For he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul fills with good things.
– Psalm 107:9
Oh, as you hear that verse, I just wanna encourage you to ask the question, do you have a soul that longs for God? Like truly does your soul long for God? Is it evident in your life?
Psalm 107:9 Invites Us to Feast on God’s Goodness
There’s a longing for God, the hungry soul, God fills with good things. Is your soul hungry? Do you hunger for more of God? Do you desire crave more of God? According to Psalm 107:9, this is the key to satisfaction in your soul. This is the key to your soul, your heart, your mind, your life being filled with good things. God satisfies the longing soul. God builds with good things, the hungry soul. And I just want to encourage you today to cultivate this kind of soul, this kind of heart before God.
It’s hungry for him. You say, well, how do I, how do I make my heart hungry for him? And the answer to that question is by feasting on him. I’ve used the illustration many times before of when I first went over to my wife Heather’s house. We were just getting to know each other at that point. And I grew up in a family where we never ate seafood. And my dad didn’t like seafood, we just never ate it.
But when I got over there that night, her family was having seafood and even the smell of seafood, I didn’t even like, I guess just because of the influence of my dad. But I sat down and this seafood feast was placed in front of me. And I ate every bite and said how much I loved it as I wanted to make a good impression on my girlfriend’s family.
And the problem is they believed me, which meant in subsequent times I would eat with her family and they’d be like, Hey, we’re making seafood since you love seafood. I started going on vacations with her family and we’d go to seafood restaurants. They’d be like, what’s your favorite seafood restaurant? And I’m like, ah, I don’t know. They’re all so good. Like the reality is I knew where the burger restaurants were, but not the seafood restaurants.
Psalm 107:9 Invites Us to Find Our Soul’s Contentment Only in God
But the end of that story is today I love seafood. Why? Because I had to eat seafood in order to get my wife. And I say that jokingly, but my taste buds changed as I ate more seafood. It’s not a perfect illustration. And I’m certainly not saying just feast on God, even if it doesn’t taste good and your taste buds will change. But I am saying, if we spend our lives feasting on the things of this world, if we spend our idle time just scrolling through the phone and looking at all kinds of stuff in this world and filling our minds with Netflix and video games or sports or a million other things that might vie for our mind’s attention, our heart’s affection of this world, when we eat from the table of this world, we shouldn’t be surprised that our stomachs are full.
We don’t have hunger for God. So how do you transform that? Get alone with God. Put aside the things of this world. Get into his word. And what will happen is your soul will begin to realize this is what you were made for. God is the one for whom you were made. And your soul will find a satisfaction in him that nothing in this world can compare with your soul, will find good things in God that will leave you craving for more and more and more of him.
Oh God, create this kind of longing in all of our souls, this kind of hunger in all of our souls. Wean us off our constant nibbling at tasting a feasting on the things of this world that do not satisfy our souls. And teach us to feast on you to find our satisfaction in you, knowing that according to your word, you satisfy the longing soul.
You fill with good things, the hungry soul. So may our souls hunger and long for you over and above everything in this world.
Praying for the Jirel People
And God, even as we pray that in our lives, we pray for the Jirel people of Nepal who’ve never tasted, have never seen the satisfaction you bring in Jesus because they’ve never even heard the gospel of Jesus God. For the sake of their satisfaction, for the sake of their souls being filled with good things.
We pray for the spread of your grace in the gospel to the Jirel people of Nepal, that they might have their longing souls satisfied in Jesus, that they might have their hungry, starving souls filled with the good things that flow from your grace. God, we pray this over the Jirel people of Nepal, even as we pray this over our own lives, according to your word in Psalm 107:9, in Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
