Are You Thirsty for God?
By Sarah Frazer
Bible Reading
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. - Psalm 63:1 (ESV)
When my children were little, they were always thirsty. No matter how many times I filled their sippy cups, they always needed more. On those hot summer days or after an intense workout, we’ve all experienced deep thirst. Every living thing needs water to survive, but do we recognize the thirst of our souls? I’m talking about the ache we feel when life is fine on the outside, but deep inside, without our souls, we feel empty.
The thirst we experience in our hearts is sometimes hard to recognize. There have been seasons in my life where I’ve been filled with so many activities, to-dos, and responsibilities that I don’t even recognize the thirst happening. My calendar fills up, and every week, I fill my days with good things like serving in church, caring for my family, and helping those in need.
Sometimes, my work for God takes away from my relationship with God. If we find ourselves too busy to spend time in prayer and reading His Word, we might be too busy to even notice the thirst we have in our souls. If those things, even the good activities, were taken away, would we feel satisfied?
The author of Psalm 63, David, understood that the true purpose in his life was to be filled with God. This psalm begins with this title: “A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” Most commentaries believe this is either before David became king, (1 Samuel 23:14) or during the time later in his life when his son, Absalom, took over the kingdom. David had to flee for a brief period of time. (2 Samuel 15) Either way, David felt a thirst we often overlook in our own lives.
Being in the wilderness, fearing for your life, isn’t something you and I face, but we have faced times in our lives when it seems as if everyone is against us, and we are all alone. Have you ever felt so alone that even God felt distant? I think David was feeling that when he wrote Psalm 63. The first verse reminds us that when we are all alone, we should not be seeking anything but God.
David says, “earnestly I seek you…” In the King James Version, this Hebrew word is translated as “early will I seek you…” He is trying to convey the idea of seeking God first before turning to other sources of help. David says that when we face a wilderness season, it is easy to fill our lives with things, people, or activities. Instead, what our hearts should seek is God Himself.
Psalm 63 goes on to describe the things about God that cause us to want to seek Him. Power and glory belong to God (Psalm 63:2), and God’s steadfast love (Psalm 63:3) is better than life itself. Anything in this world we would gain is better than God’s steadfast love. God has been his help and protection all of his life. (Psalm 63:7-8) All of these things, glory, love, and protection, give us reason to seek after God.
David did not write Psalm 63 when life was easy. At the end of this chapter, we see that there were people who were seeking his life. (Psalm 63:9) They were lying about him (Psalm 63:11), but because David was seeking God, they would not triumph over him. We might not have people out to kill us, but we do have an enemy who would like to see us destroyed. (Ephesians 6:12) One of the ways he likes to attach us is to keep us busy. We cannot let our lives rush past us without being filled with God.
I’ll admit sometimes, when I am facing a crisis or a period of deep sorrow and grief, the easy choice is to run to other things. Our world holds many distractions that keep us from seeing the thirst in our hearts. David recognized that the real thing his soul needed was God. There is a beautiful prayer by A. W. Tozer that says:
“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 of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still….”
Do we long for God like that? I admit that I am not thirsty for God like I should be, but we can pray for our hearts to long for Him more. The more time and attention David spent with God, both in scripture reading and prayer, the more David longed for God. The same can be said of us. The way we thirst for God more is to spend more time with Him. The more we drink from the well that is His love and goodness, the more we want of it!
Intersecting Faith & Life:
If your life feels too busy to hear from God, what can you remove that is unnecessary? How can you make room for God in your daily life?
Further Reading:
1 Chronicles 16:11
Hebrews 11:6
James 4:6
Psalm 9:10
Lamentations 3:25
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