He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. – Psalm 111:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 23, 2013): Psalm 111 & 112

One of the temptations of Jesus in the desert was that he would turn a stone into bread in order to feed himself. It would have been a neat trick. In the passage it says that Jesus had been in the desert and without food for forty days. We can interpret this phrase two ways. Either it was actually forty days or could simply mean that Jesus was in the wilderness long enough to be really hungry (forty is one of those special numbers that is repeated in several places in the Bible – forty years in the desert wanderings, rain for forty days and nights in the story of Noah.) But no matter how you want to interpret the passage, the bread would have looked awful good to a hungry man (I wish I could turn a stone into bread whenever I miss lunch.) Jesus response to the temptation was that “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone’” (Luke 4:4) The allusion is to the speech of Moses in the closing days of the wilderness wanderings as he reminds the people that God had “humbled you, causing you to hunger and feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3.)

Later Jesus would instruct the crowd that if they wanted to follow him they would need eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6:51.) The crowd feigned that they did not understand and were angry at the thought, but the truth is that we rarely get angry at things that we do not comprehend. The words of Jesus were a clarion call to action, a demand that the people be committed to the teachings of Jesus to respond to the needs of the poor and the alien among them. As long as Jesus was performing miracles, the people were happy – but these words indicated that something more was expected of them then just watching Jesus perform.

Again, later, Jesus would meet with the twelve and break the bread and give it to them indicating that this bread was his body, broken for them. The allusion is once again to the bread which seems to be a staple for life.

This Psalm is known as the Communion Psalm – and is often used in the Communion Service. The indication in this verse to food means that God provides all of what is needed for life. Sometimes that comes in the form of bread and sometimes in the form of manna or quail. But there is so much more that is needed if we are to live. Bread alone may keep the body alive, but the soul will starve. This Psalm is a promise that God will provide the things that we need to keep the soul alive (as well as the body) – if we will only look to him – and let him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 113 & 114

Note: The VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) message "First Blood" from the series "An Epic Summer" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here.