Satisfied With Good Things

Psalm 103 is a standard part of the Ash Wednesday service in the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer. The whole Psalm is very powerful, but when we said the Psalm on Wednesday, I was struck most by the first section :

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Isn’t it wonderful that on a day that we mark the start of a season of self-denial, we are reminded the God satisfies our desires with good things?

This is one of those passages that begs to be applied to diet issues–who needs junk food when God has promised to satisfy our desires with good things?

But this week, the Psalm made me think of this prayer “for young persons” (also from the Book of Common Prayer):

God our Father, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world:
Show them that your ways give more life
than the ways of the world,
and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help them to take failure, not as a measure of their worth,
but as a chance for a new start.
Give them strength to hold their faith in you,
and to keep alive their joy in your creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I’ve turned to this prayer recently, as I realize that my son will be heading off to college soon–where I won’t be able to balance his time with friends with time with family and where I won’t be there we went he gets home at night to make sure he is safe (and sober!).

For him, and for his friends, I pray that he sees that God’s ways “give more life than the ways of the world,” and that God will satisfy him “with good things.”

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One way that I am observing Lent is by renewing my committment to listen to the podcasts of the Daily Prayer service from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer by David Guthrie. The podcasts are available for free here and last about 15 minutes.

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Are you satisfied with good things?