Psalm 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
Who Needs Whom?
Summer camp is under way. It is an exciting time, and it is also an extremely busy time. Everyone is working overtime, only it is not considered overtime in the summer! Camp work is pretty much sun up to sun down.
We are praying for and anticipating that a lot of wonderful things will happen this summer. People will be saved. People will be revived. Lives will be changed. It is very easy to think with all the work we are doing and all the energy we are expending that somehow God must really be impressed with us and feel somewhat indebted to us. Now that is precisely the wrong thought, but it is not a new thought. The people of Israel felt that way about God. They thought about all the sacrifices they had given to God, and they smugly felt as if God must be pretty impressed by and indebted to them.
In Psalm 50, God judges His people. He puts their thinking straight. God says, “For God is judge himself… I am God.” He goes on, “I will take no bullock out of thy house.” God didn’t need all the animals they were giving Him. God had created both the animals and the ones giving the animals.
God continues, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” God owns everything. God made everything. Verse 12 continues, “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.”
Now, is God ever hungry? No, it is impossible. God is never in need. He never lacks. If God were hungry and were to tell me about it, what would that kind of conversation be called? Isn’t that called prayer? Is God going to pray to me? The very thought is blasphemous. God doesn’t pray to me. I pray to Him. God is not in need. I am.
Verse 14 says, “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High.” The only thing that I can give God that God did not give me first is gratitude. “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” God extends to us an invitation in the times when we are in trouble. In that day, you ask God. God is not going to ask you. God doesn’t need you, but you definitely need Him. That is where prayer comes in.
Prayer is a reminder of who needs Whom. I need God; God loves me. Most people that we love, we love because they fulfill some need. God doesn’t need you in that sense. God has no lack. Wonderfully and amazingly, God loves you. God doesn’t love you because you are worthy; you are worth something because God loves you. It is to be remembered that you need Him. That is what prayer does; it reminds us of who needs Whom.