Boy Am I Thirsty

L

ike most people, I love a good pizza, and the more toppings, the better.  I especially love pepperoni and, if I am not careful, will over indulge.  It’s just so good that unless I apply the culinary brakes, I will eat my fill and then some.

One weekend I my neighbors invited me to dinner and we had homemade pizza!  It had the works and I had to pace myself or I would have eaten the entire thing without any assistance.  The meal was great but later on that evening, I found myself making several trips to the kitchen searching for a glass of water.  For those pizza aficionados out there, you understand my search for water.  While pizza is a wonderful meal, it leaves you parched and thirsty.  It’s all that salt that makes your body crave water.

David was no stranger to thirst.  In fact, the Psalms speak about his longing for water to ease the burning dryness of his body.  However, David also addresses another type of thirst, a thirst of the soul for God.  Far beyond the need for water, David understands the soul’s need for God and the necessity of drinking from the fountain of His word.

In Psalm 63:1 David writes, “ You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”  Notice the words, earnestly, seek, thirst, longs, dry, parched, no water. All these are an indication of David’s inner condition. The dryness of the land around him only reflects the dryness and parchedness of his soul.

In order to slake his soul’s thirst he earnestly seeks the Lord with his whole being. He longs for God as a man in the desert longs for water.  Now what does that mean exactly?  In the desert, where water is scarce, where the land is parched, a man’s only thought would be for water. He needs that water for his very survival and without it he will die.

This is the very point David is making.  For the soul of man, the world is a parched and dry land.  There is no water that can slake his thirst. The world offers many wells, but they are dry or putrid. Drinking from them does not satisfy and leads to the death of the spirit.  Only God provides the water of life that we need. Only His well contains the cool water that will completely satisfy and remove the thirst and the longing of the soul.

On that Saturday evening, I had to return to the kitchen over and over again to drink water.  Every glass left me thirsty for more and even during the night I had to get up and drink water.  I kept thinking and wishing that only one glass would be enough to quench my thirst but I had to keep coming back.

When we drink from God’s fountain, one trip satisfies us.  The water He gives us goes straight to the soul and quenches and removes our deepest thirst.  So, I have one question for you this morning, Are you thirsty?  If so, open your Bible and take a long, cool drink.