We often use different activities and people to satisfy ourselves, and they may suffice for a time but inevitably the thirst for more returns. Do we desire temporary pleasures that will fade like the morning dew? How much do we desire to socialize or partake of hobbies and entertainment and the ephemeral joys of this world? Do we like to work and play and occupy ourselves with personal interests? What may not occur in our minds is whether we have a similar interest in God? Or do we share God among our other interests? Maybe we only give God a small slice of the pie. It could be an important slice, but it is nonetheless only a portion of ourselves. We may act like God occupies the preeminent place in our lives and we may be really involved in church or continually mindful of godliness, but these endeavors cannot substitute for a burning passion for the Lord in our soul.

In the Judean wilderness, David expressed how his heart was filled with a desire for God with such a longing that it was as desperate as holding on to life itself. David compared this longing to a land that desperately craved rain to nourish its dry, parched soil. Whether it was during his youth in the fields tending to the sheep or on the run in the desert from Saul’s army, David was well acquainted with the land’s need for irrigation. His thirst for the Lord was a desperate thirst like “a dry and weary land where there is no water”, like a land that would soak up every drop of moisture that fell upon it as though the last was as precious as the first. He was surrounded with nature’s constant need for nourishment to be poured out upon it. His passion was like an arid land that continually looked to the heavens for the coming rain.

David was not expressing a mild dehydration that could be quenched with a quick slurp from the brook. His soul did not have some inconvenient cotton-mouth that could be soothed and abated with a cool drink of water. No! David’s thirst was immense. His whole being longed for the Lord. Every part of his soul was like dry, sun-baked soil with fissures and cracks just waiting to soak in the rain. The kind of land that can absorb floods of water and still be longing for more.

How does our desire for the Lord look? Would you picture it as intense as a barren land awaiting the spring rain to bring life to its terrain? Do our souls truly long for God in a way that only he can fill? Do we crave that deeper connection with him? If we fill our lives with other things (work, family, hobbies, and even church activities), we will find ourselves in a drought regardless of what we do. But, if we have that intense thirst for him and pursue him as the only source of relief and fulfillment, he will not leave us thirsty. We will be filled, for he is the only one who can truly satisfy. ~ JW

Psalm 42:1 NIV
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.