March 2, 2009

• Just as a deer longs for running streams I long for you

  Psalms 42:1-11  For the leader. A maskil of the descendants of Korach: Just as a deer longs for running streams, God, I long for you.  (2)  I am thirsty for God, for the living God! When can I come and appear before God?  (3)  My tears are my food, day and night, while all day people ask me, “Where is your God?”  (4)  I recall, as my feelings well up within me, how I’d go with the crowd to the house of God, with sounds of joy and praise from the throngs observing the festival.  (5)  My soul, why are you so downcast? Why are you groaning inside me? Hope in God, since I will praise him again for the salvation that comes from his presence.  (6)  My God, when I feel so downcast, I remind myself of you from the land of Yarden, from the peaks of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.  (7)  Deep is calling to deep at the thunder of your waterfalls; all your surging rapids and waves are sweeping over me.  (8)  By day ADONAI commands his grace, and at night his song is with me as a prayer to the God of my life.  (9)  I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, under pressure by the enemy?  (10)  My adversaries’ taunts make me feel as if my bones were crushed, as they ask me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’”  (11)  My soul, why are you so downcast? Why are you groaning inside me? Hope in God, since I will praise him again for being my Savior and God.

  Adonai has built into our bodies powerful desires. The most important being the hunger for air, for within a few minutes without air you will die. Second is a thirst for water, for in a few days without water, you will die. And thirdly is a hunger for food, for you may be able to last only a few weeks without food.

  Just as our physical body has a need for water, so too does our soul, it has a thirst that will only be quenched in Adonai. We may try taking in other things, but it will not satisfy, only Adonai will. Our physical body has 3 powerful drives, that of air, water and food. But so does our spiritual bodies. You see, the Hebrew word for spirit is RUACH, which can be translated breath or air. We need the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit/Spirit of Adonai) to fill our lives.

  There is an ancient tale from India about a young man who was seeking G-d. He went to a wise old sage for help. “How can I find G-d?” he asked the old man. The old man took him to a nearby river. Out they waded into the deep water. Soon the water was up just under their chins. Suddenly the old man seized the young man by the neck and pushed him under the water. He held the young man down until the young man was flailing the water in desperation. Another minute and he may well have drowned. Up out of the water the two of them came. The young man was coughing water from his lungs and still gasping for air. Reaching the bank he asked the man indignantly, “What did that have to do with my finding G-d?” The old man asked him quietly, “While you were under the water, what did you want more than anything else?” The young man thought for a minute and then answered, “I wanted air. I wanted air more than anything else?” The old man replied, “When you want G-d as much as you wanted air, you will find him.”

  We need that thirst for Adonai.

  British preacher Charles Spurgeon once vacationed at an isolated spot in England because he had been told that many nightingales lived there.  To his great disappointment, however, it started to rain just as he arrived at the hotel.  The weather turned unseasonably cold and Spurgeon feared that the primary purpose of his trip had been spoiled. But as he sat by his open window, he suddenly heard a delightful melody—a nightingale perched on a branch outside.  The only light was a dim lamp burning at the entrance to the hotel.  The nightingale, oblivious to the rain and cold, was exulting in that tiny bit of light.  Spurgeon wrote of his experience, “I do not expect to listen to anything so sweet and thrilling again until I hear the angels sing in glory.  The G-d of that nightingale is the same loving Savior I serve.  In spite of darkness, storm, or thorns, He always provides some ray of light and gives a song in the night.”

  When we turn to Adonai and ask for help, we will find Him giving us a song in the night.

  Shalom

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