December 4 – Managing Thirst

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?”  - Psalm 42:1-2  (NASB)

Most days we find promises from God's Word in one or two verses. When the books of the Bible were originally written there were no such things as chapters or verses. *Each book was written without any breaks from the beginning to the end. We are looking at a few passages in Psalm 42 to find what promises there are from God.  We have a promise of sorts in today's selection although it may be vague to a degree.  We all know how an animal behaves when it is thirsty.  Their tongues hang out of their mouth and their breathing changes.  If they smell water nearby they get pretty focused on finding it to satisfy their need for water.  The psalmist who wrote this song compared himself to a thirsty deer.  When a deer is thirsty it pants and begins to be focused on finding a water supply, a spring or pond or stream.  When our souls are thirsty for God and for His Word, our soul has a driving desire to find Him because we trust His promise that He will satisfy our thirst and we strongly desire interaction with our God. 

* How Chapters and Verses came to be part of the Bible. 

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July 14 – Always Available

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm 42:1,2 (ESV)

This word picture is something we can see clearly.  For a deer in nature, and for almost all creatures, a very important part of life is the water it finds in a spring or stream.  For us who have human souls the most important part of life is close fellowship with our God and what He gives us. There is nothing in this world that can satisfy the longing of our soul like our God can.   After we came to know God in a real way we will long to know him better and to keep in close touch with Him each day.  The psalmist asked when He could meet with God.  The psalmist's spirit is depressed and he is crying out to God for answers.  But he knows that God is what he needs. The last words of the psalm say, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”  We too know the answer to that question because God is always available for us to draw what we need from Him.