Lectionary Calendar
Friday, March 29th, 2024
Good Friday
There are 2 days til Easter!
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Daily Devotionals
Music For the Soul
Devotional: September 29th

Resource Toolbox

THE SOUL LONGING FOR GOD

O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and weary land where no water is, - Psalms 63:1

In that arid tract which stretches along the western shore of the Dead Sea, and thence northward, David was twice during his adventurous life: once during the Sauline persecution, once during Absalom’s revolt. It cannot be the former of these which is referred to here, because the Psalmist was not then a king; it must therefore be the latter.

That was the darkest hour of his life. His favourite and good-for-nothing son was seeking to grasp his sceptre; his familiar friends in whom he trusted had lifted up the heel against him. He knew that his own sin had come back to roost with him; and so, with bleeding heart, with agonized conscience, with crushed spirit, he bowed himself, and meekly and penitently accepted the chastisement. Therefore it was sweetened to him; and this psalm, with its passion of love and mystic rapture, is a monument for us of how his sorrows had brought him a closer union with God, as our sorrows may do for us; like some treasure washed to our feet by a stormy sea.

This longing is not that of a man who has no possession; rather is it the desire of a heart which is already in union for a closer union; rather is it the tightening of the grasp with which the man already holds his leather in Heaven. All begins with the utterance of a personal appropriating faith. " O God, Thou art my God! " That is the beginning of all personal religion - when I am conscious of a personal relation with God; when I feel that He and I possess each other by a mutual love; when I put out my hand, and humbly, but confidently, claim my individual portion in the world-wide power and love. A Christian is he who says, " He loved me, and gave Himself for me." We must individualize, and appropriate as our very own, the promises and the grace that belong to the whole world "O God, Thou art my God?"

Notice the picturesque, poetic beauty of taking his surroundings as the emblem of his feelings. Nature seems to reflect his mood. He looks out on the stony, monotonous, burnt-up, barren country about him; at the cracks in the soil gaping for the rain which comes not; and he sees the emblem of a heart yearning after God and not possessing Him. He and his men have been toiling, wearied, across the "burning marl," looking in all the torrent-beds for some drop of water to cool their parched throats, and finding none. And that seems to him like the search of a soul after a far-off God: "My soul thirsteth for Thee ... in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is."

Notice, also, the intensity of the desire. Think of the picture that rises from these graphic words. Here is the caravan toiling through the desert: men’s lips black with thirst; their parched tongues lolling from their mouths; a film comes over their glazing eyes, their steps totter, their heads throb, and far away yonder there is a stunted tree which tells of water near it. How they plunge their lips into the black mud when they come to it, and with what a fierce passion they satisfy their cravings!

Can anybody say that this is an honest description of the ordinary experience of ordinary Christians? Is that, or anything like it, true about you? What sort of Christians are we if it is not?

Subscribe …
Get the latest devotional delivered straight to your inbox every week by signing up for the "Music For the Soul" subscription list. Simply provide your email address below, click on "Subscribe!", and you'll receive a confirmation email from us. Follow the instructions in the email to confirm your subscription to this list.
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile