The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season.
You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Parallel Translations
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The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season.
You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
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The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
Show all 3 translations
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The eyes of all wait for Thee, and Thou givest them their food in due season.
Thou openest Thy hand, and satisfiest every living thing with favour.
Cross-references (15)
- Psalms 104:28 (v16) You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.
- Psalms 136:25 (v15) who gives food to every creature; for his loving kindness endures forever.
- Psalms 104:27 (v15) These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season.
- Psalms 107:9 (v16) For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.
- Acts 17:25 (v15) He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
Show all 15 cross-references
- Matthew 6:26 (v15) See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of…
- Psalms 132:15 (v16) I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread.
- Psalms 147:8-9 (v15) who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains. He provides food for the livestock,…
- Job 38:39-41 (v15) “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the…
- Luke 12:24 (v15) Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you…
- Genesis 1:30 (v15) To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have…
- Job 38:27 (v16) to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?
- Psalms 104:21 (v15) The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.
- Psalms 145:9 (v15) Yahweh is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works.
- Joel 2:22 (v15) Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv15–16 15. The eyes of all hope in thee. David…
15. The eyes of all hope in thee. David adduces an additional proof of God’s goodness, in giving food to all living creatures, and thus showing himself in the character of the father of a family. Some interpreters, led by the term hope, which is employed, restrict the application to men, as being endued with reason and intelligence, to seek their food from their heavenly father, while the beasts seek it only in a gross manner, by sight or smell. But although not endued with the exercise of reason, leading them to depend upon God’s providence, necessity itself forces even them, by a certain hidden instinct, to seek their food, so that they may very properly be said to hope in God, as elsewhere the young ravens are said to cry unto him. (Psalm 147:9.) Besides, those who would restrict the words to man, still leave them open to the charge of impropriety; for the wicked have no regard to the fatherly care of God, more than the ox or the ass. Since such is the order established in nature that all animals are brought to a dependence upon their Maker, there is no impropriety in supposing the affection of desire or expectation to be here put for the fact of dependence itself. “Il ne sera point mal connenable que l’affection soit yei mise pour la chose mesme.” — Fr.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v15 To wit, as well of man, as of beast.
To wit, as well of man, as of beast.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv15–16 Psa 145:15 The eyes of all wait upon thee;…
Psa 145:15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Ver. 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee] Heb. look up with hope to this great housekeeper of the world. The elephant is said to turn up the first sprig towards heaven when he comes to feed. The young ravens cry to God for food, Psa 147:9; at least by implication.
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Their meat] Suitable to their various appetites.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The eyes of all living creatures wait upon thee;…
The eyes of all living creatures wait upon thee; expect and receive their supplies wholly from thy bounty. Expectation is here figuratively ascribed to brute creatures, as Psa 104:27; Rom 8:22.
In due season; when they need it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The eyes of all wait upon thee,.... Not of…
The eyes of all wait upon thee,.... Not of all creatures, the beasts of the field, the fishes of the sea, and fowls of the air, as in Psa 104:27; but of all the Lord's people, who are subject to fall and be depressed: these, as they look unto him for deliverance and salvation, and wait upon him for it, and expect it from him; so their eyes are directed to him for their spiritual food, as well as for their temporal bread, and ask it of him, and wait to have it from him:
and thou givest them their meat in due season; the meat which endures to everlasting life; the flesh of Christ, which is meat indeed; the doctrines of the Gospel, which, as some of them are milk for babes, others are meat for strong men, or strong meat for experienced believers: and these are given forth under Christ's direction, by his ministering servants, who are his wise and faithful stewards, that give to everyone of the family their portion of meat in due season, which is the word fitly spoken; and, when it is so, how good it is! Luk 12:42. This is food convenient for them, given out "in his time" (h), as in the original; either in the Lord's time, which he sees best; or in their time, as the Syriac version, when they most need it, and it will do them most good.
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(h) "suo tempore", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v15 All - Of all living creatures. Wait - Expect…
All - Of all living creatures. Wait - Expect their supplies wholly from thy bounty. Expectation is here figuratively ascribed to brute creatures.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv15–16 Verse 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee]…
Verse 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee] What a fine figure! The young of all animals look up to their parents for food. God is here represented as the universal Father, providing food for every living creature.
In due season] The kind of food that is suited to every animal, and to all the stages of life in each animal. This is a wonderful mystery. It is a fact that all are thus provided for; but how is it done? All expect it from God, and not one is disappointed! For,
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The eyes of all wait upon thee - Margin,…
The eyes of all wait upon thee - Margin, Look unto thee. All creatures, on the land, in the air, in the waters; all in heaven; all throughout the universe. That is, It is as if all directed their eyes to thee imploringly for the supply of their needs. To no one else can they look for those things which are needful for them. A universe thus looks every day, every hour, every moment, to its God! How sublime the scene!
And thou givest them their meat in due season - See the notes at Psa 104:27, where the same words occur.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v15 eyes of . . . thee--or, look with expecting…
eyes of . . . thee--or, look with expecting faith (Psa 104:27-28).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v15 15, 16. These verses were chanted in the ancient…
15, 16. These verses were chanted in the ancient Church before the noon repast. Psa_145:15 was also repeated at the Holy Communion. In due season is referred to the successive maturing of various grains and fruits in the course of the year. It is put as a marked feature of the divine government, that, great as it is, the wants of the weakest are treated with consideration, even to the feeding of the sparrows and the tinting of a lily.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–16 15. The picture of God as the great householder…
15. The picture of God as the great householder distributing their portions to all His household is repeated from Psa_104:27. Cp. Mat_6:26. The next verse also is based upon Psa_104:28.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v15 (15, 16) These verses are adapted from Psa_104:27-28
(15, 16) These verses are adapted from Psa_104:27-28
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou…
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. (cf. Psa_104:21, 27 136:25 147:9) The constant supply of all living creatures with their necessary food is little less than a standing miracle.
The universal dependence and expectation.
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"Man is master. But there is a great deal in this world besides man. Nature takes a thousand darlings to her bosom. Every evening motherly Darkness puts to bed myriads of unnamed children of the sod, of the leaf, of the tree, bush, moss, and stone. Every morn she sends again to awaken her brood, and troops them forth to their dewy breakfast. We sometimes get nearer to God in proportion as we get far from men. These neglected treasures of Nature are a book of Divine things, and if we do not read, the Creator does" (Ward Beecher). It is full of a sweet significance that the same word should be used concerning God that we use to express the anxiety and pressure under which we so often groan. The Apostle Peter says, "Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you." God cares for his possessions and his family, even as we care for ours. But how complex, vast, and wonderful his possessions and family are! and how sublime must be his care!
I GOD"S CARE OF HIS CREATURES SEES IN ADJUSTMENTS. All his creatures are put in their proper places, and kept in their proper places. The distribution of animate life, and the adjustment of creature to environment, and ministry of each creature where it is put, keep up, for thoughtful minds, unceasing wonder at God"s ever-watchful care.
II GOD"S CARE OF HIS CREATURES SEES IN LIMITATIONS. This point is not often presented. In order to be effective, the reproductive power in vegetable and animal life is bound to be so full and strong that there comes to be everywhere danger of over-production. Illustrate by the devastation wrought by rabbits when their growth is exempt from limitations. How seldom we think of God"s goodness and care in keeping everything limited to strict efficiency; and providing destructive agencies to keep growths within safe bounds!
III GOD"S CARE OF HIS CREATURES IS SEEN IN PROVIDINGS. This brings to us very familiar considerations. But point may be gained by dealing with some sample cases: e.g. the gnat of the summer evening; caddis-worm; or those insects that are unpleasant to us; dangerous serpents, etc. God "gives to them all their meat in due season. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv15–16 Ver. 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee.…
Ver. 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee. They have learned to look to thee: it has become their nature to turn to thee for all they want. As children look to a father for all they need, so do the creatures look to God, the all sufficient Provider. It were well if all men had the eye of faith, and if all waited therewith upon the Lord. And thou givest them their meat in due season. They wait, and God gives. The thought of this brings God so near to our poet prophet that he is again speaking with God after the style of thee and thou. Is it to be wondered at when the Lord is feeding the hungry all around us, giving food to all creatures, and to ourselves among them? Like a flock of sheep the creatures stand around the Lord as their great Shepherd; all eyes are to his hand expecting to receive their food; nor are they disappointed, for when the hour comes suitable provender is ready for each creature. Observe the punctuality of the Lord in giving food at meal time, in the season when it is due. This he does for all, and each living thing has its own season, so that the Lord of heaven is feeding his great flock both by day and by night, during every moment of time.
Ver. 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee. God cannot be overmastered by what is great and enormous, so neither can he overlook what is small and insignificant. God is that being to whom the only great thing is himself; and, therefore, when, "the eyes of all wait upon him", the seraph gains not attention by his gaze of fire, and the insect loses it not through the feebleness of vision. Arch angels, and angels, and men, and beasts of the field, and fowls of the air, and fish of the sea, draw equally the regard of him, who, counting nothing great but himself, the Creator, can pass over as small no fraction of the creature. Henry Melvill.
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Ver. 15. Doth not nature teach you to pray? Ask the brutes, the ravens, lions, etc. (Job 38:41 Ps 147:9 104:27 145:15); not as if these unreasonable creatures could know and worship God, but because nature hath taught them so much of this duty as they are capable of and can bear; they have some sense of their burdens and wants, they groan and cry, and desire to be eased; and the Lord hearkeneth to this voice and saith, "Now the poor creature is crying to me, and I will pity it." Ah! shall the beasts in their own way cry to God, and wilt thou be silent? Hath the Lord elevated thee so far above these inferior creatures, and fitted thee for the immediate acts of his worship, and for a higher communion with himself, and wilt thou not serve him accordingly? Hath he given thee a heart and a spiritual soul, as he hath given the brutes a sensitive appetite and natural desires, and shall they cry to God with the one, and not thou with the other? Alexander Pitcairne, 1664.
Ver. 15. Eyes...wait upon thee. Many dumb beggars have been relieved at Christ's gate by making signs. William Seeker.
Ver. 15. In agony nature is no atheist, the mind which knows not where to fly, flies to God. Hannah More, 1745-1833.
Ver. 15. The creatures are his, and therefore to be received with thanksgiving; this our Saviour performed with great rigour and zeal; thus teaching us, when "looking up to heaven", that "the eyes of all" ought, in the most literal sense, "to wait" upon that Lord "who gives them their meat in due season."...A secret sense of God's goodness is by no means enough. Men should make solemn and outward expressions of it, when they receive his creatures for their support; a service and homage not only due to him, but profitable to themselves. George Stanhope, 1660-1728.
Ver. 15. While atheism, in its strict signification, namely, that of total denial of God's existence, is scarcely, if at all, to be found on earth; atheism, as regards the denial of God's providence, is the espoused creed of hundreds amongst us. ...Providence, which is confessed in great things, is rejected in small things; and even if you can work up men to an easy confession that God presides over national concerns, you will find them withdrawing individuals from his scrutiny. We bring against this paring down of God's providence a distinct charge of atheism. If we confess the existence of a God at all, we read it in the workmanship of the tiniest leaf, as well as in the magnificent pinnacles of Andes and Alps: if we believe in the providence of God at all, we must confess that he numbers the hairs of our heads, as well as marshals the stars of the firmament; and that providence is not universal, and therefore cannot be godlike, if a sparrow, any more than a seraph, flit away unregarded.
Now, the words before us set themselves most strenuously against this popular atheism. The whole creation is represented as fastening its gaze on the universal Parent, and as drawing from his fulness the supply of every necessity. "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou give, them their meat in due season." There is made, you observe, no exception whatever; the exhibition is simply that of every rank and order of beings looking to the Almighty, confessing dependence upon him, and standing environed by his guardianship. So that, in place of anything which approximates to the abandonment of our creation, the Psalmist asserts a ceaseless attention to its wants, the suspension of which for an instant would cause chill and darkness throughout the whole universe. Henry Melvill.
Ver. 15. Thou givest them their meat in due season. The meat which endures to everlasting life; the flesh of Christ, which is meat indeed; the doctrines of the gospel, which, as some of them are milk for babes, others are meat for strong men, or strong meat for experienced believers; and these are given forth under Christ's direction, by his ministering servants, who are his wise and faithful stewards, that give to every one of the family their portion of meat in due season, which is the word fitly spoken; and, when it is so, how good it is! Lu 12:42 Pr 15:23. This is food convenient for them, given out in his time, as in the original; either in the Lord's time, when he sees best, or in their time, as the Syriac version, when they most need it, and it will do them most good. John Gill.
Ver. 15. (second clause.) It is said that God gives them "their food", and, "in its season", for the very variety of it serves more to illustrate the providence of God. Each has its own way of feeding, and the different kinds of aliment are designed and adapted for different uses. David therefore speaks of the food which is particular to them. The pronoun is not in the plural, and we are not to read in their season, as if it applied to the animals. The food he notices as given in its season; for here also we are to notice the admirable arrangements of divine providence, that there is a certain time appointed for harvest, vintage, and hay crop, and that the year is so divided into intervals, that the cattle are fed at one time on grass, at another on hay, or straw, or acorns, or other products of the earth. Were the whole supply poured forth at one and the same moment, it could not be gathered together so conveniently; and we have no small reason to admire the seasonableness with which the different kinds of fruit and aliment are yearly produced. John Calvin.
Ver. 15. Mr. Robertson told of a poor child who was accustomed to see unexpected provision for his mother's wants arrive in answer to prayer. The meal barrel in Scotland is everything to a hungry boy: so he said, "Mother, I think God aye hears when we're scraping the bottom o' the barrel." "The Christian."
Ver. 15-17. Who can fear that, because God's ways are unsearchable, they may not be all tending to the final good of his creatures, when he knows that with the tenderness of a most affectionate parent this Creator and Governor ministers to the meanest living thing? Who can be disquieted by the mysteriousness of the Divine dealings when he remembers that they are those of one who never ceases for a solitary moment to consult the happiness of whatsoever he hath formed? Who, in short, can distrust God because clouds and darkness are round about him, when there is light enough to show that he is the vigilant guardian of every tenant of this earth, that his hand upholds, and his breath animates, and his bounty nourishes, the teeming hordes of the city, and the desert, and the ocean? It seems that there is thus a beautiful, though tacit process of reasoning in our text, and that the seventeenth verse is set in its proper connection. It is as though David had said, "Come, let us muse on the righteousness of God. He would not be God if he were not righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works; and therefore we may be sure that whatsoever he does is the best that could be done, whether or not we can discover its excellence."
Yes, this may be true, but when we look on the divine dealings what an abyss of dark waters there is! How unsearchable, how unfathomable are God's judgments! We admit it; but being previously convinced of God's righteousness, we ought not to be staggered by what is dark in his dispensations.
"True", you reply, "but the mind does not seem satisfied by this reasoning; it may be convincing to the intellect, but it does not address itself to the feelings." Well, then, pass from what is dark in God's dealing to what is clear. He is about your path and about your bed; he "preserveth man and beast"; "his tender mercies are over all his works." Is this a God of whom to be suspicious? Is this a God to mistrust? Oh! surely if you will fortify yourselves by such facts as these"Thou, O Lord, satisfiest the desire of every living thing", "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season" if, I say, you will fortify your minds by such facts as these, you will be able at all times and in all circumstances to join heartily in the acknowledgment of the Psalmist"The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works." Henry Melvill.
Ver. 15-16. Universal dependence and divine support. The Psalmist here teaches
1. The Universality of Dependence amongst creatures: "The eyes of all wait upon thee." We depend upon God for "life, and breath, and all things." Entire dependence should beget deep humility.
2. The Infinitude of the Divine Resources: "And thou givest them their meat." His resources must be,
a) Infinitely vast.
b) Infinitely various. Both sufficient and adapted for all.
3. The Timeliness of the Divine Communications: "In due season. "A reason for patience if his gifts seem delayed.
4. The Sublime Ease of the Divine Communications: "Thou openest thine hand", and the countless needs of the universe are satisfied. An encouragement to believing prayer.
5. The Sufficiency of the
Divine Communications: "And satisfiest the desire of
every living thing." "God giveth to all liberally." Our
subject urges all men to,
a) Gratitude. Constant provision should lead to constant thankfulness and consecration.
b) Trust. (1) For temporal supplies. (2) For spiritual supplies. "Grace to help in time of need" will surely be given to all who look to him. William Jones, in "The Homiletic Quarterly", 1878.
Psalms 145:16*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The eyes of all wait upon Thee.
Psa_145:15-17
The eyes of all wait upon Thee.
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The Divine dealings and attributes
We lose a great deal by taking verses by themselves, considering them as detached and isolated passages in place of noticing how closely they may be connected with the context. For instance, if we take as our text the last of these three verses, The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works, no doubt we should find abundant material of important discourse, for when the psalmist throws in the word all His ways, all His works, there is a largeness of assertion, in reference to the Divine dealings, which displays strong faith and close examination. But when you read the two preceding verses, The eyes of all wait upon Thee, etc., you naturally ask, how came the psalmist to pass so directly from contemplating the goodness of God, as displayed in the arrangements of providence, to the expressing in such unqualified terms his conviction as to the righteousness of all Gods ways, and the holiness of all Gods works? What connection is there? How does the one thought or belief originate in the other? The word righteousness, as used of God, most frequently denotes that perfection whereby God is most just and holy in Himself, and observes the strictest rules of equity in every proceeding of His creatures; and when the psalmist asserts God to be righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works, he evidently means that every dispensation is marked both by justice and goodness, that, however unable we may be to discern or apprehend the reasons for each separate dealing, we are bound to infer, from the very nature of God, that there must be reasons worthy alike of infinite wisdom and infinite lovingkindness. Now the psalmist must be considered as using the language of faith when he speaks of God as righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works; for every one who observes and studies the actings and dealings of God, whether with our race generally or with individuals in particular, must know that there is much which cannot now be explained, whose fitness is matter of faith, but; certainly not of demonstration, the Divine judgments being, as they are elsewhere described by David, a great deep. In the course of His providence God frequently acts upon grounds, and orders things in methods, which we have no ability to discover and to trace; and we can exclaim with St. Paul, How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out. But whilst we allow that the language is the language of faith, let us consider a little more closely whether there is any reason for surprise that Gods dealings should be inscrutable, and utterly past our comprehension. You are to remember that even amongst men the dealings of the wise are often founded on maxims which are not understood or appreciated by the great mass of their fellows, so that conduct appears unaccountable which nevertheless proceeds from the very highest sagacity. Is it, then to be wondered at if God, whose wisdom is as far above the wisest upon earth as the heaven is above this lower creation, should be incomprehensible in His actions, often doing very differently from what ourselves would have done, and proceeding in a way which appears to us the least likely to produce the desired result? Besides, what place, comparatively, would there be for faith if there were no depths in the Divine judgments, if every reason were so plain, every design so palpable that no one could do otherwise than acquiesce in the fitness and goodness of all Gods appointments. In any case of affliction, when trouble is now laid upon a man, the difficult, but, at the same time, profitable, duty is that of submitting meekly to the chastisement in the assurance that God doeth all things well, though to our apprehensions His proceedings may be dark. Let God remove the darkness of His proceedings, and let everything be as luminous to us as it is to Himself, and this duty, instead of being difficult, would cease to demand any effort; we should then walk by sight, and not by faith, and there would be nothing in bearing sorrow patiently when we saw the precise end which it was accomplishing, or the precise benefit which it was securing. There is something very beautiful in the imagery of the psalmist, Thy righteousness is like great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep. The judgments are a great deep, the immense ocean, unfathomable by any human line; but the righteousness is like the great mountains, giants of the earth, whose foundations are washed by unfathomable waters, whilst their summits lose themselves in the clouds. The mountains are to be considered as rising out of the waters and girding them around on every side. We know, from the parts of the mountains which are visible, that there are lower parts concealed from us by the waters, and are confident that the hidden parts meet the base around which the waters lie. And thus we should learn, from the righteousness which is conspicuous when we look towards the heavens, that there is a righteousness all around those lower obscurities which we are unable to penetrate, that the foundations which are beneath the waves are of the same material as the summits which are above, and which often glow with sunlight, though they may be sometimes shrouded in mist. Gods judgments are likened to the sea, whose depths we have no power of exploring; but out of this sea, at the same time encompassing and containing it, rise towering mountains, and these are the righteousness of God--that righteousness within which all His dealings rest, which may be said to hold them in their embrace, as the roots of the everlasting hills the multitudes of the waters, and which again, like the mountains, may be so discerned above the billows as to leave no doubt of its existing beneath. And as the hills which encircle a deep lake not only form by their foundations and sides the reservoir into which it is gathered, but make a mirror of their surface in which they glass their tops; so not only does the righteousness of God enclose and hold His judgments, but often so images itself that an attentive eye may catch the reflection. What, then, have we to do, when we launch out into the deep, but to remember the mountains which soar on every side, over whose massive, but far spreading, roots we may be sure that we are voyaging even when no line could take the soundings of the mighty abyss? We should never feel lost, as it were, in the judgments, if we kept in mind the righteousness of God; we should never be so far from land as to feel adrift on a boundless waste if faith were in exercise--faith in the perfections and attributes of our Maker--for there would be always some peak of the everlasting hills discernible by faith, some eminence coming out from the vast gatherings of cloud, serving as a beacon in the midst of the tempest. We can, however, imagine a man to have prepared himself, according to our foregoing directions, for surveying what is inexplicable in Gods dealings by fortifying his belief in Gods attributes. Still, when his eyes are on the great deep, it will be hard to keep faith in full exercise: he will be apt to forget, as he gazes on the dark, unfathomable expanse, the principles of which he thought himself so certain, and he will feel, Oh for some distinct, some visible evidence of that goodness of God which seems so opposed by all this darkness, and all this confusion! And you shall have it, the psalmist seems to exclaim; I will summon men of every country and every age, from the north and the south, from the east and the west; send hither the young and the old, I will summon every beast of the field, I will summon every fowl of the air; let the sea give up its multitude, let every leaf, every flower, every water-drop, pour forth its insect population--who feeds the innumerable throng? who erects their storehouses? who gives the supply for all these tenants of earth, sea, air? How comes it to pass that, morning after morning, the sun awakens huge cities to life, and causes the silent forest to echo with the warblings of birds, and calls into activity thousands of creatures on every mountain and every valley, and yet out of all this interminable throng thus revivified every dawn there is not the solitary being for whom there is no provision in the granaries of nature? The eyes of all wait upon Thee; Thou openest Thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Every planet, as it marches on, is moved by God; every star, as it revolves, is turned by God; every flower, as it opens, is unfolded by God; every blade of grass, as it springs, is reared by God--He preserveth man and beast. Aye, and if in place of suffering thought to wander across the spreadings of the universe, and nowhere can it reach the spot in which God is not busied, and nowhere find a creature of which He is not the life--if in place of this you carry it down to the inhabitants of this lower creation, what a picture is spread before it by the simple fact that in every department of animated nature the Almighty is momentarily engaged in ministering to the myriads whom He has called into existence--that from the king upon his throne to the beggar in his hovel, from the grey-haired veteran to the infant at the breast, from the lordly lion to the most insignificant reptile, from the vast leviathan to the tiny animalcule which we know only by the microscope, there is not to be found a solitary instance of a being neglected or overlooked by God, not a single case of life sustained independently of God, or that could last one second if God withheld His inspiration. And with this picture to turn to, after gazing till the vision has ached on the great deep of Gods judgments, ought you not to be always able to refresh yourselves in the midst of dark and intricate dispensations, and to get quit of the doubts and suspicions which may be raised by the apparent want of a strict moral government? Indeed, my brethren, there is not a morsel of food which we eat, there is not a bird which cheers us by its wild music, there is not an insect which we see sporting in the sun which ought not to reprove us if we mistrust God because His ways are unsearchable. Can it be that God is unmindful of the world, or that He is not studying what is for the good of His creatures, when He shows Himself attentive to the wants and comforts of the very meanest living thing, and whilst He regulates the course of the stars, and marshals the ranks of the cherubim and the seraphim, He bends down from His glorious throne and applies a guardianship as close to the ephemeral insect that floats by in the breeze, as though it were the only animate production, or the only one that required His providential care? (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Harvest thanksgiving
The earnest Christian cannot look abroad upon the face of Nature with a careless eye or an unmoved heart. By him God is seen in everything, and what others ascribe coldly to the operations of Nature he traces directly to the finger of God. The most insignificant flower is eloquent to him of his Creators goodness; the meanest insect that crawls beneath his feet speaks to him of God; and as he stands upon some mountain height and surveys the outstretched landscape, as he gazes upon the gorgeous panorama of wooded forest and sparkling stream, well-cultivated plains and waving cornfields, his heart glows within him with a sense of devout admiration, and he readily responds to the psalmists language.
I. Our dependence upon God. In our calm moments we all acknowledge that without Gods help we are helpless; without His blessing we cannot prosper. But such is the monotony of human life, such the regularity of events, and, I must add, such the subtle pride of the human heart, that this truth often becomes obscured and lost sight of. We need some sudden shock, some reversal of our present state to convince us of our own personal nothingness and our entire dependence upon God. The man endowed with a strong and healthy constitution is scarcely alive to the value of health. If he thinks about it at all, he traces it to his own early rising and freedom from anxiety, his moderation in all things, his temperance and active exercise. But let the smallest portion of his bodily organism be deranged--let some secret fever germ enter the stream of life and poison the mans blood--let him be cast upon a bed of sickness, so that the slightest effort becomes intolerable, and the commonest functions of the body are attended with pain, and he at once becomes sensible of his dependence upon a Higher Power. He learns now what he might otherwise never have learned, that his own health is not absolutely in his own hands, but that it is in God he lives and moves and has his being. Thus he rises from the bed of sickness a wiser and better man; he has more sympathy in his heart for others, and more gratitude towards the Great Giver and Disposer of all things. A similar danger attends those that are engaged in the cultivation of the land, the danger, I mean, of forgetting God. The honest farmer who rises with the lark and takes a praiseworthy pride in his earthly calling is, we will assume, on the whole successful. He is kind to his labourers, and these cheerfully perform the tasks assigned to them. The seasons come round, and each brings with it its own duties. The land is tilled, the seed sown, and at the appointed time the labours of the husbandman are crowned with an abundant, harvest. On the other hand, his neighbour--a farmer like himself--is thoughtless and thriftless. He desires to get on, but lacks common judgment and common energy. His plans do not succeed. His cattle die. His land is impoverished for want of proper cultivation. His harvests are poor, and there is a look about the whole place that tells of coming poverty and ruin. And then how great the danger to the successful farmer; the danger of tracing success in his case to his own energy and enterprise, his own skill and industry, and overlooking altogether the hand of God. It is true that honest industry is generally in this world, and through Gods own appointment., rewarded with success. It is true that God has promised that while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest . . . shall not cease, but we are surely abusing that promise, and as surely taking too high a view of our own powers if we fail to realize our dependence upon God, and to acknowledge His goodness in giving us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
II. The duty of acknowledging our dependence upon God. If it be wrong on the part of a son to despise or dispute his fathers claims upon his regard and affection; if it be contemptible pride on the part of a pensioner to be ashamed to speak of his benefactor or to recognize his obligations, then it is a sin of no ordinary character to forget Him upon whose daily bounty we live, and to whom we owe the varied blessings we enjoy, Hence, my brethren, to the Christian mind there is something peculiarly pleasing in our gathering together in the house of God this day. Whatever our occupation may be, we are all (indirectly at any rate) dependent upon the labours of the husbandman. We are all interested in a good harvest. A bad harvest means scarcity of bread, and scarcity of bread means suffering to many hundreds and thousands of our fellow-creatures; and on the other hand it is not easy to exaggerate the tendency of an abundant harvest to spread throughout the country a general spirit of peace and contentment. Again, our meeting together on this occasion may be regarded as an emphatic protest against, the scepticism of the day. Men of science are pushing their researches into the varied realms of Nature. Phenomena hitherto considered inexplicable are referred to general laws, and second causes are thus usurping the place of the first great cause. Thus the Creator is, as it were, thrust out of His own creation, and it is sometimes argued as though God had originally called this world into being, and then left it to itself--to be guided and controlled by those eternal laws that were at its creation impressed upon it. Now, against this cold and heartless philosophy our meeting together this day is an emphatic protest.. We thus acknowledge our belief in the universal presence and agency of a Personal God. (C. B. Brigstocke, M. A.)
Gods grace and bounty meted out
William Huntingdon told the story about, a farmer who, when one of his daughters was married, gave her a thousand pounds as a wedding present. There was another daughter, and her father did not give her a thousand pounds when she was married, but he gave her something as a wedding present, and then he kept on pretty nearly every day in the week sending her what he called the hand-basket portion with fathers love. And so in the long run she received a good deal more than her sister did. I do like when I get a mercy to have it come to me with my heavenly Fathers love, just my daily portion as I need it; not given all in a lump so that I might go away with it into a far country, as we are sure to do if we have all our mercy at once, but given day by day, as the manna fell, with our heavenly Fathers love every time a fresh token of infinite grace and infinite love. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v16 Psa 145:16, Psa 145:19.
Psalms
THE SATISFIER OF ALL DESIRES
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Psa 145:16, Psa 145:19.
You observe the recurrence, in these two verses, of the one emphatic word ‘desire.’ Its repetition evidently shows that the Psalmist wishes to run a parallel between God’s dealings in two regions. The same beneficence works in both. Here is the true extension of natural law to the spiritual world. It is the same teaching to which our Lord has given immortal and inimitable utterance, when He says, ‘Your heavenly Father feedeth them.’ And so we are entitled to look on all the wonders of creation, and to find in them buttresses which may support the edifice of our faith, and to believe that wherever there is a mouth God sends food to fill it. ‘Thou openest Thine hand’-that is all-’and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.’ But to fulfil the desires of them who are not only ‘living things,’ but ‘who fear’ Him, is it such a simple task? Sometimes more is wanted than an open hand before that can be accomplished. So, looking not only at the words I have read, but at the whole of their setting, which is influenced by the thought of this parallelism, we see here two sets of pensioners, two kinds of wants, two forms of appeal, two processes of satisfaction.
I. Two kinds of pensioners.
‘Every living thing-’ life makes a claim on God, and whatever desires arise in the living creature by reason of its life, God would be untrue to Himself, a cruel Parent, an unnatural Father, if He did not satisfy them. We do not half enough realise the fact that the condescension of creation lies not only in the act of creating, but in the willing acceptance by the Creator of the bonds under which He thereby lays Himself; obliging Himself to see to the creatures that He has chosen to make. And so, as one of the New Testament writers puts it, in his simple way, with a profound truth, ‘He is a faithful Creator’; and wherever there is a creature that He has made to need anything, He has thereby said, ‘As I live, that creature shall have what it needs.’
Then, take the other class, ‘them that fear Him’; or as they are described in the context-by contrast with ‘the wicked who are destroyed’-’the righteous.’ That is to say, whilst, because we are living things, like the bee and the worm, we have a claim on God precisely parallel with theirs for what we may need by reason of His gift, which we never asked for, His gift of life, we shall have a similar but higher claim on Him if we are ‘they that fear Him’ with that loving reverence which has no torment in it, and that love Him with that reverential affection which has no presumption in it, and whose love and fear coalesce in making them long to be righteous like the Object of their love, to be holy like the Object of their fear. And just as the fact of physical life binds God to care for it, and to give all that is needed for its health, growth, blessedness, so the fact of man’s having in his heart the faintest tremor of reverential dread, the feeblest aspiration of outgoing affection, the most faltering desire after purity of life and conduct, binds God to answer these according to the man’s need. Of all incredibilities in the world, there is nothing more incredible, because there is nothing more contrary to the very depths of the divine nature, than that desires, longings, expectations, which are the direct result of the love and fear of God, and the hunger and thirst after righteousness, should not be answered.
Now that is a very wide principle, and I do not believe that it is trusted enough by many. It comes to this-wherever you find in people a confidence which grows with their love of God, be sure that there is, somewhere or other in the universe of things, that which answers it.
Take a case. If there was not a word in the New Testament about Jesus Christ’s resurrection, the fact that just in proportion as men grow in devotion, in love of God, in fear of Him, in longing to be good and to appear like Him, in that same proportion does their conviction that there must be a life beyond the grave become firm and certain-that fact would be enough to make any one who believed in God sure that the hope thus rooted in love to Him, and fed by everything that draws us nearer to Him, could not be a delusion, nor be destined to be left unfulfilled.
And we might go round the whole circle of dim religious aspirations and desires, and find in all of them illustrations of the principle so profoundly and so simply put in our psalm, that the same Love which, in the realm of the physical world, binds itself to satisfy the life which it imparts, is at work in the higher regions, and will ‘fulfil the desires of them that fear Him.’
II. Again, there are two sets of needs.
The first of them is very easily disposed of. ‘The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat.’ That is all. Feed the beast, and give it the other things necessary for its physical existence, and there is no more to be done. But there is more wanted for the desires of the men that love and fear God. These are glanced at in the context, ‘He also will hear their cry, and will save them’; ‘the Lord preserveth all them that love Him.’ That is to say, there are deeper needs in our hearts and lives than any that are known amongst the lower creatures. Evils, dangers inward and outward, sorrows, disappointments, losses of all sorts shadow our lives, in a fashion which the happy, careless life of field and forest knows nothing about. Give them their meat, and they curl themselves up and lie down to sleep, satisfied. Man longs for something more and needs something more.
‘He will save them.’ Now, I do not suppose that ‘save’ here is employed in its full New Testament sense, but it approximates to that sense. And, further, there are other aspects of our needs set forth in the context, on which I briefly touch. Do not let us vulgarise such a saying as this of my text, ‘He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him,’ as if it only meant that if a man fears God he may set his longing upon any outward thing, and be sure to get it. There is nothing so poor, so unworthy as that promised in Scripture. For one thing, it is not true; for another, it would not be good if it were. The way to spoil children is not the way to perfect saints; and to give them what they want because they want it, is the sure way to spoil children of all ages. We may be quite certain that our heavenly Father is not going to do that. The promise here means something far nobler and loftier. The fact of creation binds God to supply all the wants which spring from life. The fact of our loving and fearing Him binds Him to supply all the wants which spring from our love and fear. And it is these desires which the Psalmist is thinking of.
What is the object of desire to a man who loves God? God. What is the object of desire to a man who fears Him? God. What is the object of desire to a righteous man? Righteousness. And these are the desires which God is sure to fulfil to us. Therefore, there is only one region in which it is safe and wise to cherish longings, and it is the region of the spiritual life where God imparts Himself. Everywhere else there will be disappointments-thank Him for them. Nowhere else is it absolutely true that He will ‘fulfil the desires of them that fear Him.’ But in this region it is. Whatever any of us desire to have of God, we are sure to get. We open our mouths and He fills them. In the Christian life desire is the measure of possession, and to long is to have. And there is nowhere else where it is absolutely, unconditionally, and universally true that to wish is to possess, and to ask is to have.
Oh! then, is it not a foolish thing for us to worry and torture and sweat, in order to win for ourselves for a little while the uncertain possession of incomplete bliss? Would it not be wiser, instead of letting the current of our desires dribble itself away through a thousand channels in the sand and get lost, to gather it all into one great stream which is sure to find its way to the broad ocean? ‘Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart,’ for these will then be after Himself, and Himself only.
III. Further, there are here two forms of appeal.
‘The eyes of all wait upon Thee.’ That is beautiful! The dumb look of the unconscious creature, like that of a dog looking up in its master’s face for a crust, makes appeal to God, and He answers that. But a dumb, unconscious look is not for us. ‘He also will hear their cry.’ Put your wish into words if you want it answered; not for His information, but for your strengthening. ‘Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things before ye ask Him.’ What then? Why should I ask Him? Because the asking will clear your thoughts about your desires. It will be a very good test of them. There are many things that we all wish, which I am afraid we should not much like to put into our prayers, not because of any foolish notion that they are too small to find a place there, but because of an uncomfortable suspicion that perhaps they are not the kind of things that we ought to wish. And if we cannot make the desire into a cry, the sooner we make it dead as well as dumb the better for ourselves. The cry will serve, too, as a stimulus to the wishes which are put into words. Silent prayer is well, but there is a wonderful power on ourselves-it may be due to our weakness, but still it exists-in the articulate and audible utterance of our petitions to God. I would fain that all of us were more in the habit of putting into distinct words that we ourselves can hear, the wishes that we cherish. I am sure our prayers would be more sincere, less wandering, more earnest and real, if they were spoken, as well as felt, prayers.
Let us remember, dear brethren! that the condition of our getting the higher gifts is not only that we should love and fear, and in the silence of our own hearts should wish for, but that we should definitely ask for, them. Not only desire, but ‘their cry,’ brings the answer.
IV. And now one last word. Note the two processes of satisfying.
‘Thou openest Thine hand.’ That is enough. But God cannot satisfy our deepest desires by any such short and easy method. There is a great deal more to be done by Him before the aspirations of love and fear and longing for righteousness can be fulfilled. He has to breathe Himself into us. Lower creatures have enough when they have the meat that drops from His hand. They know and care nothing for the hand that feeds. But God’s best gifts cannot be separated from Himself. They are Himself, and in order to ‘satisfy the desires of them that fear Him’ there is no way possible, even to Him, but the impartation of Himself to the waiting heart.
That is a mystery deep and blessed. Oh, that we may all know, by our own living experience, what it is to have not only the gifts which drop from His hands, but the gifts which cannot be parted from Him, the Giver! He has to discipline us for His highest gifts, in order that we may receive them. And sometimes He has to do that, as I have no doubt He has done it with many of us, by withholding or withdrawing the satisfaction of some of our lower desires, and so emptying our hearts and turning the current of our wishes from earth to heaven. If you are going to pour precious wine into a chalice, you begin by emptying out the less valuable liquid that may be in it. So God often empties us, in order that He may fill us, and takes away the creatures in order that we may long for the Creator.
Not only has He to give us Himself, and to discipline us in order to receive Him, but He has to put all His gifts which meet our deepest desires into a great storehouse. He does not open His hand and give us peace and righteousness, and growing knowledge of Himself, and closer union, and the other blessings of the Christian life, but He gives us Jesus Christ. We are to find all these blessings in Him, and it depends upon us whether we find them or not, and how much of them we find. You will always find as much in Christ as you want, but you may not find nearly as much in Him as you could; and you will never find as much in Him as there is. God sends His Son, and in that one gift, like a box ‘wherein sweets compacted lie,’ are all the gifts that even His hand can bestow, or our desires require. So be sure that you have what you have, and that you suck out of the Rose of Sharon all the honey that lies deep in its calyx. Expand your desires to the width of Christ’s great mercies; for the measure of our wishes is the limit of our possession. He has laid up the supply of all our need in the storehouse, which is Christ; and He has given us the key. Let us see to it that we enter in. ‘Ye have not because ye ask not.’ ‘To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.’
END OF VOL. II.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.