Living Waters (Psalm 42, Part 1)

Imagine living in a place where strange people, speaking a strange language, surround you. Sounds, smells, sights, all foreign. Even the soil, the ground you walk on is strange. Imagine feeling that the God you serve is far from you; feeling there is no longer a connection to the very One that sustains your life.

That is what the writer of Psalm 42 & 43 felt as he found himself exiled. The psalmist had been exiled from the land of Israel, thus separating him from God’s presence in the temple. How could he continue to exist outside the presence of God?

It is in complete desperation that the psalmist recorded his angst in the words,

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before him? Day and night, I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” Psalm 42:1-3

In the heat of summer, when leaves and plants are dry and cannot provide necessary water, deer must desperately seek out a stream that will provide life to its dehydrated body. Like a deer in a drought longing for water to sustain its life, the psalmist longs for his God—the source of his life. Water that never dries up or stops flowing is referred to as living waters. Like the deer searching for living waters in the summer months, the psalmist is searching for the true Living Water, his living God, in his exile.

The psalmist is yearning to once again be in God’s presence in the temple back in his homeland. Because he cannot go to the temple for worship, the psalmist finds himself in tears of grief. Without his Living Water to sustain him, the psalmist only has water from his tears to nourish him. All the while, his enemies taunt him like a playground bully, asking, “Where is that faithful God of yours now?”

You will probably never find yourself exiled in a strange land. However, you may find yourself in deep anguish over a circumstance of life that has left you feeling exiled from God. Maybe it’s a death of a loved one, an unanswered prayer or unmet desire, a disease that torments your body, or a transition in life that has left you feeling lost and alone.

Like the psalmist, you must desperately long for God’s presence in the mist of these circumstances, even though you may feel abandoned by God. You must desperately long for the Living Water to give you life in the mist of your drought.

Come back next week for more from Psalm 42,


Stephanie

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