Thirsty for God

Psalm 42:1~ “As a deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you O God.”

          Arguably one of the most poetic verses in the book of Psalms, the author paints the picture of a deer. The deer in this visual painting is panting, possibly suggesting he just finished running or is simply dehydrated or even both. The point is the deer is thirsty and there is only one source that can quench the thirst of this thirsty deer and that is water.

          The psalmist makes an interesting comparison, just as the deer is thirsty for water, so he himself is thirsty for God. Now any Christian can say, “Oh yes, this passage! I have had this verse memorized since my youth.” And this may be true. But what I can’t help thinking to myself as I sit by this window with a view of the Willis Tower (previously known as the Sears Tower), what does it mean to be thirsty for God? What does it look like when a man really desires God just as a dear yearns for water from a stream? Well we know what it looks like in a sense; it looks like a deer panting for water. We might have to do some critical thinking here because in order to understand what a man whose soul pants and thirsts for the living God, we must understand what it means to be thirsty just as the dear is thirsty.

          Keep in mind here this is real thirstiness. The deer is panting for some water. This is not the situation where the deer is just taking a sip before it goes to play with the bunnies, the deer is actually thirsty. So we need to ask ourselves, “How do I feel when I am thirsty?” The thoughts that come to my mind are not pleasant to think about. First my mouth gets really dry; ugh that’s the worst feeling. And as it gets dry my saliva gets really thick and gross. And normally, on top of all this, I am hot and sweaty when I am thirsty. I get really tired and I am slow moving. Sometimes I like to pretend I am a dog and stick my tongue out of my mouth too. But being thirsty is no fun thing. For me it’s agonizing and really a state I don’t like to be in. When I am extremely thirsty I would normally do anything for some water, even if it means just a drop. I know it’s kind of gross to place a picture of me in your mind as a sweaty gross guy who has his tongue sticking out like a dog, but in order to understand what it means to thirst for God we have to look at what it means to have real thirst. Just like this fellow below…

         

          Now we need to think about what happens when we actually get the water, because in order to understand what it means to thirst after God, we need to understand why we thirst after God at all, what happens to us when we actually are quenched with a tall glass of water?

          Let’s get that picture back into our head, extreme thirsty Matt, sweaty and exhausted and gross. When I take that tall glass of water into my hands, and I feel the chilled water that has laced the outside of the glass, and I chug that sucker ’til I am sucking on the ice cubes, I am more fulfilled at that moment and time than ever in my life! Isn’t it true? When our thirst is quenched when we desire it the most, it is the most relieving feeling in the world! Knowing that the satisfaction of icy-cold water is tunneling down into your waterless gut brings a satisfying peace that no other drink could do. That is the feeling we get when our thirst has been quenched.

          So what now? Is the psalmist trying to tell us that we need to fit God in a tall glass of water and drink Him up? Well obviously we can’t do that, so what exactly is going on here? The psalmist is not referring to the actual act of taking water and placing it in our tummies. Rather, he is referring to the ‘desire’ that is compared in this verse. Just was we long for water, just as we yearn for that heavenly substance when we are dehydrated, just as we seek out water to quench us, so we must also long for God, so we must also yearn for the Lord, so we must also seek Him out. This is what it means to thirst for God and this is the contrast shown in this verse. The idea we get from this passage is that we need to desire God and continually depend on him. Can a dear live without water? Well, maybe perhaps a few days, but sooner or later this dear the psalmist is referring to is going to drop because the dear cannot live without water. So it is with God. We need to realize not only should we want to know God, the fact of the matter is, we simply cannot live without Him. He is the constant that keeps us going, He is our driving force as Christians, He is the reason of our very existence and if we are not longing for him as a deer longs for water than we will fall, and we will fall hard.

          The contrast is clear. But let’s not forget the satisfaction that God brings to us when we thirst for Him. Remember just a second ago I said drinking a cold glass of water when you are thirsty is the best feeling in the world? I actually meant second best, being quenched by the Grace of the Almighty God is unbeatable. Those of us who proclaim to have faith in Christ know this because we have tasted the oh-so-sweet promise of salvation. When we thirst after the Lord, He promises to quench our thirst and to bless us. But what does it look like when our thirst is quenched? How does God exactly do that? There is a number of ways he fulfills our yearn for Him, and that is He gives us peace. Not just any peace, but a peace that gives us hope. The psalmist here is going through troubled times and is in distress of what is going on. He, later in the psalm, remembers what he has in God, it says in verses 5b and 11b, “ Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of His countenance.” Let us remember the hope we have in Christ, the hope of salvation from our sins and eternal prison and hope in a new body and a new home that we call heaven.

          When you get thirsty, go get some water and be quenched. When you desire God, go seek him out and be filled.