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THIRSTY SOUL

Ps. 63:1 – O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Thirst is one of the few things that can’t be ignored and ultimately will not be denied. When you are thirsty all your other desires seem insignificant. Everything else will just have to wait until your thirst is quenched. David understood thirst and wilderness and the role water played in the sustenance of life. As a shepherd in his youth leading the sheep to water was a daily priority. When his spiritual eyes were opened he became intensely aware of his spiritual thirsting. David knew that in order to live he had to have water every day. The solution, his journeys always kept him close to his water source. He had to lead the sheep beside the waters of rest, how much more would David need spiritual refreshment for his soul. When David was in exile his mind turned back to the waters of Bethlehem. 2 Sam.23:14,15 – “David was then in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!” He remembered drinking from those wells to quench his thirst, he needed a drink that day as he ran for his life. Here are some thoughts from Spurgeon on today’s verse.

“Thirst is an insatiable longing after that which is one of the most essential supports of life; there is no reasoning with it, no forgetting it, no despising it, no overcoming it by stoical indifference. Thirst will be heard; the whole man must yield to its power; even thus is it with that divine desire which the grace of God creates in regenerate men; only God himself can satisfy the craving of a soul really aroused by the Holy Spirit….When the wilderness caused David weariness, discomfort, and thirst, his flesh cried out in unison with the desire of his soul. In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. A weary place and a weary heart make the presence of God the more desirable: if there be nothing below and nothing within to cheer, it is a thousand mercies that we may look up and find all we need.”

So thirst is a good thing, it reminds us of our greatest need. It reminds us to return daily to the well that satisfies our soul.

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TOO EASILY PLEASED

Ps. 63:5 – My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

I think we live in a world really confused at the basic essence of spiritual things. Many think that getting too close to the Lord will diminish our enjoyment of life, nothing could be more wrong. In today’s passage, David is describing a totally satisfied and happy life that has as its only source spiritual delight. The Lord Himself becomes the source of joy and the object of our delight once we are transformed by His grace. It’s not that our pursuit of happiness and pleasure is wrong, its just we are looking in the wrong places having our eyes blinded by this present age. Read this famous and often quoted statement from C. S. Lewis; I have to agree whole heartedly, we are far too easily pleased.

“The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

So what kind of delights are you caught up in today? The deceiving pleasures of this age blind our eyes to the greatest pleasure of all. One taste of His heavenly sweetness and you will gladly abandon the foolish pleasures of sin. I have to agree with David and Mr. Lewis, Christ Himself is far more satisfying than anything in this mud puddle of a world.