“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1)
Verse 1 is one of the most well known sentences in the Bible: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” Studies have found that a person in reasonably good health can live for two months or more without food. Studies have also found that the same person can only live for three days without water.
I used to work construction in Phoenix, Arizona where the temperature would climb to 120 degrees or higher in summer. Believe me, you don’t just get thirsty (Oh, a cold drink would be nice) you get desperate (I’m going to die if I don’t get some water NOW!). This is the emotion that the Psalmist is feeling in his soul.
Clearly our Psalmist is a believer as the Psalm is addressed to “ . . . you, O God.” He knows God exists and can answer prayer but right now he is struggling with circumstances and emotions that are frightening and discouraging. So his mind – the rational part of him – can look back on times and experiences when he felt and enjoyed the presence of God. He knows that nothing is impossible for God. But right now he is surrounded by enemies who taunt him with, “Where is your God?”
The Psalm uses the imagery of being beaten down by troubles like being stuck under a waterfall that pounds you deeper under the water, threatening to drown you. Perhaps you’ve experienced being caught by a monster wave and being slapped down, dragged out and under and struggling to get to the surface for air. That’s how the soul of a believer can feel when life beats us up. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that we use the term “under the circumstances” in times of trials.
It is then that the Holy Spirit can bring to our remembrance the power and the love of the God we serve. We have a multitude of examples from God’s Word of His faithfulness. And even if we can’t imagine how God is going to work our situation out we can be sure that it probably won’t be the way we expect it.
In verse 5 the Psalmist uses the word “hope” (in Hebrew “wait”). Hoping is not the same as wishing in the Kingdom of God. Wishing is just a feeling, but hoping is an expectation based on reason or experience. In the same way that you don’t wait for a bus to come while standing in your backyard but, rather, while waiting at a bus stop. If you are a child of God in the Kingdom of God you don’t just wish something good would happen. You believe that God’s will WILL be done.
In the Book of Exodus when the Israelites are being chased from behind by Pharoah and his troops and in front is the Red Sea, Moses has not had a word from God that gives him a preview for what is about to happen. He simply knows that God is with them and God is for them. The
people are in a panic but Moses simply says, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord . . .”
The next time you find yourself “under the circumstances”, get out from under there and preach to your own soul; “Hope in God; for I shall praise Him, my salvation and my God.”