The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
Parallel Translations
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The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
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The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
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(34-11) The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek the LORD want not any good thing.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Psalms 34:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 84:11 For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.
- Matthew 6:32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
- Psalms 104:21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.
- Luke 1:51-53 He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty.
- Job 4:10-11 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Psalmist illustrates this doctrine by a very apposite…
The Psalmist illustrates this doctrine by a very apposite comparison, namely, that God provides every thing necessary for his people, and relieves their wants, whilst the lions, which surpass in ferocity all the wild beasts of the earth, prowl about in a famishing condition for their prey. Some think, that under the name of lions, those men who are addicted to violence and plunder are metaphorically described; but this, in my opinion, is too refined. David simply asserts, that those who guard against all unrighteousness should profit more by so doing than by rapine and plunder; because the Lord feeds his people, while even the lions and other beasts of prey often suffer hunger. What he says, then, is, that sooner shall the lions perish with hunger and want, than God will disappoint of their necessary food the righteous and sincere, who, content with his blessing alone, seek their food only from his hand. Whoever, therefore, shall in this way cast his cares upon God, and confide implicitly in his paternal goodness and bounty, shall live quietly and peaceably among men, and suffer no injury. If it is objected, that the good and the virtuous are not always exempted from penury, I answer, that the hand of God is stretched out to succor them in due season, when they are reduced to the greatest straits, and know not to what side to turn, “Et ne s’avent plus de quel cost a se tourner.” — 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 If they abide the last trial.
If they abide the last trial.
The godly by their patient obedience profit more than they which ravine and spoil.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer…
Psa 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good [thing].
Ver. 10. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger] And yet they will have it, if it is to be had. Haec est sceleratorum imago, saith Beza. Lionlike wicked oppressors, rich cormorants, as the Septuagint render it, who live on the spoil of poor people, and are never satisfied, do yet perish with famine, as Eliphaz saith of the old lion, Job 4:11; and come oft to great poverty, so that they pine away and miserably perish, Donec misere tabescant (Beza.)
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But they that seek the Lord] That, content with his blessing alone, seek not their nourishment any other way but from his hand, and will rather lie in the dust than rise by evil principles; these have an autarky, a self-sufficiency, such as godliness is never without, 1Ti 6:6. Some Rabbis say (Aben Ezra in loc.) that the servants of Achish had almost famished David (under pretence haply of reducing him to his right mind), but God sustained him by miracle, as he did Elias, 1Ki 17:6; 1Ki 17:14
Shall not want any good thing] Want they may, this or that, which they may think would be good for them; but God knoweth it to be otherwise; or else they should be sure of it. Of good nothing followeth of itself but good, but if by accident any evil followeth, yet it is turned into good to such as seek the Lord in sincerity.
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 The young lions; either,
The young lions; either,
1. Properly: see Job 4:11. Or,
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2. Metaphorically so called, the great potentates of the earth, who are oft so called, as Jer 2:15; Eze 38:13; Nah 2:13.
Shall not want any good thing, which is necessary and truly good for them, all circumstances considered; of which God alone is a competent judge. And therefore although God doth usually take a special care to supply the wants of good men, and hath oft done it by extraordinary ways, when ordinary have failed, yet sometimes he knows, and it is certainly true, that wants and crosses are more needful and useful to them than bread, and in such cases it is a greater mercy of God to deny them supplies than to grant them.
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 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger,.... According…
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger,.... According to Apollinarius,
"the needy rich, whom famine presses;''
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see Job 4:10;
but they that seek the Lord; by prayer, diligently, with their whole heart, and in the sincerity of their souls; the Targum is, "that seek the doctrine of the Lord"; that seek instruction from him, and to be taught by him: these
shall not want any good thing: which God has purposed to bestow upon them, which he has promised unto them, and provided for them; nor any thing that shall be for their good.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. The young lions do lack] Instead of…
Verse 10. The young lions do lack] Instead of כפירים kephirim, the young lions, one of Kennicott's MSS. has כבירים cabbirim, "powerful men." The Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, Syriac, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon have the same reading. Houbigant approves of this; and indeed the sense and connection seem to require it. My old Psalter reads: - The Ryche had nede; and thai hungerd: but sekand Lard sal noght be lessed of alle gode. That es, says the paraphrase, with outen lessyng thai sal have God; that es alle gode; for in God is al gode.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The young lions do lack and suffer hunger -…
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger - That is, they often do it, as compared with the friends of God. The allusion is especially to the “young” lions who are not able to go forth themselves in search of food. Perhaps the idea is, that they are dependent on the older lions - their parents - for the supply of their needs, as the pious are dependent on God; but that the result shows their reliance to be often vain, while that of the pious never is. The old lions may be unable to procure food for their young; God is never unable to provide for the wants of his children. If their needs are in any case unsupplied, it is for some other reason than because God is unable to meet their necessities. The word “lack” here - רושׁ rûsh - means to be poor; to suffer want; to be needy: Pro 14:20; Pro 18:23.
But they that seek the Lord - That seek Him as their Friend; that seek His favor; that seek what they need from Him. “To seek God” is a phrase which is often used to denote true piety. It means that we wish to know Him; that we desire His friendship; and that we seek all our blessings from Him.
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Shall not want any good thing - Any real good. God is able to supply every need; and if anything is withheld, it is always certain that it is not because God could not confer it, but because He sees some good reasons why it should not be conferred. The real good; what we need most; what will most benefit us - will be bestowed on us; and universally it may be said of all the children of God that everything in this world and the next will be granted that is really for their good. They themselves are often not the best judges of what will be for their good; but God is an infallible Judge in this matter, and He will certainly bestow what is best for them.
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 not want any good--"good" is emphatic; they may be…
not want any good--"good" is emphatic; they may be afflicted (compare Psa 34:10); but this may be a good (Co2 4:17-18; Heb 12:10-11).
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 10. Young lions—The lion is referred to as being…
10. Young lions—The lion is referred to as being the strongest beast of the forest known to Palestine, and hence able to secure his food; and the young lion is one in full strength and agility, distinguished from the whelp and the old lion. These may lack and suffer hunger, but not they who seek the Lord.
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 10. The young lions] Best understood literally, not as…
10. The young lions] Best understood literally, not as a metaphor for the rich (LXX πλούσιοι, though possibly from a different reading), or powerful oppressors (Psa_35:17). The sense is that the strongest beasts of prey, most capable of providing for themselves, may suffer want (Job_4:11); not so God’s people. Cp. Psa_23:1.
For the touching connexion of these words with St Columba’s last hours see Ker’s Psalms in History and Biography, p. 62. He was transcribing the Psalter, and at this verse he laid down his pen. “Here at the end of the page I must stop; what follows let Baithen write.” “The last verse he had written,” says his biographer Adamnan, “was very applicable to the saint who was about to depart, and to whom eternal good shall never be wanting; while the one that followeth is equally applicable to the father who succeeded him, the instructor of his spiritual children.”
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11ff. If such are the blessings promised to those who fear the Lord, how essential to know what the fear of the Lord is! Accordingly the poet adopts the language of a teacher and addresses his sons. So the teacher in Proverbs 1-8 constantly addresses his disciples as sons (Psa_4:1), or my son.
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 (10) Young lions.—See Note, Psa_17:12. The young lion is…
(10) Young lions.—See Note, Psa_17:12. The young lion is the emblem of power and self-resource. Yet these sometimes lack, but the earnest seekers after Divine truth and righteousness never. Instead of “lions,” the LXX. and Vulgate have “the rich.”
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 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger. Some…
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger. Some suppose the "young lions" here to represent the proud and violent, as in Job_4:10. But it is simpler to take the present passage literally. In God"s animal creation even the strongest suffer want for a time, and have no remedy; his human creatures need never be in want, since they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. It is open to them to "seek the Lord" at any time.
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 Ver. 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer…
Ver. 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger. They are fierce, cunning, strong, in all the vigour of youth, and yet they sometimes howl in their ravenous hunger, and even so crafty, designing, and oppressing men, with all their sagacity and unscrupulousness, often come to want; yet simple minded believers, who dare not act as the greedy lions of earth, are fed with food convenient for them. To trust God is better policy than the craftiest politicians can teach or practice. But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. No really good thing shall be denied to those whose first and main end in life is to seek the Lord. Men may call them fools, but the Lord will prove them wise. They shall win where the world's wiseacres lose their all, and God shall have the glory of it.
Ver. 10. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, The old lions will have it for them, if it be to be had. But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. As they would feel no evil thing within, so they shall want no good thing without. He that freely opens the upper, will never wholly close the nether springs. There shall be no silver lacking in Benjamin's sack, while Joseph has it to throw in. Grace is not such a beggarly visitant, as will not pay its own way. When the best of beings is adored, the best of blessings are enjoyed. William Secker.
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Ver. 10. People are apt to fancy that a wild beast's life must be happy--in a brute's sense--and that the carnivorous and graminivorous creatures which have never come under the dominion of mankind are better off than the domesticated quadrupeds which buy their quieter and safer lives at the price of ministering to the luxuries or necessities of their human lords. But the contrary is the case: the career of a flesh eating animal must be wretched, even from the tiger's or leopard's point of view. They must often suffer pangs of long continued hunger, and when they find and kill food they frequently have to wage desperate war for the enjoyment of their victim. The cry of almost every wild beast is so melancholy and forlorn, that it impresses the traveller with sadness more even than with fear. If the opportunity occurs for watching them in the chase, they are seen to sneak and sniff about, far less like "kings of the forest, "than poor, dejected, starving wretches, desperate upon the subject of their next meal. They suffer horribly from diseases induced by foul diet and long abstinence; and very few are found without scars in their hide--the tokens of terrible combats. If they live to old age their lot is piteous: their teeth are worn down, their claws are blunt, and in this state numbers of them perish by starvation. Not one half of the wild animals die a natural death; and their life, so far as can be observed, is a series of stern privations, with desperate and bloody fights among themselves. Clipping from "Daily Telegraph."
Ver. 10. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. There shall be no want to such, and such shall want no good thing: so that he must be such an one to whom the promise is made; and he must also be sure that it is good for him which is promised. But oftentimes it is not good for a man to abound with earthly blessings; as strong drink is not good for weak brains. Yea, if anything be wanting to a good man, he may be sure it is not good for him; and then better that he doth want it, than that he did enjoy it; and what wise man will complain of the want of that, which if he had, would prove more gainful than hurtful to him? As a sword to a madman, a knife to a child, drink to them that have a fever or the dropsy. "No good thing will God withhold, "etc., and therefore, not wants themselves, which to many are also good, yea, very good things, as I could reckon up many. Want sanctified is a notable means to bring to repentance, to work in us amendment of life, it stirs up prayer, it weans from the love of the world, it keeps us always prepared for the spiritual combat, discovers whether we be true believers or hypocrites, prevents greater evils of sin and punishment to come; it makes us humble, conformable to Christ our Head, increaseth our faith, our joy, and thankfulness, our spiritual wisdom, and likewise our patience, as I have largely shown in another treatise. Richard Young, in the "Poor's Advocate, "1653.
Ver. 10. I remember as I came through the country, that there was a poor widow woman, whose husband fell at Bothwell: the bloody soldiers came to plunder her house, telling her they would take all she had. "We will leave thee nothing, "said they, "either to put in thee, or on thee." "I care not, "said she, "I will not want as long as God is in the heavens." That was a believer indeed. Alexander Peden's Sermon, 1682.
Ver. 10. Take a survey of heaven and earth and all things therein, and whatsoever upon sure ground appears good, ask it confidently of Christ; his love will not deny it. If it were good for you that there were no sin, no devil, no affliction, no destruction, the love of Christ would instantly abolish these. Nay, if the possession of all the kingdoms of the world were absolutely good for any saint, the love of Christ would instantly crown him monarch of them. David Clarkson.
Ver. 10. (last clause). Part of his last afternoon was spent by Columba, in transcribing the Psalms of David. Having come to that passage in the thirty-fourth Psalm, where it is said, They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing, he said, "I have come to the end of a page, and I will stop here, for the following Ps 34:11, "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord, "will better suit my successor to transcribe than me. I will leave it, therefore, to Baithen." As usual the bell was rung at midnight for prayers. Columba was the first to hasten to church. On entering it soon after, Dermid found him on his knees in prayer, but evidently dying. Raising him up in his arms, he supported his head on his bosom. The brethren now entered. When they saw Columba in this dying condition they wept aloud. Columba heard them. He opened his eyes and attempted to speak, but his voice failed. He lifted up his hands as if to bless them, immediately after which he breathed out his spirit. His countenance retained in death the expression it wore in life, so that it seemed as if he had only fallen asleep. "Story of Columba and his successors, "in the Christian Treasury for 1848.
Ver. 10. Lions lacking, but the children satisfied. See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 65.
1. Description of a true Christian, "seek the Lord."
2. The promise set forth by a contract.
3. The promise fulfilled.
Ver. 10. What is a good thing?
Psalms 34:11*
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 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but…
Psa_34:10
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
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Lions lacking, but the children satisfied
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 dont 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? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The advantage of seeking the Lord
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 (Rom_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. (Helps for the Pulpit.)
Struggling and seeking
I. the struggle that always fails. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger. The suggestion is, that the men whose lives are one long fight to appropriate to themselves more and more of outward good, are living a kind of life that is fitter for beasts than for men. What is the true character of the lives of the majority of people but a fight, a desire to have, and a failure to obtain? Beasts of prey, naturalists tell us, are always lean. It is the graminivorous order that meekly and peacefully crop the pastures that are well fed and in good condition--which things are an allegory. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger. There is no satisfaction or success ever to be won by this way of fighting and scheming and springing at the prey. For if we do not utterly fail, which is the lot of so many of us, still partial success has little power of bringing perfect satisfaction to a human spirit. You remember the old story of the Arabian Nights, about the wonderful palace that was built by magic, and all whose windows were set in precious stones, but there was one window that remained unadorned, and that spoiled all for the owner. His palace was full of treasures, but an enemy looked on all the wealth and suggested a previously unnoticed defect by saying, You have not a toes egg. He had never thought about getting a rocs egg, and did not know what it was. But the consciousness of something lacking bad been roused, and it marred his enjoyment of what he had and drove him to set out on his travels to secure the missing thing. There is always something lacking, for our desires grow far faster than their satisfactions, and the more we have the wider our longing reaches out, so that as the wise old Book has it, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. You cannot fill a soul with the whole universe, if you do not put God in it.
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 mothers skirts, or her fathers 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. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
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
Psalms
STRUGGLING AND SEEKING
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Psa 34:10.
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 despondency had crept over his soul. But instead of that his words are running over with gladness, and the psalm begins ‘I will bless the Lord at all times, and His praise shall continually be in my mouth.’ Similarly here he avers, even at a moment when he wanted a great deal of what the world calls ‘good,’ that ‘they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.’ There were lions in Palestine in David’s time. He had had a fight with one of them, as you may remember, and his lurking place was probably not far off the scene of Samson’s exploits. Very likely they were prowling about the rocky mouth of the cave, and he weaves their howls into his psalm: ‘The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good.’
So, then, here are the two thoughts-the struggle that always fails and the seeking that always finds.
I. The struggle that always fails.
‘The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger.’ They are taken as the type of violent effort and struggle, as well as of supreme strength, but for all their teeth and claws, and lithe spring, ‘they lack, and suffer hunger.’ The suggestion is, that the men whose lives are one long fight to appropriate to themselves more and more of outward good, are living a kind of life that is fitter for beasts than for men. A fierce struggle for material good is the true description of the sort of life that hosts of us live. What is the meaning of all this cry that we hear about the murderous competition going on round us? What is the true character of the lives of, I am afraid, the majority of people in a city like Manchester, but a fight and a struggle, a desire to have, and a failure to obtain? Let us remember that that sort of existence is for the brutes, and that there is a better way of getting what is good; the only fit way for man. Beasts of prey, naturalists tell us, are always lean. It is the graminivorous order that meekly and peacefully crop the pastures that are well fed and in good condition-’which things are an allegory.’
‘The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger’-and that, being interpreted, just states the fact to which every man’s experience, and the observation of every man that has an eye in his head, distinctly say, ‘Amen, it is so.’ For there is no satisfaction or success ever to be won by this way of fighting and struggling and scheming and springing at the prey. For if we do not utterly fail, which is the lot of so many of us, still partial success has little power of bringing perfect satisfaction to a human spirit. One loss counterbalances any number of gains. No matter how soft is the mattress, if there is one tiny thorn sticking up through it all the softness goes for nothing. There is always a Mordecai sitting at the gate when Haman goes prancing through it on his white horse; and the presence of the unsympathetic and stiff-backed Jew, sitting stolid at the gate, takes the gilt off the gingerbread, and embitters the enjoyment. So men count up their disappointments, and forget all their fulfilled hopes, count up their losses and forget their gains. They think less of the thousands that they have gained than of the half-crown that they were cheated of.
In every way it is true that the little annoyances, like a grain of dust in the sensitive eye, take all the sweetness out of mere material good, and I suppose that there are no more bitterly disappointed men in this world than the perfectly ‘successful men,’ as the world counts them. They have been disillusionised in the process of acquisition. When they were young and lusted after earthly good things, these seemed to be all that they needed. When they are old, and have them, they find that they are feeding on ashes, and the grit breaks their teeth, and irritates their tongues. The ‘young lions do lack’ even when their roar and their spring ‘have secured the prey,’ and ‘they suffer hunger’ even when they have fed full. Ay! for if the utmost possible measure of success were granted us, in any department in which the way of getting the thing is this fighting and effort, we should be as far away from being at rest as ever we were.
You remember the old story of the Arabian Nights, about the wonderful palace that was built by magic, and all whose windows were set in precious stones, but there was one window that remained unadorned, and that spoiled all for the owner. His palace was full of treasures, but an enemy looked on all the wealth and suggested a previously unnoticed defect by saying, ‘You have not a roc’s egg.’ He had never thought about getting a roc’s egg, and did not know what it was. But the consciousness of something lacking had been roused, and it marred his enjoyment of what he had and drove him to set out on his travels to secure the missing thing. There is always something lacking, for our desires grow far faster than their satisfactions, and the more we have, the wider our longing reaches out, so that as the wise old Book has it, ‘He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.’ You cannot fill a soul with the whole universe, if you do not put God in it. One of the greatest works of fiction of modern times ends, or all but ends, with a sentence something like this, ‘Ah! who of us has what he wanted, or having it, is satisfied?’ ‘The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger’-and the struggle always fails-’but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.’
II. The seeking which always finds.
Now, how do we ‘seek the Lord’? It is a metaphorical expression, of course, which needs to be carefully interpreted in order not to lead us into a great mistake. 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 and mind, and will and life, if only heart, mind, will, life, are willing to accept Him. 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. Do you want Him? A great many of us do not. We seek Him by communion, by turning our thoughts to Him, amidst all the rush of daily life, and such a turning of thought to Him, which is quite possible, will prevent our most earnest working upon things material from descending to the likeness of the lions’ fighting for it. 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, or as if I dilate my lungs the atmosphere rushes into them. For He is always seeking us. That is a beautiful word of our Lord’s to which we do not always attach all its value, ‘The Father seeketh such to worship Him.’ Why put the emphasis upon the ‘such,’ as if it was a definition of the only kind of acceptable worship? It is that. But we might put more emphasis upon the ‘seeketh’ without spoiling the logic of the sentence; and thereby we should come nearer the truth of what God’s heart to us is, so that if we do seek Him, we shall surely find. In this region, and in this region only, there is no search that is vain, there is no effort that is foiled, there is no desire unaccomplished, there is no failure possible. 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 did not care to possess any more. ‘Seek, and ye shall find.’
We shall be sure to find everything in God. Look at the grand confidence, and the utterance of a life’s experience in these great words: ‘Shall not want any good.’ For God is everything to us, and everything else is nothing; and it is the presence of God in anything that makes it truly able to satisfy our desires. Human love, sweet and precious, dearest and best of all earthly possessions as it is, fails to fill a heart unless the love grasps God as well as the beloved dying creature. And so with regard to all other things. They are good when God is in them, and when they are ours in God. They are nought when wrenched away from Him. We are sure to find everything in Him, for this is the very property of that infinite divine nature that is waiting to impart itself to us, that, like water poured into a vessel, it will take the shape of the vessel into which it is poured. Whatever is my need, the one God will supply it all.
You remember the old Rabbinical tradition which speaks a deep truth, dressed in a fanciful shape. It says that the manna in the wilderness tasted to every man just what he desired, whatever dainty or nutriment he most wished; that the manna became like the magic cup in the old fairy legends, out of which could be poured any precious liquor at the pleasure of the man who was to drink it. The one God is everything to us all, anything that we desire, and the thing that we need; Protean in His manifestations, one in His sufficiency. With Him, as well as in Him, we are sure to have all that we require. ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom . . . and all these things shall be added unto you.’
Let us begin, dear brethren! with seeking, and then our struggling will not be violent, nor self-willed, nor will it fail. If we begin with seeking, and have God, be sure that all we need we shall get, and that what we do not get we do not need. It is hard to believe it when our vehement wishes go out to something that His serene wisdom does not send. It is hard to believe it when our bleeding hearts are being wrenched away from something around which they have clung. But it is true for all that. And he that can say, ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee,’ will find that the things which he enjoys in subordination to his one supreme good are a thousand times more precious when they are regarded as second than they ever could be when our folly tried to make them first. ‘Seek first the Kingdom,’ and be contented that the ‘other things’ shall be appendices, additions, over and above the one thing that is needful.
Now, all that is very old-fashioned, threadbare truth. Dear brethren! if we believed it, and lived by it, ‘the peace of God which passes understanding’ would ‘keep our hearts and minds.’ And, instead of fighting and losing, and desiring to have and howling out because we cannot obtain, we should patiently wait before Him, submissively ask, earnestly seek, immediately find, and always possess and be satisfied with, the one good for body, soul, and spirit, which is God Himself.
‘There be many that cry, Oh! that one would show as any good.’ The wise do not cry to men, but pray to God. ‘Lord! lift Thou the light of Thy countenance upon us.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 will not lack anything good
will not lack anything good
This can be stated in positive form. AT: "will always have the good things they need" (See: Litotes)
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sons
Here this does not refer to literal sons of the writer, but to the people he is teaching about Yahweh. AT: "my students"
translationWords
lions
good
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.