Yearning for the Living God

GOLDEN TEXT: “For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” —Psalm 48:14

PSALM 42:1-8; 84:4,5; 102:25-27

THE normal attitude of every human being is one of worship. Man was created in the image of God, and despite his fall into sin and death there are still millions who are reaching out to find God that they might thank him for his benefits toward them, and seek his guidance and help. Satan, the great adversary of God, takes advantage of this heart longing of the people and often is able to turn it in the direction of worshiping false gods, as practiced in so many parts of the world today.

And even in the countries where the true and living God of the Bible is allegedly worshiped, Satan has been able to distort the people’s conception of him so that many fail to understand and appreciate him as they will when, in keeping with his promises, the knowledge of his glory fills the earth as the waters cover the sea. Many still believe that God will torture his enemies, and also those who, through no fault of their own, fail to accept Christ before they die.

Undoubtedly God appreciates the desire of the honest-hearted to contact and worship him, even though frequently their conceptions of him are crude and distorted, and in his own due time he will reveal himself to them in all his glory and beauty, and they will praise and serve him forever. But he has a due time for doing this. The present age is his due time for only a limited number to find him in the full sense, and to worship him, not only in spirit, but in harmony with the truth of his glorious plan of the ages.

Jesus told his disciples that many righteous men of old, and prophets, had desired to see the things which it was the due time for him to reveal but they were not permitted. (Matt. 13:17) “Unto you,” he said, “it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” (Mark 4:11) Peter speaks of a day of “visitation” for others than the church class of this age. (I Pet. 2:12) While we can be thankful that the “eyes” of our understanding have even now been opened to understand something of the length and breadth and height and depth of God’s love, we can rejoice that the time is coming when “all shall know him, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.”—Jer. 31:31-34

Our lesson speaks of “thirsting” after God. Jesus said concerning those whom the Lord would honor during the present age, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matt. 5:6) The expressions “hunger” and “thirst” suggest great sincerity, a very genuine desire to know God and to serve him.

Many of the Lord’s true people have, like the psalmist, experienced sorrow and trial without apparent help from the Lord, with perhaps their friends inquiring, “Where is thy God?” This is a severe test of faith and of one’s ability to hope in the Lord. But there is no need for doubt, for we have the assurance that even in these dark hours of trial the Lord will eventually show his smiling face which, for our good, he has been hiding behind a frowning providence.

In the bright “daytime” experiences of life we recognize the loving-kindness of the Lord, and even in the night watches we are able to sing songs of praise to him. How wonderful is the God of our salvation, the true and living God! We know that he will be our helper and our guide “even unto death.” His people of this age have been invited to die in his service, to be planted together in the likeness of Jesus’ death. In the next age it will be different; then the Lord will guide his people over the way of holiness that will lead, not to sacrificial death, but to life—to life everlasting.—Isa. 35:10; John 10:10

God is eternal—“from everlasting to everlasting.” (Ps. 90:2) To emphasize this, the psalmist speaks of the “foundation of the earth: and the heavens” which, he said, “are the works of thy hands.” “These shall perish,” he wrote, but the Lord will “endure,” or “stand,” as the margin states.

We are not to understand this as referring to the literal heavens and earth, for the destruction of these would mean the end of the entire universe. The Apostle Peter speaks of a “world” composed of a “heavens and earth” which, perished at the time of the Flood. (II Pet. 3:6,7) The sun and moon and stars did not perish then, nor was the planet earth destroyed. But the spiritual and human phases of the then existing social order, did perish.

Peter speaks also of “the heavens and the earth, which are now.” These—symbolic of the present social order—are already perishing, making way for “the new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (II Pet. 3:13) This will be the kingdom of Christ through the agencies of which the true and living God will be revealed to all mankind.

QUESTIONS

What is the cause of so many conflicting conceptions of God?

Is it possible for anyone who wishes, at any time, to find the true God, and to know his will?

When will the knowledge of the Lord fill the earth as the waters cover the sea?

Why does God at times withhold the smile of his approval from his people?

At what period in the divine plan are the Lord’s people called upon to be faithful unto death?

How many “heavens” and how many “earths” does the Apostle Peter refer to in the 3rd chapter of his 2nd epistle?

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