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.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

Have you ever been really thirsty? You’ve been without water for hours, and your throat is parched. Your mouth is dry, and you find it hard to speak. David compares this to his spiritual thirst, saying he thirsts for God like a man in a dry, parched land without water. He recognized that nothing in this world could satisfy the longing of his soul except for God himself.

We are all thirsty for God, whether we realize it or not. We often try to quench our thirst with the things of the world, but they can never satisfy us. You know the truth of this as well as I do. One day Jesus met a Samaritan woman by a well who was trying to quench her thirst through the love of men. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,” he told her, “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

What water is this? Jesus himself. Jesus is the source of living water that can satisfy our deepest longings. He offers a spiritual refreshment that goes beyond temporary satisfaction. Just as physical water quenches our physical thirst, Jesus offers himself as the living water that satisfies our spiritual thirst and brings eternal life.

But it doesn’t end there. Jesus would later say, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39). The Holy Spirit would then ensure that we would never be thirsty again!

As we sing this psalm, let us approach God earnestly, seeking him wholeheartedly, knowing that he will quench our spiritual thirst and bring us the abundant life that only he can provide.

God bless you.