The Flesh’s Deepest Desire
How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of Hosts! My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
– Psalm 84:1,2
The sons of Korah, having served in the temple for generations, lost none of the wonder of God’s presence being in their midst. While for some, familiarity breeds contempt, for others, familiarity cultivates intimacy.
Why the difference? Why do some, having been raised among God’s people and surrounded by the goodness of Jesus, pursue Jesus all the more? Others, immersed in the same river of grace, spurn the Lord and despise His presence?
While the reasons for this surely are many, a key may be found in the sons of Korah confessing, “my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”
Many agree that the Lord will satisfy our hearts. But can your flesh — your body, with all of it’s appetites, longings, and desires — be fully satisfied by Him?
Paul the apostle wrote that the law was “weakened by the flesh” and that we are not to “walk according to the flesh” (Romans 8), so many wrongly conclude that “spirit is good and flesh is bad.” With this wrong belief, we spend our lives trying to escape our bodies in order to be united with the Spirit. But can we do this and still celebrate that God took on flesh and dwelt among us?
In The World, the Flesh and Father Smith, Bruce Marshall’s Father Smith corrects Miss Dana Agdala on this very error, as it relates to our body’s sexual desires. She inquires into the celibate priest’s private life, wondering how he can “live without us.”
Father Smith’s answer: “Women’s bodies are rarely perfect; they soon grow old and sag, and always the contemplation of them even at their best is a poor and boring substitute for walking with God in His House as a friend . . .”
All the world offers us — in relationships, food, pleasure, work — is a “poor and boring substitute” compared to the eternal delights of our Lord. What your flesh, with all it’s appetites, is truly seeking is to “walk with God in His House as a friend.” But if you don’t believe that God can satisfy the appetites of your body, your remaining options are starvation or compromise with the world. And one can only endure starvation for so long…
In taking on our flesh, Christ has redeemed and blessed all of creation — including our bodies. He again has pronounced it to be “very good.” The God who created your body is fully capable of satisfying it, even delighting it!
It is possible to spend a lifetime in the proximity of the goodness of God and the glory of His presence and yet never allow it to satisfy your soul and delight your entire being. But creation sings of Him, the Church tells of Him, and the Scriptures testify of Him. Will you believe, partake of the Bread of Life, and allow your heart and flesh to be satisfied and cry out in praise to Him?
