Satisfied and Filled

December 16

Satisfied. Filled. Most of us who have been blessed to have been born in Twentieth/Twenty-first Century America have never had to contemplate the significance of these two words. We take them for granted because we have never been without the benefit of them.

We have never experienced starvation. In fact, we use the word glibly… how many of us have said, “I’m starving,” to indicate we were ready for our next meal? Most of us have said, “I don’t have a thing to wear,” even as our closets are stuffed with clothing for all seasons.

Oh, yes, we may have had our ups and downs in life, we’ve endured our share of sickness and loss and disappointed hopes, but we have never had to grovel in poverty; we have never known stomach-wrenching hunger. When it has come to life’s basic needs, we have been satisfied and filled.

Psalm 107:9 says, “He has satisfied the thirsty and filled the hungry with good things.” We in the modern West tend to associate that statement with economic abundance. We claim the prosperity gospel that suggests all believers should abound in temporal wealth. Yet, there is a far deeper, more profound essence to David’s words.

Remember who David was. The young shepherd boy who tended his father’s flock and ran errands for his older brothers would grow up to become Israel’s King. David would route armies and build cities and control great wealth, but when he was a shepherd, he knew lack, he experienced the cold of night, the dread of loss, the fear of the unknown.

It seems then that what the Lord God is promising here is not that our stomachs or our coffers will always be full, but that we may enjoy the abundance of satisfaction that comes when our spirits are overflowing within us! No matter what our external circumstances may be, we may abound in the fruit of His presence—love, joy, peace, patience—the fruit of His Spirit found in Galatians 5:22.

And we may overflow with faith, “without which it is impossible to please Him,” Hebrews 11:6, “for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” We will overflow with a faith that assures our complete provision of spirit for time and eternity. Our spirits will be satisfied and filled.