“1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how would I go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. 5 Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and 6 (a) my God.”
– Psalms 42:1-6
This short passage, filled with a rollercoaster of emotion from passion to despair, hope to hopelessness, victory to defeat, was written by the man described by the Almighty God Himself as “A man after my own heart.” Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time that we find King David in a state like this. We hear David’s deep distress; in a broken condition. However, in each of those times of brokenness, the psalmist’s passion for and hope in his Shepherd GOD raised him from despondent despair. That, my friends, is what being a man after God’s own heart really is. It is THIRSTING for God Himself. Not simply praying for the blessings He bestows, gifts He gives, power He displays, or the miracles He works, David pursued relationship with the very being of the One from Whom all blessings flow.
The idea that pursuing the things of God is the same as pursuing God is something that can be very dangerously misconceived in our culture today; yet it seems to only grow as time goes on. I intentionally use the word “dangerous” because delight in only the fruit and not the tree which produces the fruit quickly leads to a sense of ingratitude for the source of the blessing. We must remember, the God whom we serve is not a genie. He is the “living God” as David describes. God is not one that we can fool by leading Him on with our false praises in order to receive what we really want in the form of blessings and gifts. He is so abundantly greater than what He gives–no matter how lavish the blessing! His presence alone yields more delight than any benefaction.
We can see that David obviously understands this truth more than any of us could through the two things that he recognizes. The first thing David recognizes is what we read immediately in the first verse. David poetically words his need for God by comparing it to how a “deer pants for water.” So we see that this passion and thirst for God is not one that is an occasional impulse that is induced by the lack of having what he wants. Contrarily, he sees God Himself as a life- preserving necessity, just as he would water, food, or shelter. He recognizes that without God, his spirit is only a rotting soul inside of an apparently living body; with God, his spirit is an eternally thriving soul inside an earthly body that is wasting away. David’s second acknowledgement naturally follows: “to hope in GOD.” We read in verse 5 that his soul is downcast. Despite having the deepest of riches and greatest of kingdoms, his soul still thirsts and thirsts greatly! Yet he recognizes that the fountain flowing from God’s throne provides the only lasting satisfaction for his thirst. He commands his own soul “to hope in GOD”. He doesn’t command his soul to hope in the things that God may provide him. He places his hope not in blessings of God, but in God, THE source of life and sustenance.
Another important factor that must be marked here is what David associates with God’s identity in the tail end of verse 5 leading into verse 6: “for I shall again praise him, MY SALVATION and my God.” So we see an obvious connection in just WHO God is and the salvation of man. This is something we MUST remember that the work of Christ on the Cross is inseparable from who He is. We place our hope in God not for what we gives (that benefits us physically) but for who HE is, then and only then does the saving work on the Cross truly satisfy our thirsting.
I say all of this to point to the main purpose of this article… Our nation is seeing a movement of God that we have not witnessed in decades (perhaps even longer). Just in the last month, we have witnessed thousands upon thousands of people placing their faith in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. As a result of that, they have found new life in Christ and are experiencing a newly found fiery thirst for HIM and His Glory (just as David had). But as many of us know, these fires quickly dim if not fanned by more mature brothers and sisters. The reality of our broken world can dampen the joy of newfound faith that is not yet strongly rooted faith in The Cornerstone.
So I want to sign off by encouraging two groups of people: The brother and sister in Christ who have witnessed this movement and brothers/sisters in Christ who have experienced this movement within themselves.
To those who have witnessed– don’t leave our newly found brothers and sisters to wonder for themselves in a spiritual war zone. Encourage them, strengthen them, and disciple them in the way that they should go in following our King.
To those who have graciously been saved in this movement– in those moments where the fire grows dim, look to the one who doesn’t. When your soul is downcast, remember your hope is in the LIVING GOD, your salvation. Stay still and know that He is GOD.