Deutero Q

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."

Two things have spoken to me lately from Psalm 42:1. First, I have often passed too quickly from the deer imagery to the panting soul. The picture the psalmist paints here is of an exceedingly thirsty deer. I can't help but think of a deer that has been pursued by a predator to the point of extreme thirst and exhaustion. It is to this panting deer that the psalmist compares his own soul. He must have God more than anything else, just as the panting deer must have water.

And that leads to the second thing that speaks to me about the psalm: the object of the psalmist's desire. He desired God and not merely the experience of seeking God. It can be so easy to content ourselves with spiritual experiences. I think of worship music and how easy it is to get caught up in pleasing melodies and rhythms rather than the One to whom these things point. God must be the focal point! And God Himself was certainly the psalmist's focal point.

There is much to learn from the powerful imagery of the panting deer and the psalmist's intense yearning for God. The prayer of A.W. Tozer (from his The Pursuit of God) seems especially fitting in this whole regard: "O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, 'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.' Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' name. Amen."