In the middle line of v.1 and take note that David’s disposition of earnestly seeking God is in direct opposition to the fatalistic unbelief that sounds like this: “I’m stuck and I can’t do anything until I feel close to God.” That is completely contradictory and backwards to what we see in the entirety of the Psalms and in this Psalm specifically. Think about it this way: If you’re physically starving, you would never wait until you feel full before you earnestly seek for food. In the same way, the spiritual hunger pains are designed to drive us to God, just like physical hunger pains drives us to food. No one should ever say “I need to feel close to God before I earnestly seek him.” This represents a severe lack of faith and is putting the cart before the horse, as Jesus himself taught on multiple occasions—Matt. 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied“…and John 6:35 “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”
However, instead of believing in God’s sufficiency from many passages in Scripture, which would lead us to earnestly seek after God, what do we conclude in times of languishing instead?
o That surely God is finished with us;
o That’s there is no way we can get back to the communion with God we once had;
o That we are trapped in this miserable state until our feelings or circumstances change.
All of that describes a self-inflicted prison of unbelief.
God is our exclusive source of sustenance and he can always be found by those who diligently seek him. Is this not part of the description of faith in Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
He rewards his faithful followers in this life with fullness in their soul and he rewards them in the next life with unimaginable, eternal blessings. Why then would we not earnestly seek him?
The earnest seeking that honors God
