A Dry River
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” - Psalm 42:1-2
I read a story years ago about a man named Tim Vanderveen who was in the hospital when a friend came to visit him. Tim had Leukemia, and his friend, Dr. Brown, asked how he was doing. Tim responded, “You know, I’ve learned that life is not like a VCR.” Brown said, “I don’t get it. What do you mean life is not like a VCR?” Tim responded, “It is not like a VCR because you cannot fast forward through the bad parts.”
Tim was right. Life doesn’t give us the privilege of grabbing the remote and bypassing the parts of our life that are not to our liking. Instead, we have to live through them and persevere through the process. That is what the author of Psalm 42 discovered. He is living through the bad parts of his life. There is much debate about who this author is, but regardless of who it is, whether he was in rebellion, exile, or mourning, it was written during a time of depression, discouragement, and great distance from God.
The writer talks about how he longs spiritually for the things of God. Psalm 42 is a lament song presumably written by someone who was formerly able to freely worship God in a gathered congregational setting. Whoever wrote it, at the time of its composition, something had changed!
The people found themselves dislocated from the religious life—the sense of sacred community—they had previously known and enjoyed. There is no doubt about it, these are words coming from a community that missed worship as they knew it. So the writer compares this sense of spiritual deficiency to something he has seen in the wild; a deer being at the brook of the river, only to find that the river has dried up.
Has your river gone dry? As you face the difficulties of life — the parts you cannot speed up, the tough and trying times — have you failed to connect with God in a meaningful way? If so, you probably feel as though your river has dried up. Though you are thirsty and in need of water, you have nowhere to draw it from. Thankfully, the God we serve is one of living water that never goes dry. Turn to Him, the only one who can quench your thirst!
I read a story years ago about a man named Tim Vanderveen who was in the hospital when a friend came to visit him. Tim had Leukemia, and his friend, Dr. Brown, asked how he was doing. Tim responded, “You know, I’ve learned that life is not like a VCR.” Brown said, “I don’t get it. What do you mean life is not like a VCR?” Tim responded, “It is not like a VCR because you cannot fast forward through the bad parts.”
Tim was right. Life doesn’t give us the privilege of grabbing the remote and bypassing the parts of our life that are not to our liking. Instead, we have to live through them and persevere through the process. That is what the author of Psalm 42 discovered. He is living through the bad parts of his life. There is much debate about who this author is, but regardless of who it is, whether he was in rebellion, exile, or mourning, it was written during a time of depression, discouragement, and great distance from God.
The writer talks about how he longs spiritually for the things of God. Psalm 42 is a lament song presumably written by someone who was formerly able to freely worship God in a gathered congregational setting. Whoever wrote it, at the time of its composition, something had changed!
The people found themselves dislocated from the religious life—the sense of sacred community—they had previously known and enjoyed. There is no doubt about it, these are words coming from a community that missed worship as they knew it. So the writer compares this sense of spiritual deficiency to something he has seen in the wild; a deer being at the brook of the river, only to find that the river has dried up.
Has your river gone dry? As you face the difficulties of life — the parts you cannot speed up, the tough and trying times — have you failed to connect with God in a meaningful way? If so, you probably feel as though your river has dried up. Though you are thirsty and in need of water, you have nowhere to draw it from. Thankfully, the God we serve is one of living water that never goes dry. Turn to Him, the only one who can quench your thirst!
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