'Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living
thing ... 19. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him: He
also will hear their cry, and will save them.'--PSALM cxlv. 16, 19.
You observe the recurrence, in these two verses, of the one emphatic
word 'desire.' Its repetition evidently shows that the Psalmist wishes
to run a parallel between God's dealings in two regions. The same
beneficence works in both. Here is the true extension of natural law to
the spiritual world. It is the same teaching to which our Lord has given
immortal and inimitable utterance, when He says, 'Your heavenly Father
feedeth them.' And so we are entitled to look on all the wonders of
creation, and to find in them buttresses which may support the edifice
of our faith, and to believe that wherever there is a mouth God sends
food to fill it. 'Thou openest Thine hand'--that is all--'and satisfiest
the desire of every living thing.' But to fulfil the desires of them who
are not only 'living things,' but 'who fear' Him, is it such a simple
task? Sometimes more is wanted than an open hand before that can be
accomplished. So, looking not only at the words I have read, but at the
whole of their setting, which is influenced by the thought of this
parallelism, we see here two sets of pensioners, two kinds of wants, two
forms of appeal, two processes of satisfaction.