WHO WILL PRAISE YOU? (Psalm 30:8-10)

8 To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: 9 "What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? 10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help." (NIV)

“If you take away my car privileges, you’ll have to drive me to school and band practice and I won’t be able to run errands for you.”

Can’t you just hear a grounded teenager using that argument against being punished? As if the real concern is about how it will inconvenience you and he’s only thinking about your best interests! That’s the way the words of the psalmist in verse 9 come across. Is he really concerned about God getting praised or is he trying to manipulate God into being merciful? Regardless of the motives or sincerity of the psalmist’s argument, it does reveal a remarkable truth: God needs us. Really, he does. Sure, we know we need him. We need him for forgiveness. We need him to make sure we have food, clothes, and a place to live. We need him to have meaning. We need him for hope. We need him for eternal life. We tend to define our relationship with God from our perspective, from how it affects us and what we get out of it. But do we realize God needs us? God yearns to spend time with us because he loves us. He needs someone to love. He isn’t involved in our lives out of obligation or just because he’s God and that’s what God has to do. He truly enjoys being with us, listening to us, talking, laughing, crying and hanging out with us. Just as each of us have a God-shaped hole that only God can fill, God also has a place in his heart that only each of us can fill.