Thirsty for God When Distanced from Others
Thirsty for God When Distanced from Others
Social distancing keeps us physically separated from people we love and care about. We long to be reunited with them. Absence does make the heart grow fonder.
But there is another kind of distancing that can occur during this same period. I have no special word to describe it, but it’s just as real, though, perhaps, not as a common as social distancing. I’m referring to the feeling of being unwillingly separated from God, an unplanned exile from Him. You feel the distance and it is painful.
The Psalmist (in Psalm 42) felt the pain of such an exile[1] from God’s presence. He was geographically distant from the Jerusalem Temple, the house of God. The context seems to suggest that he was being pursued by his enemies. In any case, he is unwittingly removed from the community of faith in Jerusalem and from worshiping Israel’s God in the Temple. To make it worse, the speaker is also being mocked by enemies, captured by the question, “Where is your God?”[2]
But I digress. What we should not overlook is how the Psalmist[3] responds to the separation from God’s presence. He uses a vivid analogy that strikes home:
As the deer pants[4] for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.[5] My soul thirsts for God, for the living[6] God. When can I go and see the face[7] of God? Psalm 42:1-2
When we are absent from someone we love, it is their face, not their arms, hand, or feet that we long to see. The face is what matters to us the most. When we are finally close enough to see their face, it is at that point when relief and joy combine together into a memorable and happy reunion. This is what the Psalmist longs for: to once again see the face of the God.[8]
But I have not yet addressed the speaker’s explicit interest: his passionate longing for God. He expresses that longing with the intensive first-person pronoun[9] “I”, used numerous times in the Psalm. Note: “I pant for you…I thirst for you…when shall I come and see…these do I remember…” It’s personal. The psalmist feels personally distant from God and expresses his passionate longing for Him, by saying, I thirst[10] for God.
If you live in a hot climate such as Florida, thirst is our shadow, a constant companion, a never-ending condition we experience. We know what it is to thirst for a refreshing drink of ice-cold water. But make no mistake. Physical thirst is no accidental feature of our humanity. We were created to thirst on purpose. Our thirst for water in the physical realm is a built-in safety feature for our ongoing health. But physical thirst was designed by our Creator God to alert us to a far more important thirst, a spiritual thirst, a passionate longing for God, also a safety feature for our spiritual life.
So, since we all know what it means to thirst for water, do we also know what it is to thirst for God? Has this time of social quarantine awakened you to such a thirst?
As the deer panteth for the water,
So my soul longeth after You.
You alone are my hearts’ desire,
And I long to worship You.[11]
Questions to Ponder
1. Read Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 in one sitting. Even from a casual glance, it is obvious that these two Psalms were meant to be read as a single thematic unit. Ps. 42:5 is repeated again in verse 11 and in Ps. 43:5. Themes found in Ps. 42 are continued in Ps. 43. “House of God” in Ps. 42:4 is mentioned again as “your holy mountain, the place where you dwell” in Ps. 43:3.
2. What do these heartfelt desires reveal about the speaker’s relationship with God? Do we share such passionate desires? If not, why not? Has social distancing pushed this desire to see God up to the surface of our minds and emotions? How has social distancing impacted our life with Jesus Christ?
3. What sort of memories does the speaker enjoy and maintain about his prior contact with God? Do we share the same type of memories? If not, what do we need to do to change?
4. During the upcoming, brutally hot days of our Florida summers, when we all thirst for a glass of ice cold water, why not ask yourself: do I pant for my God with equal thirst? If not, why not? If not, how can I develop such a thirst?
5. How does this Psalm find fulfillment with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well of water? (John 4).
6. Since genuine believers in Jesus Christ are now temples of God by the presence of the Holy Spirit, does that mean they no longer thirst for God as did the Psalmist?
Thank you for reading.
Photo credit: Jerry Smith
1] The book of Psalms is divided into five canonical sections just as the Pentateuch is divided into five sections (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). Psalm 42 is the first Psalm in the second section. Its placement at the beginning of the second section in the Psalms is parallel to the placement of Exodus, the second “book” in the Pentateuch. In both cases, Exodus and Psalm 42, the people of God are exiled from God’s presence. In Exodus, God’s people are exiled in slavery in the nation of Egypt. In Psalm 42, the speaker is also exiled from God’s presence located in the Jerusalem Temple.
[2] Ps. 42:6, 10
[3] The speaker is anonymous, but his psalm is written for the choir director, the worship leader. This particular psalm is labeled as a maskil for the Korahites. A maskil is a category of song. The use of this same term maskil in Amos 5:13 suggests it is a term describing joy. So, though the theme of this particular psalm could hardly be confused as joy, perhaps the joy is anticipated when the psalmist is reunited with God’s presence located in the Temple. The next Psalm (Psalm 43) is without superscription and continues the same theme as begun in Psalm 43. The speaker still anticipates coming to God’s dwelling place, the holy mountain (Psalm 43:3-4).
[4] The Hebrew term translated as “pant” is arag. It is quite descriptive and may refer to the sound of a thirsty deer as it slakes it’s thirst in a pool of water or flowing stream.
[5] I have observed that in the second section of the canonical Psalter, the term God (Elohim) is used more frequently than LORD (Yahweh). Psalm 42 is an example.
[6] Why add “living” as a descriptor of God? Perhaps, he adds “living” because “living water” is idiomatic in Hebrew for fresh water rather than a stagnant pool. The same seems to be true in John’s Gospel: “If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:37-38.
[7] English versions translate this as, “When can I go and meet with God?” But the Hebrew text is more specific: “When shall I come and see the face of God?”
[8] Jacob saw the face of God: “Jacob called the place, Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared.’” Genesis 32:30
[9] Hebrew: nafshi
[10] This is the same phrase used by Jesus while hanging on the cross when he, too, was exiled from God and mocked by his enemies. “I am thirsty.” See John 19:28. This is one of the numerous occasions in John where irony is used. The same Jesus who offered living water to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, now says, “I am thirsty.”
[11] by Martin J. Nystrom, 1984