Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Sermons
O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The fear of God described the whole of practical religion. There are various kinds and degrees of fear caused by our relation to God, combined in various proportions with other sentiments, he is the great and powerful, and we are the weak; and we are naturally ignorant of his nature; and till we know whether he is a malignant or a benevolent being, we naturally dread him. The fear which dreads him is the first feeling which springs up. When we have passed out of and beyond the feeling of dread, we may still be overpowered by awe. We feel that God is greater than our highest, most perfect knowledge of his nature; his vastness overcomes and prostrates us. Jacob; Job; David. But the strangest cause of fear is the sense of transgression and the fear of punishment. We dread the judgment of God upon lives and actions. He must know the realities that lie beneath all appearance - the good and the evil. We may well fear when we think of his knowledge of us. The revelations of God's impersonal nature alarm us. They are all love and no feeling. The hurricane and the tempest are pitiless. The revelations of his personal nature in man and in Christ are full of compassion. God in Christ is the -Physician; but we cannot help fearing what he may have to do upon us for our healing, before we can be made whole. But we ought to believe and know that, like a good physician, he never inflicts any but necessary pain, and how much the infliction costs him in his sympathy with us. Our theology often teaches that there are reasons for servile fear; that our relation to God is that of a courtier to an Eastern despot; or that of a Jew debtor to a Jew creditor, who has no generosity, but exacts the uttermost farthing; or that of a criminal to a Judge who tries to compound with the law by getting an innocent person to suffer for his crimes instead of himself; or who thinks God, in his providential discipline, a cruel Being, who calls upon him to suffer the loss of his children, as he called upon Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, in order to test his faith. But faith casts out the terrors of fear, not inspires them, and does not need such cruel experiments for our discipline. Then there is the fear inspired by faith and love, but which has no torment. A man who has a great undertaking before him, calling for the skill and energy of his highest functions, naturally trembles lest he should fail; like a painter, who stands at his task, but his heart trembling with the great pulses of his conception. He is fearful in proportion as he sees the perfection of the thing he is trying to embody. Turner watching the storm - that he might know how to paint it. So there is a lofty and noble fear of aspiration lest we should not fulfil the Divine purpose of love in our lives. The fear felt towards a good mother, who would sacrifice her life for her child. "How awful goodness is!" - S. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. I. A SHORT BUT BEAUTIFUL DESCRIPTION OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN. He is one that seeks the Lord. This description of a Christian is invariably correct. It. THE PROMISE SET FORTH BY WAY OF CONTRAST. "They shall not want any good thing." "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;" that is the foil to set off the jewel and make it shine more brightly. "They shall not want any good thing." We have heard of the celebrated cheque for a million pounds which has been preserved; here is one for millions of millions. Here is a promise wide as our wants, large as our necessities, deep as our distresses. But here is a contrast. "The young lions do lack," etc. There are certain men in the world who, like the lions, are kings over others. They are great and mighty men; they have no need of a Saviour, or of the Holy Spirit! You may think, perhaps, like David, that "they are not plagued like other men." But you don't know that. They are very often plagued when they do not tell you. "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Poor and helpless though they are, having no works of righteousness of their own, confessing their sin and depravity, they shall want no good thing. Is it not amazing? () Helps for the Pulpit. I. THE CHARACTER HERE SPECIFIED. 1. They have been given to see and feel the necessity of seeking the Lord. 2. They have sought the Lord in the appointed way. 3. Seeking the Lord is a constant duty. 4. They seek Him with earnestness and diligence. II. THE ADVANTAGE OF SEEKING THE LORD. They shall not want any good thing — 1. Connected with their salvation or acceptance with God. 2. Connected with Divine providence. 3. Necessary for their protection and guidance through the wilderness of this world. 4. To comfort them in darkness and trouble. 5. In reference to communion with God. 6. As respects support in death. 7. To secure their safe arrival in heaven. III. APPLICATION. 1. Learn to trace all this goodness to its proper source. God has given you His choicest gift, even Christ, therefore the inferior ones will not be withheld (Romans 8:32). 2. As nothing human can ever become a substitute for the Divine care, constantly live in its enjoyment. 3. How great must be the poverty and wretchedness of the sinner. He is destitute of all these good things. () II. THE SEEKING WHICH ALWAYS FINDS. Now, how do we "seek the Lord"? We do not seek Him as if He had not sought us, or was hiding from us. But our search of Him is search after one who is near every one of us, and who delights in nothing so much as in pouring Himself into every heart. It is a short search that the child by her mother's skirts, or her father's side, has to make for mother or father. It is a shorter search that we have to make for God. We seek Him by desire, by communion, by obedience. And they who thus seek Him find Him in the act of seeking Him, just as certainly as if I open my eye I see the sun, as if I dilate my lungs the atmosphere rushes into them. For He is always seeking us. "The leather seeketh such to worship Him." So that if we do seek Him, we shall surely find. We each of us have, accurately and precisely, as much of God as we desire to have. If there is only a very little of the Water of Life in our vessels, it is because we do not care to possess any more. "Seek, and ye shall find." ()
People Abimelech, David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Grow, Hunger, Hungry, Lack, Lacked, Lions, Seek, Seeking, Suffer, WeakOutline 1. David praises God, and exhorts others thereto by his experience
8. They are blessed who trust in God
11. He exhorts to the fear of God
15. The privileges of the righteous
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 34:10 4666 lion Psalm 34:8-10 8160 seeking God Psalm 34:9-10 5185 stomach
8409 decision-making, and providence Library Struggling and Seeking
'The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.'--PSALM xxxiv. 10. If we may trust the superscription of this psalm, it was written by David at one of the very darkest days of his wanderings, probably in the Cave of Adullam, where he had gathered around him a band of outlaws, and was living, to all appearance, a life uncommonly like that of a brigand chief, in the hills. One might have pardoned him if, at such a moment, some cloud of doubt or …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureNo Condemnation
'None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.' --PSALM xxxiv. 22. These words are very inadequately represented in the translation of the Authorised Version. The Psalmist's closing declaration is something very much deeper than that they who trust in God 'shall not be desolate.' If you look at the previous clause, you will see that we must expect something more than such a particular blessing as that:--'The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants.' It is a great drop from that thought, instead …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Encamping Angel
'The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.'--PSALM xxxiv. 7. If we accept the statement in the superscription of this psalm, it dates from one of the darkest hours in David's life. His fortunes were never lower than when he fled from Gath, the city of Goliath, to Adullam. He never appears in a less noble light than when he feigned madness to avert the dangers which he might well dread there. How unlike the terror and self-degradation of the man who 'scrabbled …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Religion Pleasant to the Religious.
"O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."--Psalm xxxiv. 8. You see by these words what love Almighty God has towards us, and what claims He has upon our love. He is the Most High, and All-Holy. He inhabiteth eternity: we are but worms compared with Him. He would not be less happy though He had never created us; He would not be less happy though we were all blotted out again from creation. But He is the God of love; He brought us all into existence, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII Lions Lacking --But the Children Satisfied
RIGHT truly did Paul say, "Whereby he hath given unto us exceeding great and precious promises;" for surely this promise is exceeding great indeed. In the entire compass of God's holy word, there is not to be found a precious declaration which can excel this in sweetness; for how could God promise to use more than all things? how could even his infinite benevolence stretch the line of his grace farther than it hath gone in this verse of the psalm?--"They that seek the Lord shall not want any good …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856 A Poor Man's Cry, and what came of It
On this occasion I want to speak of what happens to those who do return to God; because many have newly been brought, through mighty grace. Some of them I have seen; and I have rejoiced over them with exceeding great joy. They tell me that they did distinctly lay hold on eternal life last Sabbath day; and they are clear about what it means. They came out of darkness into his marvellous light; they knew it, and could not resist the impulse at once to tell those with whom they sat in the pews, that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 Looking unto Jesus
"Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find,--" God shrouded and veiled in the manhood,--there we can with steady gaze behold him, for so he cometh down to us, and our poor finite intelligence can understand and lay hold upon him. I shall therefore use my text this morning, and I think very legitimately, in reference to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ--"They looked unto him, and were lightened;" for when we look at God, as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, and behold the Godhead …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858 Seeking Richly Rewarded
"The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."--Psalm 34:10. THE young lions are very strong; they are as yet in the freshness of their youth, and yet their strength does not always suffice to keep them supplied. The young lions are very crafty; they understand how to waylay their game and leap upon them with a sudden spring at unawares, and yet, with all their craftiness, they howl for hunger in the wood. The young lions are very bold and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 60: 1914 Tender Mercies, on My Way
"I will bless the Lord at all times." -- Psalm 34:1. Tender mercies, on my way Falling softly like the dew, Sent me freshly every day, I will bless THE LORD for you. Though I have not all I would, Though to greater bliss I go, Every present gift of good To Eternal Love I owe. Source of all that comforts me, Well of joy for which I long, Let the song I sing to Thee Be an everlasting song. …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations But God Wanted not Power to Make Man Such as that He Should Not...
16. But God wanted not power to make man such as that he should not be able to sin: but He chose rather to make him such, as that it should lie in his power [1859] to sin, if he would; not to sin, if he would not; forbidding the one, enjoining the other; that it might be to him first a good desert not to sin, and after a just reward not to be able to sin. For such also at the last will He makes His Saints, as to be without all power to sin. Such forsooth even now hath He His angels, whom in Him we …
St. Augustine—On Continence Letter xi (Circa A. D. 1120) the Abbot of Saint Nicasius at Rheims
The Abbot of Saint Nicasius at Rheims He consoles this abbot for the departure of the Monk Drogo and his transfer to another monastery, and exhorts him to patience. 1. How much I sympathize with your trouble only He knows who bore the griefs of all in His own body. How willingly would I advise you if I knew what to say, or help you if I were able, as efficaciously as I would wish that He who knows and can do all things should advise and assist me in all my necessities. If brother Drogo had consulted …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Draw Me, we Will Run after Thee to the Odor of Thine Ointments.
This young lover prays the Bridegroom to draw her by the centre of her soul, as if she were not satisfied with the sweetness of the balsam poured forth among her powers; for she already comprehends, through the grace of the Bridegroom, who continually draws her with more and more force, that there is an enjoyment of Himself more noble and more intimate than that which she at present shares. This is what gives rise to her present request. Draw me, says she, into the most interior chambers of my soul, …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon Fourth Sunday after Easter Second Sermon.
Text: James 1, 16-21. 16 Be not deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Ye know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II Biographical Preface.
"The Church! Am I asked again, What is the Church? The ploughman at his daily toil--the workman who plies the shuttle--the merchant in his counting-house--the scholar in his study--the lawyer in the courts of justice--the senator in the hall of legislature--the monarch on his throne--these, as well as the clergymen in the works of the material building which is consecrated to the honour of God--these constitute the Church. The Church is the whole congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety The Dead Christ
It was not usual to remove bodies from the cross immediately after their death. They were allowed to hang, exposed to the weather, till they rotted and fell to pieces; or they might be torn by birds or beasts; and at last a fire was perhaps kindled beneath the cross to rid the place of the remains. Such was the Roman custom; but among the Jews there was more scrupulosity. In their law there stood this provision: "If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang …
James Stalker—The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ The Abbots Euroul and Loumon.
To the examples already given in the previous biographies, of the power which religion exercised over the rough and savage mind, we may add the following. The abbot Ebrolf (Euroul) had settled with his monks in a thick forest, infested by wild beasts and robbers. One of the robbers came to them, and, struck with reverence at their aspect, said to them: "Ye have chosen no fit dwelling for you here. The inhabitants of this forest live by plunder, and will not tolerate any one amongst them who maintains …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places Letter Xli to Thomas of St. Omer, after He had Broken his Promise of Adopting a Change of Life.
To Thomas of St. Omer, After He Had Broken His Promise of Adopting a Change of Life. He urges him to leave his studies and enter religion, and sets before him the miserable end of Thomas of Beverley. To his dearly beloved son, Thomas, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, that he may walk in the fear of the Lord. 1. You do well in acknowledging the debt of your promise, and in not denying your guilt in deferring its performance. But I beg you not to think simply of what you promised, but to …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Letter Xlix to Romanus, Sub-Deacon of the Roman Curia.
To Romanus, Sub-Deacon of the Roman Curia. He urges upon him the proposal of the religious life, recalling the thought of death. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, to his dear Romanus, as to his friend. MY DEAREST FRIEND, How good you are to me in renewing by a letter the sweet recollection of yourself and in excusing my tiresome delay. It is not possible that any forgetfulness of your affection could ever invade the hearts of those who love you; but, I confess, I thought you had almost forgotten yourself …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Bunsen's Biblical Researches.
When geologists began to ask whether changes in the earth's structure might be explained by causes still in operation, they did not disprove the possibility of great convulsions, but they lessened necessity for imagining them. So, if a theologian has his eyes opened to the Divine energy as continuous and omnipresent, he lessens the sharp contrast of epochs in Revelation, but need not assume that the stream has never varied in its flow. Devotion raises time present into the sacredness of the past; …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World Second Sunday after Easter
Text: First Peter 2, 20-25. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not; but committed …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II The Great Privilege of those that are Born of God
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." 1 John 3:9. 1. It has been frequently supposed, that the being born of God was all one with the being justified; that the new birth and justification were only different expressions, denoting the same thing: It being certain, on the one hand, that whoever is justified is also born of God; and, on the other, that whoever is born of God is also justified; yea, that both these gifts of God are given to every believer in one and the same moment. In one …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions Fifth Lesson. Ask, and it Shall be Given You;
Ask, and it shall be given you; Or, The Certainty of the Answer to Prayer. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened,'--Matt. vii. 7, 8. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.'--Jas. iv. 3. OUR Lord returns here in the Sermon on the Mount a second time to speak of prayer. The first time He had spoken of the Father who is …
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer Cæsarius of Arles.
He was born in the district of Chalons-sur-Saone, A. D. 470. He seems to have been early awakened, by a pious education, to vital Christianity. When he was between seven and eight years old, it would often happen that he would give a portion of his clothes to the poor whom he met, and would say, when he came home, that he had been, constrained to do so. When yet a youth, he entered the celebrated convent on the island of Lerins, (Lerina,) in Provence, from which a spirit of deep and practical piety …
Augustus Neander—Light in the Dark Places Links Psalm 34:10 NIV
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