Daily Manna · Day 336 · December 2
Desires Fulfilled
“He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.”
What is he actually like, this God, when somebody finally cries out?
The psalm is answering that question and nothing else, and it is worth reading as a description rather than as a mechanism. He is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. He is good to all. He upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. He giveth them their meat in due season. He openeth his hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. He is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. He is nigh unto all them that call upon him. Then this line: he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
Notice that the psalm has been using the word desire already, three verses earlier, of every living thing, meaning food. It is not a word about wishes. And notice the boundary drawn here, which is real: the desire fulfilled belongs to them that fear him, and the psalm has just said he is near to all that call on him in truth. Reverence changes what a person asks for. That is not a restriction placed on the promise; it is a description of what happens to a person's wants when they get close to him.
But then look at the second half, which has no qualifier attached to its content at all. He also will hear their cry. The desire gets refined over years. The cry gets heard tonight.
So the offer stands at both hours, and it is you who finds daylight the harder one. The thing that would have you crying out at three in the morning if it went the wrong way can be said to him now, in the ordinary voice you are using today. He hears both the same way, and there is no rule anywhere in this psalm about waiting until it becomes an emergency.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 336 is The God of Hope (Romans 15:13).