There is very little that will capture our focus more than thirst. When one becomes extremely thirsty, it diverts us from thinking about almost anything else. That overwhelming urge is what the psalm writer was trying to capture. He longed after God’s presence like a thirsty and giant deer longed for a drink. This was no teacup kind of longing, it was a big gulp, Rt 44, Bucee’s extra large kind of thirst.
The Psalmist was emphasizing that we need to be as desperate to be in God’s presence as a traveler would have been on the hot and dusty Israel roads. We often look at our time with God as a 3-hour commitment on Sunday morning and an occasional thought for the day when convenient. Imagine if you only drank water as often as you spent time with the Lord–Desert!
We need to remember that our spiritual needs are so much more real than even a drink of water. We must seek and follow God as if our lives depended on it, because our lives do depend on God! We must truly desire to be with Him and to be like Him in our daily walks. If we will, He will gladly transform us into His image and prepare us for an eternity where we will never be thirsty again. Jesus said it best to the woman at the well. John 4:13, “Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
God Bless You
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Walking With God 