As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42: 1, 2, NKJV.
Heavenly Father, You have living waters. Please quench our thirst we pray; in the name of Jesus. Amen.
What do you want when you are feeling thirsty? I am sure that there are many answers to this question. But I can assure you that nothing will quench your thirst like a glass of cool, clear, water! Water is the best thing to quench physical thirst. However, many, like David, have felt a thirst that nothing, of an earthly origin, can satisfy. Let us look at this thirst briefly, from two points of view. David was thirsting for the courts of the LORD. This is evident from his words in verse 4, “These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and I led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.”
Many of us take for granted the weekly, or bi-weekly meetings in the house of God, with the community of faith, until, whether it is because of sickness, or distance, we are unable to go to the house of God and worship. And yes, you can experience God’s presence anywhere; in a cave, like Elijah, (1 Kings 19: 11-13). Like the prodigal son in a pig’s pen, because no one can come to himself or herself, without the help of God (Luke 15: 17, 18). By a well, in the heat of the day, like the woman of Samaria (John 4: 26). But how pleasant is our corporate worship; when all of us come together and experience the sweet presence of the Lord in community (Psalm 133)!
David was thirsting for God. You may ask where was David that God could not get to Him, when David himself asked the question: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence” Psalm 139: 7? There seems to be a contradiction. Not really! God is never far from us; but many times we feel far from God. Perhaps difficulties in our lives may make us wonder, where is God? “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God” (2, 3)?
It is at these times that we have a need to be filled with those living waters that Jesus spoke of to the woman of Samaria “…those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4: 13, 14). Only Jesus satisfies! That is why He could say, “whoever believes in [M]e will never be thirsty” (John 6: 35).
Many have “tasted and seen” that Jesus satisfies. Have you? Tomorrow we will continue our study on the thirst for living waters. Until then, may your thirst be quenched by drinking from the Fountain of Life!