A Word from Psalm 42

When was the last time that you found yourself aching for God’s presence? Not wishing that God would answer a particular prayer. Not wanting direction in some upcoming decision. Not looking at the world and wondering how and when God will act to restore a little sanity. No, when did you last long for that sense of God’s nearness that brings peace and that reassures you everything will be okay?

Well, in today’s word from Psalm 42, one of God’s poets was feeling that ache:

“As a deer longs for flowing streams,’ he wrote,

     “so my soul longs for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

     When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (42:1-2)

Now, in one way, even reading those words awakens that longing within me. But here’s my confession: Some days, I’m too distracted to ache for God. Don’t get me wrong; I want His presence in my life. And I pray to Him in both need and thanksgiving. But at the same time, it’s all too easy for that sense of yearning for dependence and intimacy to get lost amid the stuff on my to do list and the worries of modern life.

And so, I find myself echoing the words of a more recent poet of God named A. W. Tozer who wrote this:

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness,

     and it has both satisfied me

     and made me thirsty for more.

I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace.

     I am ashamed of my lack of desire.

O God…I want to want Thee;

     I long to be filled with longing;

     I thirst to be made more thirsty still.”

So, may we all thirst for God today. And may we discover that, when we ask, He can still put a “spring within, gushing fountains of endless life” (Jn. 4:14, The Message). Amen.