They say a good writer grabs your attention with the first sentence. That is how Psalms 63 was written. Right out of the gate David lands on the dry and weary soul. It’s a thirsty Psalm. A hungry and parched Psalm. Written from the wilderness, the psalmist knows something about living thirsty. Check it out!
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.(Psalm 63:1-4 ESV)
The Thirsty Soul
Our Psalmist is thirsty with a thirst the world can not quench. Have you been there? I’m sure you have and maybe you are there now. This world and the “stuff” of this world was never intended to quench that thirst. We think it can – we try to let it – but it never does and it never will, because that is not what it was created to do!
Like drinking from the ocean…. there is a lot of water to drink! But, even with all that water, the ocean will never quench your thirst. It was not created to quench thirst. Go ahead and drink that salt water all day and you will only grow more thirsty. Have you found that to be true of the things of this world?
That is where I live. I live in a thirsty world. Don’t you? I am daily tempted to try to quench that thirst with the stuff this world offers, though it is a lot of water, and though it promises to quench….. it NEVER, EVER does. That is because we were created BY God and FOR God.
Our Psalmist in the wilderness wakes to this reality that only God can provide him with a satisfied soul. Have you experienced it? That new car, house, game, phone, iwhatever, has it satisfied that thirst yet?
The thirst of the soul is a thirst for the eternal. It is a thirst for…..God. So much thirst, so much longing from the dry and weary land… that David says: “earnestly I seek you…”
“The true believer is convinced, that nothing in this sinful world can satisfy the wants and desires of his immortal soul; he expects his happiness from God, as his portion. When faith and hope are most in exercise, the world appears a weary desert, and the believer longs for the joys of heaven, of which he has some foretastes in the ordinances of God upon earth.” Matthew Henry
