A Prayer About Soul Satisfaction
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. Psalm 63:3-5 Lord Jesus, King David’s words of gospel-adoration are a glorious rebuke to my measured and monitored heart. I spend a lot of time and energy trying to make a “better” life for myself, and yet David speaks of your love as being better than life itself! What a mercy-full paradox, what a delight-full conundrum… Oh, to know your love in such a sensate, soul-satisfying way!
Honestly, such an image invokes exhilaration and inhibition at the same time. Jesus, what would it be like to be so stricken and smitten with the width, length, height and depth of your love that I lose control? I love the story of David dancing with shame-less-nakedness before the returned Ark of the Covenant. Why can’t I be as free before the finished Cross of Glory?
Jesus, I have no trouble glorifying you with my lips or lifting my hands in the assembly of your people. I want to be free to love out loud in contexts not so safe and predictable. I want your love to so deeply satisfy my soul that I praise you by loving one woman well the rest of my life, no matter what that involves. I want to be free to use less words in relationships so there’s more space for listening, sitting still, and savoring other people’s stories, struggles, brokenness and beauty.
I want your love to be so compelling that I don’t think of “witnessing,” I think of loving people who need Jesus, just like I need Jesus. I want your love to be so satisfying that I find it harder and harder to make excuses for myself, and easier and easier to live vulnerably, transparently and authentically. I want your love to make it easier for me to weep hot tears of compassion and laugh loud guffaws of joy. You have set me free for eternity, Jesus… please set me free for today. Amen