Redeemer Fellowship Johnson County

There is a universal experience of longing that all of us feel. Either an acute sense surrounding a situation or as a constant companion, we feel what can described as a thirst of the soul. In this Psalm David models for us what to do with that longing and how to lean towards God for satisfaction.

We sing praises to the Lord for his redemption and his sovereign reign over the earth as a testimony to a God-forgetful world and our God forgetful souls. Singing is a response of the people of God that is rooted in an intellectual and experiential knowledge of God that expresses itself through our emotions and our voices, and is filled with expectancy for God to move among us again. As God's people we sing 1) to praise him for his miraculous redemptive acts in the past; 2) to declare to the nations who actually rules the world and invite them to join in the song; and 3) in anticipation of the full-expression of his just and righteous reign over all of creation.

When you pray for strength, what do you usually pray for? For most of us we have in mind strength to do more, to stay faithful, to be disciplined, to persevere, to not lose it with our kids, even just to make it through the day. No doubt all of those are good things to pray for, but this passage is actually a prayer for God to strengthen our hearts so we have a greater capacity to know and experience the love of God. What if what we most need to keep going is strength to know how long and wide and deep and high the love of God is for us. This passage both invites us and models for us how to pray for just that.

D. A. Carson writes that what the Western Church needs most is to grow in the knowledge of God. And that doesn't just mean that we need a deeper intellectual understanding of God. A life of vibrant faith is fruit of an intimate, experiential knowledge of God. And this intimate, experiential knowledge of God is a gift from God that is produced in us by the Spirit of God, causing our hearts to understand and enjoy more fully the fruit of our redemption in Christ.