Living Without Water

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” - Psalms 42:1


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, experienced significant change. 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 a river, only to realize the river has dried up. He writes, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you, O Lord.” Apparently, in the wild, he has come across such thirsty animals, tired and exhausted from the run, reaching a point where they need hydration and replenishment, but are unable to find it.

“As the deer pants…” This phrase conjures up the image of an animal that has been trying to evade capture, trying to escape seizure and perhaps even death, and now he is drained, empty, depleted, and deprived of that which is essential for survival. We can live without many things, but we cannot live without water.

Our bodies use water to sweat and to eliminate toxins from the body. Sweat glands help regulate our bodies’ temperature during exercises and in warm climates, and so we need water to replenish fluids that are lost from exerting ourselves. Without water, our senses can’t be regulated. Our cells become dehydrated, and we ultimately cannot live.

The psalmist compares this drained, desperate, and deficient deer in need of water to a person who longs to be spiritually filled by the things of God. “As the deer pants, so does my soul long for you.” Just like this deer, we too can become spiritually depleted of the things we need. Like the writer, we can experience burnout.

The only way to keep going is to be hydrated with the thing you need most: water. And spiritually, Christ is our water. When we are drained, exhausted, or running on empty. We need Jesus to hydrate us. But in order to fill ourselves up with that water, we must actively pursue it!