A Thirst for God

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God. I thirst for God, the living God. —Psalm 42:1–2

At the beginning of Psalm 42, we get an idea of the psalmist’s emotional and mental frame of mind when he wrote this passage. The word picture he paints is one of drought. He was thirsty. He was desperately longing for God, and he felt as if he lived in a desert land. He realized that just as the deer cannot live without water, neither could his soul live without God. What he was really longing for was communion with God.

His thirst was for a relationship with his heavenly Father—not for a religious experience, church services, or anything that God can provide but for God himself. The psalmist realized he couldn’t be satisfied with anything less than God.

One of the greatest discoveries you’ll ever make is that the inner thirst in all our hearts is not really a thirst for people, things, or for life to go well. Ultimately, it’s a thirst and a longing for God that cannot be satisfied apart from Him.