O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 63:1-8
David remembers. He has seen God, he has experienced his glory, and now he longs for God again with all of his being. He finds himself in a place of dryness and thirst and he knows that God is the only one who will be able to satisfy this need. The language of this psalm is full of a kind of urgent desperation that is perhaps sometimes lacking from our own prayers.
God promises that those who earnestly seek him will find him (e.g. Matt 7:7, Lam 3:25, Deut 4:29). He doesn’t play a cosmic game of hide-and-seek with us – rather, he has gone to great lengths to reveal his truth and character to us in the Bible and through the person and life of Jesus. And once we find him, it is a very good idea to cling to him for dear life! Quite literally. There will be times of dryness when we will need to remember our spiritual mountain-tops, just like David.
But oh, how privileged we are to live in the days that David looked forward to! Our greater David has come:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:37-39
Salt and Light 