Psalm 145:19 “More”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹A desire of ones fearing Him He will make and the cry of them (pl.) He will hear and He will deliver them (pl.).

As I mentioned in my last post, my fairly literal translation is so wooden, it almost loses the meaning. The NIV does a nice job:

“He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.”

“He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him.” It is interesting that just back in verse 16, David noted our Lord “opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.” I like Alexander MacLaren’s comments on the two verses, noting that v.16 includes all the animals and fish and bacteria, but this verse specifically addresses us. He said, speaking of the animal life, “Give them their meat, and they curl themselves up and lie down to sleep, satisfied. Man longs for something more and needs something more.”

I guess I’ve never quite thought about that before. It is certainly important for people to have food to eat, but as MacLaren said, “Man longs for something more and needs something more.” I believe that is something we all feel quite deeply. Yes, I need to eat, but what my soul wants goes far, far deeper than that! Yes I need a companion, but not just another creature to mate with – I want a wife I can talk to and plan with and ponder the secrets of the universe with. I want a job but not just a cash machine to spit out checks – I want a place where I can feel like I really am contributing something, that my presence matters. Humans need more.

But then as we would ponder on this more, we realize it goes deeper than that. That more is God Himself. Augustine said, “O Lord, our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.” The more is what someone has called “the God-sized hole in our hearts.” When we would ponder this verse and this statement, “He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him,” we can rest assured that He fulfills all of our real desires because ultimately He is those desires. Maybe that’s why it is singular in the Hebrew (as discussed in my last post)? All of our desires ultimately find their fulfillment in knowing Him.

This is not to dismiss our seemingly lesser, everyday-ish desires. Obviously God cares about them too. He feeds us just like He does the animals. I very much dislike when I hear people suggesting we shouldn’t pray for our little minor needs and wants, that we shouldn’t be “bothering” God with such things. To say that is to completely understand who God is. One of His great delights is to hear the voice of His children. I want my little 2 ½ year old to crawl in my lap and ask me for some apple juice – I just love to hear her voice. I love to take care of her. And that “me” is just a very small corner of the great God we call our Father.

But how encouraging is it to know that, while God cares about my little “desires,” yet He fulfills even the deepest? He truly is, as it says in I Peter 4:19, a “faithful Creator.” He is a God who creates a living thing and then commits Himself to its care. An amoeba needs food and the Lord provides it. A human needs food and the Lord provides it. But humans need much, much more…and He provides it! He grants to us the love and joy and peace our hearts long for.

I think I can say for those of us who’ve been around a while this explains a lot. When my wife and I married, one of our favorite verses was Psalm 34:7, “Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” He certainly gave me her and for that, I’ve been thanking Him for 37 years! But I remember back then maybe not completely understanding the verse. I saw it saying He gives the desires of our hearts, but then I would wonder what to do with the guy who maybe wanted a wife but perhaps never found one, or the couple who wanted children but couldn’t conceive. We’re all keenly aware that we don’t always get what we want – even if we really are trying to delight ourselves in the Lord.

Now that we’re older, we realize that’s because what we really wanted all along, what we really, really, really desire is Him – to know Him, to enjoy His presence, to walk with Him, to be always learning more and more of Him, to be freed more and more from who I was. Realizing that, the verse makes perfect sense – if I “delight” myself in the Lord, He gives me the desires of my heart, because He is my desires. He is my delight. Even in enjoying my wife, I now realize it’s Him. To me, she is the most beautiful creature that ever walked the face of the earth – and I’ve certainly enjoyed that – but now I can look at her, enjoy her beauty, then realize what I’m really seeing is Jesus’ beauty. She is beautiful because He is. Her beauty is just a little corner of His beauty which He allows to touch my life through her. He certainly has given me the desires of my heart – I just only recently realized those desires were really Him.

What an amazing God He is. The rest of the verse goes on to say He also hears our cry and saves us. He is our saving God. He hears our cries and provides what we need, but as MacLaren pointed out, He gives us so much more! He truly gives us everything we really need. He gives us Him!