Maslow was wrong. Well, he was right before he was wrong. It is true enough that we all have a hierarchy of needs. Some things are more important than others. Trouble is, he didn’t know what the most important things were. Foundational in his system are those things necessary for survival, things like food and water. King David had a different, a better perspective. He said that the Lord was His Shepherd, and he shall not want (Psalm 23:1). David, at this point, has no green grass, and no still water. To be sure God does provide these things, but before He does, David already has everything he needs, the Lord for His Shepherd. Survival is still up in the air, but David has already finished with his worrying. He has what he needs.
One of the most foundational principles in the modern marketing of the church is the notion that we need to tap into not Maslow’s needs, but “felt needs.” This language leaves open the question of what is truly needful, and calls us instead to make our pitch for what our target audience believes their needs to be. Is our target market afflicted with fear? Offer them peace. Is our market suffering from ennui? Offer them excitement, adrenaline.
We serve a big God. He does indeed give us not just peace, but the peace that passes understanding. We serve also a thrilling God. He is no tame lion. So why wouldn’t we meet the lost at their point of need with all the riches our God has to offer in Christ Jesus? Because our greatest need is to stop worshipping ourselves. When we market Jesus, telling people that He will provide for them this or that, when we list the bullet point benefits awaiting those who will walk the aisle we do not meet people where they are, but leave them where they are. Their problem, which is my problem, is self-worship. If the glory of God is that He allows me to better serve myself, I am still worshipping myself. When He becomes a means, I remain the end. Jesus didn’t tell us to count His benefits. He told us to consider the cost, and to take up the cross.
I don’t need to survive. I need to die. I need to do the will of my Father in heaven. That must be my meat and my drink. I need His life, His death, His Spirit, His Word, His fruit, His resurrection, His promise, His obedience. I need Him. And I need to come to understand that every other desire, no matter how pious, is the pathway to death.
The glory of God isn’t that He so potently serves me. The glory of God is that in His grace He teaches me to serve Him, working in me to do and to will His good pleasure. Every good gift, every drop of still water, every blade of green grass, is designed to show us Him. They are just the shimmering reflection of the one true gift, the one needful thing, the Pearl of Great Price.
Ps 51 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,and sinners will turn back to you. We die because Christ death began our process of restoration. Ps 56 7 On no account let them escape;in your anger, O God, bring down the nations. 9 Then my enemies will turn back
when I call for help. Were as the wicked die by the condemnation of the law. Christian death is law,covenants, curses, statutes, promises and decrees applied to us because of Christ death. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;a broken and contrite heart,O God, you will not despise. The broken spirit is the knowing by experience that God had answer the request of Ps51 being convinced like our first experience of being saved that God alone had granted David his request.
God has given us the law, covenants, curses, statutes, promises and decrees in the form of petitions and pronouncements. These axioms are Gods creative words. Salvation is both a one time event and ongoing as well. We are being saved. The Psalmist says that God spoke the axioms in creation. We are being delivered by the response of God by our petitions and pronouncements. The Psalmist calls this having a new word of Salvation. We speak axioms and God responds with deliverance..the word of salvation. We go through the trial, the tendency to be distant from God and the broken relations by seeking to be completely delivered.
Some people focus on our attitude of confession instead of what David says in Psalm. 51 We are not forgiven by our contrition. We are forgiven through the Ps. 51 petition. David simply set forth these petitions. God responded to His petitions.
The ot narrative is not written as a history book. Not only did God speak things into existence in the original creation but God speaks the events in the ot before they happen. So this is the way that God creates and recreates the world. The Psalms are written as the teaching in the ot narrative. God gave us prophecy speech in the axioms.