Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: October 3rd

THE SATISFIED SOUL STILL SEEKING

My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me. - Psalms 63:8

The word translated followeth here literally means to cleave, or to cling. And there is a beautiful double idea of a two-fold relationship expressed in that somewhat incongruous form of speech "cleave after Thee," the former word giving the idea of union and possession, the latter suggesting the other idea of search and pursuit: so that the two main currents of thought in the psalm are repeated in that little phrase; and we are back again - though with a wonderful difference - to the ground-tone of the first section. There the soul thirsteth; here "the soul cleaveth after" - both expressive of pursuit, but the latter, as consequent upon the satisfaction which followed upon the thirst, speaks of a more profound possession and of a less sense of want.

" My soul cleaveth after God." That is to say, inasmuch as He is infinite, and this nature of mine is incapable of indefinite expansion, each new possession of Him which follows upon an enlarged desire will open the elastic walls of my heart so that they shall enclose a wider space and be capable of holding more of God, and therefore I shall possess more. Desire expands the heart; possession expands the heart. More of God comes when we can hold more of Him, and the end of all fruition is the renewed desire after further fruition.

This world’s gifts cloy and never satisfy; God satisfies and never cloys. And we have, and we shall have, if we are His children, the double delight of a continual fruition and a continued desire. So we shall ascend, if I may so say, in ever higher and higher spirals, which will rise further and draw in more closely towards the unreached and unattainable Throne of the Blessed Himself: " My soul thirsteth "; "my soul is satisfied "; " my satisfied soul still longs and follows."

And then there is also very beautifully here the co-operation and reciprocal action of the seeking soul and of the sustaining God. "My soul followeth hard after Thee; Thy right hand upholdeth me." We hold and we are held. We hold because we are held, and we are held while we hold. We follow, and yet He is with us; we long, and yet we possess; we pursue, and yet in the very act of pursuit we are upheld by His hand. We shall not follow unless He holds us up. He will not hold us up unless we follow. All controversies of grace and freewill are reconciled and lulled to sleep in these great words: "My soul followeth hard after Thee; Thy right hand upholdeth me."