By Shirley Rosemarie Evans
As the deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and stand before him?
Psalm 42:1-2 NLT
Psalm 42 is a Psalm of lament; written to remind God of a desperate personal situation and to request help. The Psalm written by the Sons of Korah describes a deer who is panting for water. The interesting thing is that deer ordinarily do not pant, dogs pant on hot days but not so deer. Deer pant only after they have been chased by a predator and are exhausted. As soon as the deer escapes it will look for water to replenish and quench its thirst. If the deer cannot get to water, it will collapse and die.
Sometimes life seems to beat us down, there seems to be one challenge after the other and each one seems to be bigger than the last, we lose our jobs, and the bills begin to pile up, the children need clothes to go back to school and the car is about to be repossessed and then the husband leaves for his new love, leaving you to battle on the best way you know how. Yes, we get exhausted, all our reserves are depleted we have dug deep so many times that we have worn a hole in the bottom of the tank and the gauge now reads empty. We must get to the filling station.
For the sons of Korah, the water they so desperately sought was the living God, the need was to worship in His presence. During this time the only place considered for true worship was Jerusalem and they were seemingly exiled or in hiding at a distance from Jerusalem. Here we pause to thank God for Jesus and the finished work of the cross for we no longer have to go to the temple in Jerusalem to worship for we are as believers the temples of the living God and His presence lives within us.
When life beats upon us, when the storms howl all around when our enemies are relentless in their pursuit and their attacks on our good name, we, like the deer, must find water. Jesus declares that He is the living water and if we are thirsty all we have to do is to spend time in His presence and drink deeply of Him. The sad truth is that too often when we are going through the last thing, we feel like doing is praying or worshipping, our prayer life becomes cursory at best and we are devoid of songs. But may we recognise like the psalmist that our souls are panting, and we must get to water and a pressing is needed. We press through the pain and we push our way through the storms to get into His presence only here can we find comfort. God is the source of all comfort, here our burdens get lighter and we find strength to soar above the storm. I’m reminded of the words of an old chorus.
Jesus took my burdens
I could no longer bear,
Jesus took my burdens in answer to my prayer,
My anxious fears subsided,
My Spirit was made strong
As Jesus took my burdens
And left me with a song.
Ask: How does the image of the deer panting for water speak to you?
Seek: Are you prone to running to God or away from Him when you face one storm after another?
Knock: Take some time to rest in His presence to feel the cares lifting and the storms subsiding. Don’t rush to speak but just rest. After a few minutes sing a song of praise and read through Psalm 42, jot down any thoughts that come to you as you read. Say a prayer guided by the Psalm.
(Upper Photo by Diana Parkhouse on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Johnny McClung on Unsplash)
