Thirsting for God in a Dry and Weary Land

We all thirst for something in this life. I am sure you noticed that we live in a dry and weary land spiritually in this nation. In that dryness, we often thirst for relief in some kind of way. Ways to be fulfilled, ways to feel better, whole, and complete. It could be in finally finding a spouse, a job promotion you are working towards, financial comfort, or some sort of sinful habit. Today, Psalm 42 is encouraging us to hope in God. To thirst for the living God about all things and find the true path to life, fulfillment, and meaning.

There is hope and there is lament in this Psalm. There are ups and downs, and that encourages me greatly. As we read this Psalm, we ought to be encouraged by the truth it is sharing with each and every one of us: there are ups and downs in our walk with Jesus but seeking him is the only response that leads to life. So whether you are up, or whether you are down, we need to thirst for the Lord in our season.

Has anyone here ever purchased a new vehicle before? We bought a Kia Sorento right before all the madness happened and cars went through the roof. We were blessed. But let me ask you this: when you got your new car and drove it home; maybe a few days went by or a week, when your car ran low on gas, did you throw the car out and get a new one? Or did you fill the car back up again with more gas?

My concern for our generation is the inability to fill ourselves up in the Lord and not just jump from emotional experience to emotional experience. We love buying a new car and going through the fun shopping process. All the test driving, the freebies at the dealership to swoon you over, and don’t forget the new car smell. The excitement and hype of a new vehicle gets us all fired up about driving our car. But going to the pump and daily filling up the tank isn’t nearly as fun. But how foolish is it to drive that new car until it is empty for the first time and just throw it away and buy a new one again?

My question to you this morning is: when you find yourself on empty, are you filling yourself up with the Lord? Are you feeding your relationship with him? Or are you putting something other than gas in your tank, expecting your car to still go and for there to continue to be God’s blessing and work in your life?

We all have a thirsty soul

The Psalmist is lamenting a time when he had a deep connection with the Lord in this Psalm. He longs to have a connection with his God. Let me ask you a question this morning: what do you thirst for?

We are born with a desire to worship. What do you worship? What do you seek in the midst of your search for fulfillment and purpose? As humans we have ingrained in us a desire to worship. This isn’t an antiquated truth from generations past where they used to worship idols and statues. Our worship continues today in the form of many other things. We haven’t evolved from our need to worship, we have evolved in our method of worship.

We must begin with the acknowledgment of our need to worship, that way we can evaluate what indeed we are worshiping. What do you have great passion, love, and affection for?

Does your passion and emotions for sports teams exceed your worship for your heavenly Father? Has your desire for wealth and energy and time in producing it exceeded your energy and time pursuing the Lord and his Kingdom work? Have your affections for entertainment or an addiction fulfilled you and been the heart and passion of your life more than the things of God?

Does God draw that out of you? If you have grown cold, then you identify with the Psalmist this morning. He laments what it used to be as he worshiped his King, and longs for it again. This brings us to our next point in the message:

The journey isn’t the destination

We often think that when the journey leads to narrow paths in deep, dark valleys that the destination, the goal, of uniting with our heavenly Father is off. We often go through the highs and lows of this journey with Jesus and wonder in the lows why we haven’t arrived. But it is precisely there, in the midst of our journey, that Christ is met. I read this statement in an article this week: “when God seems far away, it’s time for an honest talk with him—and with yourself.”

We can either listen to our heart, or speak to our heart. I fear that we do a great deal of listening to our heart instead of speaking to our heart. This is what I mean: when emotions and feelings rise up inside of us, we need to make a decision. If we sit there all day and listen to our heart, we will make ourselves miserable. I can listen to my feelings and make my being bummed out be even more bummed out because of the fact that I am feeling bummed out.

Or, I can do what verse 5 says. Look at what the Psalmist is doing here: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

What is he doing? He is speaking to his heart. Instead of allowing his heart to determine his narrative for him, he speaks to his heart how it should be based on his faith in God. When the going gets tough, when the emotions of our heart and the feelings of our soul cry out we must speak truth to our heart. Speak life to our situation. We must remind ourselves what the word of God says. The word of God is truth. Stand on the promises of God. Meditate on truth instead of deception and allow yourself to be transformed as a person.

Romans‬ 12‬:2 tells us: “‬do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We set our mind on things above as Colossians 3:2 tells us. How do we know to do that? His word! Remember that the destination is not the journey. Ebbs and flows in your journey with Jesus are completely normal, fill your tank with him and move forward in his goodness and his promises.

Put your hope in God (42:11, John 4)

Hope in… God the Psalmist tells us. Hope in nothing else, but in God.

In John 4 Jesus speaks to a sinful and broken Samaritan woman at a well. He goes out of his way on his journey and goes through Samaria. He goes to the people that Jews thought were pigs and not true people of God. Half breeds, partially Jewish but not Jewish at all in their view. And he speaks to a woman about thirsting for living water.

John 4:13-14, Jesus answered, “everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.” This is the very first person that Jesus reveals his identity to in the gospel of John. He says in verse 26 that he is the Messiah they have been waiting for.

If you want to have a fulfilling life and if you want to be complete and whole, the only place and the only one who will give that to you in the fullest and most true capacity is Jesus Christ. Just like the breakfast you had before you came in today, you want lunch already don’t you? Because it is just food. But Jesus, he is the bread of life, he is the water that will sustain you in a way nothing else in this world can.

When we turn to our addictions we feel empty don’t we? When we go back to broken paths and relationships we come out on the other side longing. When we set our sights on earthly goals: financial, professional, or otherwise we never feel full and the goal post is always moving.

J.D. Greer, “the quality of our fruits is determined by the depth of our roots.”

Not so with Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He has come to give life and life to the full, and without him, you will always be thirsty, you will never be satisfied. So hope in God! All other hope is false hope and unfulfilling.

Conclusion

We all have a thirsty soul. We all yearn for something, someone, or some way to be full. Our world is looking in all the wrong places. We were made for worship, that will never be fulfilled until we worship the right thing: Jesus Christ.

The journey isn’t the destination. We are all longing for heaven! But we are on the up and down journey of getting there. We still live in a fallen world. And as we walk through that fallen world, we need to speak to our heart instead of allowing it to dictate what we do based on emotion or feeling.

And last, the answer is this: put your hope in God. The disappointments of this world will mount higher than the heavens. Nothing compares to your God, you have to believe and walk in his goodness and his promises that he is enough. Because when we don’t, we search everywhere else and only get broken and wounded by the disappointments that ensue.

I love this Psalm. I love it because it points to the answer, but it is very real about the process of life. Sometimes, there are just ups and downs. And that is normal. It normalizes some of the emotions I have experienced, and then it gives me the answer to my pain: put your hope in God, yet I will praise him.