Read Psalm 42.
“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God.” Psalm 42:2
The psalmist evokes the image of a deer panting for water to describe his yearning for God. Believing his enemies are closing in on him, he feels like God has abandoned him. Does God ever desert us, or create distance between Him and us? Someone once told me, “if you feel like you are separated from God, guess who moved?”
Hunger and thirst are nature’s way of providing us a signal to eat and drink. Perhaps the psalmist’s thirst is his reminder to drink again from the well that never runs dry. “…[B]ut whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Feeling alienated and lost, he remembers times when he was close to God, when he led a festive procession in the sanctuary. Even in his distress, he has faith; he knows he can experience that relationship again. “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him.”
Jesus talked quite a bit about thirst. He said in His Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Indeed, Jesus’ penultimate statement on the cross was “I am thirsty.”
In our satiated world, we never really thirst. We take water for granted and use it at an alarming rate, as though it will never run out. We’re so busy we cannot take a break to quench our thirst, so we carry our water with us. Along with our cell phones, our PDA’s, and our laptops, our water bottles have become another status symbol.
But do we ever tap into the well that satisfies our souls? Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness?
The psalmist’s closing question, “When shall I behold the face of God?” reminds me of the time Jesus told of a day when the righteous will ask Him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?”
Jesus’ response: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these my sisters and brothers, you did it to me.”
Jeff Taylor