We are all dependent. Every day is an exercise of our dependance on external factors for survival and well-being. We are dependant on our heart to beat an average of 72 times a minute. As we get up in the morning, we are dependent on the coffee machine to brew us some fresh and awakening black drink (or perhaps that is a teapot if you are British). We are dependant on our cars to drive us and our kids to the places we need to go. We are dependent on our computers and smartphones for connecting with other people and receiving information. We are dependent on rivers and wells for water sources. We are dependent on things for our sustenance. If that is true with inanimate things, it is even more so with people. We are dependant on one another for the proper functioning of life and society. We are dependant on grocery stores for the provision of our food. In turn, they are dependant on farmers and butchers for the provision of essential products, and they are dependant on drivers and transportation for the delivery of food to the stores. Every one of us is dependent on others for his survival and well-being.
God made us dependent creatures and…that is good. However, the ultimate and most important relation of dependance that defines our lives is not that with the things of this world nor that with the people that crowd our lives and fill society, but it is with the God who made them all. There are four ways in which we depend on God. Firstly, we depend on God as creatures. Secondly, we depend on God as sinners. Thirdly, we depend on God as the redeemed. Finally, we depend on God as children. Let’s consider the first point.
We are dependent as creatures. In Genesis 1, when God made the first man and woman, something unique happened. Up until that point, the Lord created the heavens and earth, stars and supplies of water, creatures and craters -- but never during those creative acts did he stop to talk with the created thing. He just spoke and they were. Now, with the formation of mankind, for the first time in creation, the Lord stops the normal pattern of creation to speak about and to his newly created beings. In 1:27, the Lord speaks about man when he said, “Let us make man in our image.” Then, in 1:28–30, he speaks to them when he gives them their mandate. Although the first man and woman were sinless and had a pure mind, they still needed the Lord’s guidance to know who they were in relation to Him, in relation to one another, and to know what their role was in the new world. In other words, by the very fact that they were creatures, they were dependent on God.
That remains true for us today. As author Tedd Tripp puts it, “Our need for help preceded sin.” We, as creatures, depend on God to know who we are, what we are supposed to do, and what is the world. However, our need for God does not stop at the interpretation of life, but it extends to the very necessities of life. We are dependent on the Lord for the very sustenance of our creaturehood. This is how Psalm 145:15-16 puts it: “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.” Or again, consider Psalm 104:
“You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.”
The psalmist then continues ascribing to the Lord provision for the trees, the birds’ material for building nests, for the wild mountain goats, the rock badgers, the young lions, the sea creatures, and man’s energy for work, concluding,
“These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.”
Tripp notes that, “To try to live without God’s help is to assign [ourselves] a sub-human existence.” It is in being dependent upon God for life and everything that we live “our best life now.” Contrary to this, it is in the search for self-dependence, self-reliance, and self-expression that we diminish the glory of our Lord and distort the very meaning of being a human. Therefore, dear TCBC saint, be dependent today on the Lord and exclaim with the psalmist, “Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD!” and sing with the hymnist:
Let all things their Creator bless, and worship Him in humbleness! O praise Him, Alleluia! Praise, praise the Father praise the Son, and praise the Spirit three in one! O praise Him! O praise Him! Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
(You can listen to this famous hymn written by Francis of Assisi in 1225: All Creatures of Our God and King • Prayers of the Saints Live).
Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 41.
Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 41.