Forget Not His Benefits

This morning, after I find myself elbow deep in a strawberry patch, I spend some time reading Psalm 103.  No matter how many times I read this Psalm, I'm struck by the simplicity, truth, and joy of it.  Other than Psalm 16, I can claim Psalm 103 as a favorite. 

Just the first five verses set my mind right:  "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. . ." And what follows is that beautiful list of verbs:  He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns with love and compassion, and satisfies.

He satisfies!  The verse reads that God "satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." 

He satisfies indeed.  I begin to consider how this happens.  I realize a pure truth that I've learned after all this time: He satisfies in the precise way that fits our needs.  He satisfies in creative, often unusual, unexpected, and unimagined ways. 

He invents these ways, and they almost never match my ideas of what will satisfy me.  Almost never.

I want glamorous living, but He gives me a strawberry patch to love.
I want an international bestseller, and He gives me a daily blog to keep.
I want fame, and He gives me friendship.
I want to collect extravagant works of art, and He gives me a camera to make my own art. 
I want global influence, and He gives me two little girls to raise quietly in a small community. 

It's like He knows the desire beneath the desire.  He knows what I really want.  

So today I make a list of all the good things He's given me that fulfill the desires beneath the desires. 

And off I rise like an eagle.

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Have you found that He satisfies your deepest desires?