The God Who Satisfies (1) (Psalm 23:1)
God Satisfying (1)
Psalm 23:1
Do you see God every day? No, do you meet God more precisely? Isn't it that we try to see God, but don't see God and live every day looking at the wrong things?
There is an interesting anecdote. One day, when the Reformer [Martin Luther] was having breakfast, his dog sat in front of his lap and Luther picked up the bread to see the bread, and when he picked up the meat, he saw the meat, and when he went up, he looked at the mouth, went up and down and stared intently. you'll see No matter how many times I repeat it, I look at it without skipping a beat, then tear a piece of meat and give it to him, and he quickly bites it and goes down. When Luther saw this, he clapped his knee and famously said, “I wish I could look at God as this dog looks at this piece of meat. While looking at this piece of meat, this dog doesn't think about it, it just looks at the meat.”
What we know is called knowledge. But let's think about some of this knowledge.
Another one is this. It is knowing by heart. It's like a mother knows her little one. You know what your baby needs when he cries. I know chest and chest. The baby isn't talking. Still, the mother fully understands the circumstances of the child. I know by heart. The best of emotions is probably love. When we fall in love, our hearts open to each other. So you can tell even if you don't speak. When you hate, your heart closes. When the chest is closed, nothing is known. In other words, the door of knowledge closes tightly. And there is also doubt among emotions. Ladies and gentlemen, the first thing that happens when you doubt is a misunderstanding. Whatever you say will be misunderstood because doubt is already in your mind. Misunderstood this way and misunderstood that way. That's the problem. Therefore, only when your emotions are clean and your heart is clean, you can know everything, especially God.
Another one. In other words, it is knowledge gained through physical experience. However, this experience has two sides. This empirical knowledge is sometimes useful, but sometimes very dangerous. So it is dangerous to rely absolutely on this empirical knowledge. This is because you may fall into egoism or self-idolism. It is most desirable to learn by appropriately adding empirical knowledge on top of all knowledge.
The national soccer team, whose national status has risen to the 4th place in the 2002 World Cup, has gone through a tumultuous process not worthy of its reputation. A few days ago, when the national team was training for the first time at the national soccer team training center in Paju, I saw that manager Lee was watching the players being trained silently but very closely. What are you looking at? To put it simply, it is to see how much knowledge that player has as a soccer player.
Now, everyone, let's think about what kind of knowledge we really need as God's children today. Now, with all this knowledge, our logical knowledge, our emotional knowledge, our empirical knowledge, our sensory knowledge, we have something we really need to know. It is the knowledge of God. After all, the reason we need these knowledge is to have the knowledge of God. The goal of our ultimate knowledge is to know God. All the troubles and sufferings that occur in our faith and life ultimately result from our ignorance of who God is.
Those of us who tried to find our spiritual difficulties and stagnation of faith only in the environment, we need to realize anew in front of this gospel that is shown through today's text. Only God knows me and I have no way to live without God's help. Only absolute dependence makes us believe in a dark and difficult world. As David did. Think again. He is making a confession to us today that could never come out of David's situation. How is this possible? Because they knew God. Because they knew that there is a world of satisfaction that can only be enjoyed in God. That is faith.
Dear saints!
How difficult is your life today? There is a lack of life that cannot be reached no matter how much we run. It seems like a distant tale to say that peace that seems to have been grasped, will disappear at some point. Even if we earn money, the money that leaks out like pouring water into a dead poison doesn't give us any strength, but always makes us burn our lover. Either way it's not enough. I am not satisfied. How do we make this the reality of our lives?
But everyone, be patient. One day God will fill it. God is my shepherd, and as long as I know God who satisfies me when I live according to his shepherd, surely the grace of God that satisfies you will overflow.