Thirsty for Living Water

Scripture — Psalm 42:1-2 (NRSV)

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?

Devotion

Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really thirsty. I’m not thinking about ordinary thirst, the kind you can quench with a quick drink of water. Rather, I have in mind an aching, desperate thirst. Have you experienced anything like this?

The greatest physical thirst I’ve ever known happened many years ago. I was on a hike in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California. A few friends and I took off in the early morning. Our goal was a verdant spot a few miles from the trailhead. When we got there, we spotted a peak that seemed to be just a couple of miles further, so we headed for it. By the time we conquered the peak, we had covered ten miles and had used up almost all of our water.

Our return trip by a more direct route was mercifully downhill, but there was not even a tiny spring to slake our nagging thirst. The day was hot and there was no shade to protect us from the sun’s debilitating rays. I spent three hours trudging along the trail, longing for water, thinking of nothing else besides how my body craved fluid and how wonderful it would feel finally to get a drink. (Hiking so far on a hot day without water was not only uncomfortable, but also even dangerous, given the risk of dehydration. I have not repeated this behavior, let me tell you.)

Finally, my friends and I got to our cars and drove to a nearby market. I can still remember how it felt to take that first swig of cool, fresh water. It was heavenly!

Psalm 42 begins with an image that portrays our need for God as desperate thirst. It pictures a deer in a dry country, longing for “flowing streams” (v. 1). The rest of the psalm explains the cause of the psalmist’s yearning. As he suffers, his enemies taunt and oppress him. When he wonders if God has forgotten him, his opponents scoff, “Where is your God?” (v. 3). Thus, the psalm writer’s thirst for God comes both from his own pain and from a nagging fear that God isn’t there for him.

We all go through times like those described in Psalm 42, when life is excruciating and God feels terribly distant. I’ve known them myself. And, as a pastor, I’ve listened to many people share how far away God seems to them.

I’m grateful for Psalm 42 because, among other things, it reassures me that I am not alone in my thirst for God. The biblical psalms bear witness to a longing for God that is powerful, even desperate.

When our thirst for God is extreme, we find encouragement in the promise of Jesus to give us living water, water that quenches our deep thirst for God. As you may recall, in John 4, Jesus encounters a woman at a well in Samaria. As they talk about the water of this well, Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but 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 4:13-14). Of course, Jesus is not saying we will never experience physical thirst again. I was a follower of Jesus on my fateful hike in the San Gabriels when I was thirstier than I had ever been. Jesus is saying that our deepest “thirst” in life, our thirst for God, is quenched through Jesus. The one who is the way, the truth, and the life gives us living water, the water of life, to satisfy the longing of our souls.

In the season of Lent, we get in touch with our thirst for God. We recognize that only God can satisfy the thirstiness of our souls. God does this through Jesus, who offers us living water, the water of eternal life.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Riding the Roller Coaster of Genuine Faith.