ask' and 'to cry out' are different expressions of prayer.
As Richard Foster once said, 'It is not the smart or the gifted who are desperately needed today, but those who have the depth of life'. How can I become the owner of a deep life? A deep life is created through deep prayer.
Deep prayer is possible through in-depth encounter with the Lord.
Blancser theologian and contemporary culture critic Jacques Ellul said, 'Modern people do not know where they are going. The purpose of life was forgotten and the reason for existence was thrown into the background. Humans walk out of breath, not knowing which way to go.' He said that life is a mass of contradictions in which one walks out of breath without knowing the way to go.
They are busy but do not know why or what they are busy living for.
We run hard, but we live a wasted life in which we run without knowing where we are going. I live a wandering life with no depth in my life.
However, even in the depths of our lives, God refines our souls through the channel of prayer. God gives us grace so that we can renew our souls so that we can live as those who focus on God, not as wanderers.
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope that this summer will be an opportunity to deepen your life and create a place of prayer. There is nothing more important to correct the direction of my life than to meet the Lord at the place of prayer.
Only those who focus their lives on God can pray out loud. Because God lives and He hears my prayers.
Prayer is a mindful movement of the soul that pays attention to God. If you really want to receive grace before God, you must move on to the basic movement of all movements, that is, the movement of mindfulness of the soul, that is, a life of prayer.
3. We receive the power of life from God.<Verses 7-10>
What is the energy source for your life?
David had a longing for God, so he made God the source of energy for his life.
He had the wisdom and grace to have God as the pillar of his life.
David said in Psalm 18:1, ?쏰 LORD, my strength, I love you.??
He confessed to God in his own strength.
Matthew 5:6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
Because we are full of things other than the Lord, there are many times when we do not enjoy God's presence, God's guidance, and God's power that we should receive.
If anything other than the Lord is burning in us at this time, the Lord will sort it out, and I hope that only the Lord will experience the grace and blessings that become the focus of my life's longing.
So, like David, I hope that you will have the grace to worship the Lord with joy, praise the Lord, pray to the Lord, and have the Lord as the only support in your life.