My soul thirsts for God

Psalm 42 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Thirsting for God in Trouble and Exile.

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants 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 day long, “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

⁵ Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?                                                                        Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
⁶ O my God, my soul is in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
⁸ The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰ As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me,
While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
¹¹ Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?                                                                                                                     Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

Today’s psalm was written in despair, because of separation from the Lord. The psalmist says: As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”   It is indeed a desperate feeling to be separated from God and to have others ask, where is your God.   The psalmist says:  These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.    There in perhaps lies at least part of the problem for the psalmist. This writer was familiar with finding God in a place. He knew the presence of God in worship and praise, at the house of God, among the people of God. The  authorship of this psalm is attributed to the sons of Korah. The Korhathites were one of the tribes of Israel that was set apart as worshippers, to serve in the temple and to lead the people in praise and in worship. So, it is understandable that it is in and through praise that the writer knew and experienced the presence and the comfort of God. In another psalm of the sons of Korah, psalm 46:1-3 they express a deeper and truer revelation regarding God’s presence saying:  God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.    Some translations say that God is an ever present help. He is a help at all times, even in the worst of circumstances, even if the earth would change. He also is omnipresent. God is not only present and available at any time, but He is also present everywhere. We then should not despair feeling that our circumstances could separate us from the very, ever presence of the omnipresent God. We may not find Him in our familiar place, but we should become familiar with Him in every place.  

In Deuteronomy 31:6, God Himself says: “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”  Romans 8:31-39 says:  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   We are both conquerors through Christ and also because of Christ, we have the Holy Spirit, the very person of God dwelling in us. We don’t need to go to a familiar place to find God’s presence and His comfort. We only need to look to and yield to the very indwelling presence of God in us. If we will recognize that the God of creation is in us, then we will know that He will not leave us. We will have both the confidence of His protection and the comfort of His presence regardless of the circumstance we are in.

Still, the words of the psalmist speak a powerful message to us saying:  As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  We should be so dependent on God that we need Him as much as we need water. We should desire God as much as the very air that we breathe. The psalmist says:  I will say to God my rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?      Regardless of our situation, even if it seems that mountains are standing in our way or crumbling down on us, even if the waters of the sea are raging against us, God has not forgotten us. He is a very and ever present help. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. If then the presence of God has been forgotten, it is because we have forgotten God. In Luke 21:28 speaking about the tribulations we will face, Jesus says:  “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”   We can and we should look up, but even more, in Luke 17:20-21 Jesus says:  “The kingdom of God does not come with observation… indeed,the kingdom of God is within you.”   Jesus taught us to pray saying:  Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.   If the very kingdom of God and the very presence of God is within us, then we should be those who bring the power of God and the comfort of God to the situations and circumstances we face. We should remember that He has not forgotten us, but rather is with us and in us.  

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit;  As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Thank You that nothing can separate me from Your love or from Your presence. Regardless of what may come on earth, may Your kingdom come and Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. May I both voice this prayer and be the answer to it, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the very present kingdom of God in me.    Amen.