Title: The Longing of the Soul
Contents
... Why are you discouraged, my soul, and why are you troubled within me? Look to God, and I will rather praise my God, who helps my face. (Psalm 42:1-11)
Humans cry their first cry from birth because of the longing of the body. When a young child wears evil and begins to cry, the mother soon nurses her. Humans crave food when they are hungry and crave clothes when they are cold. Human beings can only grow and live by satisfying these physical longings with anything. As human beings grow up, they are satisfying these longings of the body with the method of labor.
The craving of the human body is a universal instinct that everyone has. In order to satisfy this longing, man must satisfy it with the labor of wisdom, the labor of the body, and the labor of knowledge. In this way, we must develop a strong body, lead a prosperous life, and build a wealthy household. In this sense, work is sacred.
However, human beings do not end their longing alone. Although Qin Shi Huang enjoyed his physical and affectional cravings as much as he could, his lifelong cravings were not exhausted, so he sent Seosi to rescue five hundred men and women of his brothers and sisters in Samshinsan Mountain. Billionaires have more material lust, and those who rule empires have more lust for power. After you satisfy this life's longing, it's like drinking salt water from a burnt throat with a thirst in your throat, so your life's longings don't stop burning even more. When a human being has nothing, he does not know how much he lacks, but when a man has something, he does not truly be satisfied with what he has, but rather deeply feels how much he lacks. Therefore, the poverty of those who have is worse than the poverty of those who do not have. Let us now listen to the writer of Psalm 42 here.
“As a deer longs for brooks, O God, so my soul thirsts for you. My soul longs for God, the living God. When will I go out and appear before God” (verses 1 and 2).
The psalmist of this psalm is not hungry for material life. And neither is he who lacks the thirst for affection. In this world, he is living a very satisfying life. But the poet's heart is in such a state of mind that he cannot stand without something to be filled, to the point of going mad without something choked. Now, with the thirst of life burning like a fire in his soul's throat, he cries out, "My soul longs for you, God, as a thirsty deer longs for streams.
Pascal said, "There is a space in man that cannot be filled with anything in the world and cannot be filled with anything in the world until it is filled with God." The most fundamental, absolute, and final longing of man is the longing of the soul. Human beings cannot be said to have matured properly without satisfying this soul's longing. The soul in the depths of man is truly thirsty and struggling to endure it. After he has satisfied his material cravings, his love cravings, and yet he has not yet satisfied his soul cravings, there will be no way to quench that thirst.
We want you to heed the plea of this poet to seek God to satisfy his thirst and thirst. Only when human beings truly fill this space of soul with God can they say that they are alive and breathe a breath of relief. Sometimes we think that religious belief is one of the many human needs, less busy and less urgent. However, since no one can be filled with anything without the work of having God in his heart, religious faith is the most urgent, most important, and first thing of all human work. That's why Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom and its righteousness" (Matthew 6:33).
The psalmist seeks God for the soul's longing and asks, "When shall I go out and appear before God?" (verse 2). Verse 3 says, "People say to me all day long, Where is your God? My tears have been my food day and night." Verse 4 says, “I walked with the people who kept the holy day, and led them to the house of God with a voice of joy and praise, but now I remember this and my heart is broken.” Looking at this, for this poet, the specific way to find God, meet God, and satisfy his soul's longing is to come to God's temple and worship together with the saints in hymns and prayers. To recapitulate it further, it means that the highest human desire that satisfies the longing of the soul is to come before God, and it is obtained through the act of worshiping God.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 12:1, "Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Man can satisfy his soul's longing only through worship, and that worship is the whole life of a Christian who offers a living sacrifice in his body. Just as worship is a sacrifice, and sacrifice requires a sacrifice, Christian worship is to offer our whole being as a sacrifice to God, as the Apostle Paul advised. Therefore, our soul's longing is finally satisfied from the moment we completely give our soul and life to God.
If a human does not satisfy this soul's longing, he still has not passed the exam in life lessons. Therefore, anxiety and fear will never leave you. Verse 5 says, "Why are you discouraged, O my soul, and why are you troubled within me. Hope in God. I will rather praise you for the help of His countenance." That's right. Until the thirst of the human soul is satisfied, it is always empty, restless, discouraged, and futile. However, from the very moment that God is brought into the space of his soul, hymns flow from his mouth. A hymn is a sign of thanksgiving. We should be thankful for everything, but we should know that worshiping God can satisfy our soul's longing.
We should be thankful that our worship service today is the greatest blessing of our lives. We don't want this worship service to end with this one-hour worship today, but we hope that we can expand the greatest blessings so that our entire lives can become worship services.