#743 Thirsty?

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.

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary

and beheld your power and your glory.

3 Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

4 I will praise you as long as I live,

and in your name I will lift up my hands.

5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;

with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

6 On my bed I remember you;

I think of you through the watches of the night.

7 Because you are my help,

I sing in the shadow of your wings.

8 I cling to you;

your right hand upholds me.

9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;

they will go down to the depths of the earth.

10 They will be given over to the sword

and become food for jackals.

11 But the king will rejoice in God;

all who swear by God will glory in him,

while the mouths of liars will be silenced. Psalm 63 NIV

A Psalm of David in the wilderness of Judah.

You, God, are my God - Elohim ( the plural form of El) are my El (God).

My whole being longs for You - This has left form as a metaphysical or spiritualists philosophy, and declares the longing of the soul and body. So much is his spirit inclined towards God that it effects his flesh as well. 

My flesh longs for You: “Longeth;or, languisheth, or pineth away. The desire of my soul after thee is so vehement and insatiable, that my very body feels the effects of it, as it commonly doth of all great passions.” (Poole)

In a dry and parched land - One of the first things my body craves, even before coffee in the morning, is water. Look for God early, set your heart towards Him when you wake, let Him be your first "good morning," and what a start to a day that should be gratefully lived to His glory. David is in an arid place and the back drop of this reminds him of a deeper thirst. Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. 

In the sanctuary - God had made Himself known to David, and he had a sense of God's presence and power in the tabernacle, but he is not there, yet he still clings to that relationship. No matter where David is, God is everywhere, He can hear me in the desert, on the mountain, in my office or in the belly of the whale. What then is loneliness to embrace, or thirst that does not want quenched?

13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”… John 4: 13-15

Your love is better than life - 

“To dwell with God is better than life at its best; life at ease, in a palace, in health, in honour, in wealth, in pleasure; yea, a thousand lives are not equal to the eternal life which abides in Jehovah’s smile.” (Spurgeon)

“He knew a pearl of far greater price, namely, the ‘loving-kindness’ of Jehovah, on which is suspended not only the life which now is, but that which is to come.” (Horne)

I will praise you as long as I live - This is in the desert, probably hiding from either Saul or later in David's life, from Absalom. I have heard many a person thank God when they received money or other tangible goods. Most brought up with manners say thank you to others for their kindness, their time, but David's God is worthy even in times of trouble, and His love is greater than all the world's goods. It is to the sojourner a home, to the hungry a meal fit for a king, even when it is just a handful of rice or locust and wild honey. Praise God in all things.

27And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. 29For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.…Romans 8: 27-29

On my bed I remember You - My step mom struggles to get many consecutive hours of sleep, and she says she often lies awake in worry. Her idea of church is social, as well it seems that way of her relationship with God. She would rather be surrounded by people than to cry out alone to God, so I called her sleeplessness a blessing. She did not get this at first, but why not talk to God when you lay there? I asked her again one night when she was sitting in the living room, and I had just come home from work. It was about 4 am, and she said she had been praying, but she needed more social activity. I asked her if she remembered what it was like where she lived, before she came to live with us? She had mentioned several times that my dad was at work, she was alone and she would pray that God would send someone to talk to her, but now my dad is here with her all day, my wife is here, her two grand daughters are here, so it was really something else she longed for, our soul longs for God and we assign everything else to that desire. She enjoyed what she called fellowship, the people that she surrounded herself with praised her for her "spiritual wisdom" and doted out other compliments. Her ideal about her spiritual well being, her hope, how she saw herself, all came from other people, who were not being entirely honest. So I asked her, would you like to hear from me that you are saved, or would you rather hear it from God? She paused, thought, teared up a little, and said, "from God, in the end that's all that really matters." We should not as believers fear the night or being alone, but rather long for that one on One time with Jesus.