LEARNING DAILY

 

Psalm 42:1-2a, As a deer pants for the water brooks, my soul thirsts for You. O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

 

It is hot outside. The months of May, June, and July have recorded record setting heat each month. In July, all but two days recorded temperatures 100 degrees or higher. The grass in yards is brown and the aquifer continues to go down every day. The lack of rain has taken its tolls on the lakes near where I live and the “critters” are looking for water to drink. As I went for a walk today, it was hot and a drink of water was on my mind. I also thought of this verse.

 

I pray often for my family, friends and all who read the blog for God to increase their hunger and thirst for His righteousness (Matthew 5:6). I want for all of you and myself to have a greater desire for God and greater desire for walking on the narrow way to His kingdom.

 

In this Psalm, the sons of Korah wrote of a powerful image -- a deer that was looking for water. It longed for and needed water. The image becomes clearer to me as we face so many days without water and I imagine the wildlife desperately seeking water to drink for survival. I let my imagination deer going to where they have found water in the past, pawing at the dried-up watering place, and having to move elsewhere looking for water.

 

In this desperate scene, the psalmist states that he is desperate like the deer searching for water. The psalmist is desperate, not for water, but for God. “As water is essential for physical life, so God and His presence are for satisfaction and wholeness of life. True Believers will hunger and thirst for God and His grace, blessing and supernatural activity in their life” (LSSB). You and I must never stop thirsting for God because to do so is to dry up and die spiritually, just like our grass is drying up and the ground is cracking due to the lack of rain. We must never let the concerns of this life keep us from an intense desire from walking with Him on the narrow way or keep us from desiring the things of God.  

 

When I got home from my walk, I got myself a cool drink of water to quench the thirst I had; the water was good. To thirst for God is to desire to be in His presence and worship Him. It is to need Him more than anything else, the longing to please Him, and to desire His righteousness to grow deeper within us. The sons of Korah give all Believers hope and encouragement when they are in a desperate place, when all they can do is cry out to God because their circumstances are too much for them. We are reminded in times like these to seek Him, remain steadfast in Him and know He is present with us.

 

Matthew 5:6 gives the person who seeks and desires, hungers and thirsts for God and His righteousness, a wonderful promise. If you want more of Jesus and diligently seek Him, you will find Him; He will fill you! If you pant and thirst for Him as the deer, you will have your thirst quenched!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible