A Thursday Devotion: As a Deer (March 12, 2015)

A Thursday Devotion:  As a Deer

Psalm 42:1-5

March 12, 2015

Have you ever been thirsty?  I mean really thirsty--so thirsty that you thought you would die?  It's not a very good feeling.  I have heard it said that people can survive for a month without food, but they need water.  

I love the picture of the deer drinking from a stream.  This deer looks quiet and serene, as though everything is peaceful.  I get a much different feeling from Psalm 42 when it speaks of a deer longing for flowing streams.  That sort of longing is the longing of desperation--seeking what you need to survive.  

It is that same sort of longing that the Psalmist is describing.  It's a longing to return to the place where our thirst is quenched with life-giving water.  

This Psalmist is in a spiritual dry place.  He remembers the joyful times of leading a procession to the Temple, of festivals and music and thanksgiving.  Those days appear to be gone.  People around him now taunt him, asking "where is your God now."

But despite the dryness, the Psalmist is able to remember, and his memory fills him with hope.  "Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God."  (Psalm 42:5).  We hope--not based on the evidence that we see with our eyes, but with the evidence of God's grace that has sustained us thus far, and the promise that "grace will lead me home."  [See the hymn "Amazing Grace by John Newton.]

I think Jesus might have been thinking of this Psalm when he told the woman at the well "those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."  (John 4:14).

So I invite you to pause for a moment and drink from the living waters that Jesus offers to us.  Come and receive His gift of eternal life.

Pray:  "Dear Jesus:  Give us this living water, so that we may never be thirsty again!  Amen.