# The lions' food and the goodness of creaturely life

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH05.P026](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH05.P026/#char=578,623): "like any other which sought its meat from God"

The wording closely recalls Psalm 104:21 in the King James Version: the young lions seek their food from God. In that older English, ‘meat’ means food, not specifically flesh. The surrounding verses place animal feeding and human labour side by side: lions return to their dens as people go out to work (104:22–23), and the psalm praises the wisdom and abundance of God's creation (104:24). [Psalm 104:21–30](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10) therefore supplies a picture of shared creaturely dependence, not a condemnation of being an animal.

Chesterton's reversal concerns the claim that this picture is a sufficient account of human happiness. He does not replace divine creation with the belief that creation is evil; he replaces reassurance through natural belonging with an explanation of felt estrangement. His closing homesickness can also be placed beside Hebrews 11:13–16, where the faithful are strangers on earth seeking a heavenly country. That is a useful biblical parallel, rather than a securely identifiable quotation. The chapter's earlier insistence on loyalty to life prevents ‘the wrong place’ from simply meaning that the earth should be abandoned. The inspected biblical witness is the Project Gutenberg KJV transcription, not a facsimile of the 1611 printing; the wording alone does not establish which Bible or liturgical text Chesterton had in mind.

## Sources

- [The King James Version of the Bible, Project Gutenberg ebook 10](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10), Psalm 104:21–30; Hebrews 11:13–16
- [G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (first published 1908), Gutenberg ebook 16769](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16769), Chapter V, ‘The Flag of the World’, closing paragraph; compare the chapter's opening account of cosmic patriotism

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