Psalm 90: 13 Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
This psalm was written by Moses at a time when God seemed far from Israel. V.14 particularly got my attention today. It’s a request to “satisfy us in the morning” – to fulfill a need or want. We know from the book of Exodus that people regularly complained to Moses and to God when they were hungry or thirsty. After all, they wandered in a desert wilderness for 40 years. But that’s not the sort of deprivation Moses indicates here.
“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love”…
More than food. More than water. What the people need is the love of God so they “may rejoice and be glad” – so they may be “satisfied”. I’ve mentioned in this space before those of us living in Western culture have a hard time being satisfied, in no small part due to the effectiveness of marketing that teaches us to NEVER be satisfied – with our possessions, our appearance, our careers, our relationships, whatever. I suppose it’s one reason so many of us can (from a global perspective) be relatively wealthy and yet feel a sense of lack. That we aren’t enough. That we don’t have enough.
I took this picture in the country of Togo in western Africa. As I was walking in their village these two young boys followed me around, very curious about me and those with me. I don’t think they’d every seen non-Africans before. I’m sure many of you have been to parts of the world where the level of poverty is almost unimaginable. No running water. No electricity. People mostly just trying to survive. I was deeply moved by the level of need among the people, particularly in the rural villages. And yet, I was also struck by the level of genuine joy among the Christians worshipping the Lord there.
In parts of the world where material resources are extremely limited it would be foolish to want “more” because it’s simply non-existent. But what so many people have is what we so often lack in the Western world – a sense of being satisfied with what we have, with who we are, with our circumstances. African Christians showed me what it means to live out the words “the joy of the Lord is my strength, I shall not want”. They have so little, yet they have everything because they have the Lord Jesus.
Jesus teach us to be satisfied, to be at peace, to be filled with You. Amen.
Fuel for the journey 
It’s easy to NOT be satisfied in western culture when we take God out of the culture. After all, we give God ‘Thanks and Praise’. I don’t and won’t give government, media or big tech the same accolades.
We need to live like proud Christians and not fear the ‘Spirit of the Age’/woke-ism/cancel culture that exists today. If they want to cancel me because Jesus is my Lord and Savior, then I will gladly bear that with honor! Nor will I let them shame me because I’m a Christian.
Thanks Lyn. Indeed faith in government or media or tech or anything else will always disappoint. “In God We Trust” says it all.