Thirsting for God

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.  My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.  I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.  Psalm 63:1-2

David wrote many of the psalms in the middle of difficult times.  Biblical scholars believe this one was written when David fled Jerusalem when his son Absalom took the throne from him.  Even in the midst of David's breaking heart, he sought the Lord with a deep, soul-parched thirst.  He was the deer being hunted by his son; he was the one longing to be filled, to be completely satisfied through the only source who truly satisfies.

Many years later, Jesus said, "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied" (Matthew 5;6).  The thirst Jesus describes is the same thirst David spoke of.  Charles Spurgeon, a nineteenth-century pastor in London, explained it this way in his Treasury of David: This thirst is "the cry of a man far removed from the outward ordinances and worship of God, sighing for the long loved house of his God; and at the same time it is the voice of a spiritual believer, under depressions, longing for the renewal of the divine presence, struggling with doubts and fears, but yet holding his ground by faith in the living God."
 (Daily Wisdom Women)

Father, I, too,

thirst for You in

the dryness of my

soul.  Thank You

for Jesus who 

alone is able to

satisfy this thirst.