Daily Thought

Evidently the writer was prevented from going up to the sanctuary at Jerusalem at the feast-times and he expresses his grief. He longed to appear before God in the sanctuary.

How different to many today who would not take the trouble to cross the road to meet with God’s people. Yet this was something he longed to do; ‘When shall I appear before God?’. He longed for this intensely, and with an overwhelming sense of want, v. 1, like that of a deer panting for the water brooks. His desire was insatiable for a sense of the divine presence. It was not God’s blessings he sought, but the Blesser Himself. ‘My soul thirsteth for God’, he cried, ‘When shall I come before him?’.

He who loves God loves the gatherings wherein God is adored. He was never so much at home as in the Lord’s house. He was not content with private worship; he did not forsake the place where the saints assemble, but he could not get there, and he was depressed accordingly, v. 3.

Now, if there are streams for thirsty deer, there must be streams for thirsty men, Isa. 55. 1, 2. The psalmist’s thirst was not for money, or fame, or pleasure, or power - it was a thirst for God, and he knew with the utmost confidence that there was a God to quench that thirst. The prerequisite condition is thirst.

Satisfaction is promised, Matt. 5. 6. The soul longing for God finds complete satisfaction in Christ. He is the answer to the cry of the human heart for God. Without Christ, God is invisible and incomprehensible. His spiritual nature necessarily transcends our ability to understand Him. His greatness overawes us, and His power overwhelms us. But in Christ He graciously draws near to us that our eyes should behold Him, our ears should hear Him, and be thrilled by His love and compassion, and that it should be still possible for us to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him.

God was to the psalmist the supreme necessity of his being. So, too, we need His power, we need His love, we need His salvation. He is ‘the living God’, v. 2, ‘the God of my life’, v. 8, and ‘God my exceeding joy’, 43. 4.

‘If any man thirst’, the Lord Jesus said, ‘let him come unto me and drink’, John 7. 37.