I tell myself that it is not an addiction, but there might be some debate about that. Every morning I have a set pattern of things I do, depending on the day. Every day at some point, either earlier or later, I fix myself a cup of coffee. It might be said that I have a “thirst” which can only be satisfied with that hot cup of joe. There are certainly worse things after which a person might thirst after – alcohol for example – but there are also many others.
And that reminds us to be careful about what it is we thirst. A man in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean may thirst for water, but the water under him is poisonous. And the cold, clear water plunging down the mountain slope may be just as dangerous. Do you remember Sisera, the captain of the Canaanite army? He said to Jael, “Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink.” That was a kind and generous act of charity. “Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary.” One of several lessons might be: be careful what you thirst for.
As we see in this scripture, David took the subject of thirst and applied it to his longing for the Lord. “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee…” I’d to exhort us all, including myself, to foster a thirst for God, greater than we have for water, milk, or coffee. David has been led of the Holy Spirit to set before us an example – a pattern for us to follow. “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.”
In order for this to bless us, first, we consider the penman and his circumstances.
As a title we read: “A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” That man, David, among many in the Bible, is a wonderful replica of us – today’s Christian. Whatever sort of person you are at this moment, David is there with you.
He began his life as the least of his father’s sons, as many of us are, or have been in this world. He was a shepherd, which might be understood as a pastor of sheep, or as a menial grunt – a servant. While David’s brothers were out doing great things, like serving in the army, David served sheep. When his brothers were invited to meet the prophet Samuel, David was left out in the wilderness. Prior to this song, David had been a hero, a winner of victories. In addition to killing some of the predators of his sheep, he brought down Goliath. And particularly in regard to Goliath, David displayed super-abundant faith in the strength of the Lord. Perhaps we have brought down a few problems in our lives, displaying the same kind of faith. Eventually David became a national king, like any and all of the children of the Great King. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood… that ye should shew forth the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
And one more thing – David was a wretched sinner, just like the rest of us. In that condition, even as a child of God he cried out – “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin ever before me.” Are you living under a cloud of guilt for some recent sins? David has been there.
Despite all of the things which David had been or shall be – at the time of this Psalm he was a fugitive. We don’t know the details, but this could have been when David first fled from the presence of King Saul. Or more probably, it took place later in David’s life when Absalom was seeking to kill him. In the last verse he calls himself “the king.” Was this his current position or was it in prospect, as the anointed of God? For some time he may have been in his tent under the stars somewhere, or perhaps ensconced in a cave. I will come back to this, but David was away from his family, his church and his old opportunities for service. The land around him was bleak, dry and thirsty, otherwise he might have been satisfied with it. It was certainly much worse than the pastures around Bethlehem where he grew up among the sheep.
David is the penman of this song, and his circumstances were perhaps similar to our own.
As he spoke, first, he addressed the Lord his God.
He doesn’t refer to “Yahweh” or “Jehovah,” but he could have. His choice of words, might have been a reflection of his pensive mood, under the circumstances. At the time, he wasn’t feeling particularly blessed by his covenant-making God – “Jehovah.” Nevertheless, the triune God – “Elohim” – was still his God – “El.” The Creator of the universe was David’s deity; the God of Genesis 1 was his one and only God. The God of all power; the omnipotent Elohim was worshipped by David. The king was addressing and clinging to “Jehovah-Jireh” – the God who could instantly meet his need. As Paul later said, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Now we may say the same thing as David and Paul, meaning every word of it. But there is a difference in repeating theologically or intellectually. I suppose that in a sense even a lost religious person might say these words – “Elohim is my God.” But David was speaking from his heart, and he was speaking to the Lord face to face so to speak. “O God, thou art my God.” You are my king and Sovereign. I bow before your dominion and jurisdiction.
Why don’t we ever hear King Saul make this kind of prayer or utter this kind of statement? The difference between the two was divine grace. Jehovah was David’s God by grace and invitation. Sinners don’t have ability or inclination to waltz up to God and declare their allegiance to Him. As we saw this morning, we are more apt to spit in God’s face or kiss the Son in order to have Him arrested. But David was a regenerated man; born again by grace in some Old Testament fashion. In other words, a miracle had taken place, which enabled him to say,“O God, thou art my God.”
And that raises the pertinent question: Can you say the same thing? Are you, this afternoon, saying, “O God, thou art my God.”
David tells us that he had “seen God in the SANCTUARY.”
I wonder how and where it was he saw the Lord high and lifted up? David was no priest and therefore he had no access to the Holy Place, inside the Tabernacle. He probably regularly brought personal, family and even national sacrifices to the outer courtyard. But how had he seen the power and glory of the Lord?
We don’t have any references to special visitations of God in David’s life. The Lord didn’t wrestle with David the way he did with Jacob. And God didn’t visit with him the way He did with Abram and Gideon. There had never been a burning bush in his life, and he wasn’t led by the Lord’s pillar of cloud or fire. This makes me think that he wasn’t talking about an earthly sanctuary.
David said in Psalm 27 – “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple.” As beautiful and spiritual that statement might be, David couldn’t have been thinking of it literally. Dwelling in God’s house? Living there every day of his life? This was physically impossible.
However, we can plant our hearts in the house of God. We can “set our affection on things above, rather than on the things on the earth.” We can “seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” We can memorize a scripture in the morning and meditate on that scripture, and pray about that scripture through out the day. Praying without ceasing and meditating on God’s word brings us into the Lord’s sanctuary wherever we happen to be.
Was David godly enough to picture himself coming into the throne room of God through prayer and meditation? (Not the Hindu kind of meditation, but that which comes about through focused worship.) Did he see the Lord when the priests publicly read God’s Word? Even if he didn’t, you and I certainly have that opportunity. He may not have seen with his eye, the Lord in His glory but by faith he did. And so can we. David may not have witnessed water coming from a rock, or mountains being tossed into the sea, but he had experienced the power of God in other ways. That he survived Saul’s javelin and Goliath’s spear were both of God’s authority. He knew that the bringing down the lion and the bear was due to the power of the Lord. And there is in a sense in which the Valley of Elah and the pastures of Bethlehem were holy places because God was there. Any place where the Lord is permitted to show His power and glory is a sanctuary.
And this is the application: I would like you to be in this auditorium at every opportunity, so we can grow together in love with the Lord. But other places outside this building may become sanctuaries as well. That hospital room can become a house of prayer, and that sick bed can be a meeting place with God. Under the right circumstances being alone with the Lord in the wilderness can be a make-shift temple. What David was yearning for was that his wilderness could be a place of sanctuary with the Lord. But on the other hand, if we are deliberately avoiding the house of God, then the wilderness will be a desert. If we are looking for excuses to avoid the Lord and avoid the people of God, then the world will become a wasteland to us – “a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”
Obviously, the Psalmist was YEARNING for his God.
“O God, thou art my God; EARLY will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” “Early will I seek thee.” If you want to interpret that to be at 6 or 7:00 am, I won’t try to dissuade you. The word can refer to early in the day, but more often it means “immediately” speaking of “instantly.” And sometimes that Hebrew word speaks of “diligence” – diligence in seeking for something. David was diligently seeking his God, because of his spiritual thirst. Isaiah was often like that: “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early; for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”
I mentioned on Wednesday that last week I had my first experience in living with a “Bearded Dragon.” In our bedroom there was a terrarium with a reptile called a Bearded Dragon. Every once in a while our host feeds his lizard dead crickets. When Judy asked if it needed water, she was told that it was a desert creature and needed water infrequently. If I heard it correctly, Ezekiel sometimes puts a drop of water on the creature’s nose, and if it reaches up with its tongue to lick it, then he gives it some more until presumably it stops drinking. Bearded Dragons may not need much water – but you and I do. I have been told that when you feel thirsty, then you are already dehydrated. David was spiritually dehydrated.
But let’s remember where he was – in a general sense. Sure, he wasn’t at home. He was traveling rather quickly out of the city. And earlier in his life, he was moving between caves and dens in the rocks. But those caves were all in the so-called “Promised Land,” which God gave to Abraham and his children. In a sense David was surrounded with the blessings of God, and yet still, he longed for the Lord. He was surrounded with God’s protection, but that was not the same thing as being with Jehovah Himself. He was miles from the Ark of the Covenant; he was miles from the Tabernacle and God’s ordinances. He couldn’t join his voice with other worshippers, and there may not have been anyone there to share God’s word with him. And he dearly missed these things. His heart yearned for them. “As the hart panteth after the after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”
What a contrast to the worldly Christendom of today, where professing Christians seem to rejoice in their thirst. We are surrounded by people who claim the name of Christ, but deny His authority or His rightful place in their desert and deserted lives. They think they are worshiping while in the wilderness, when in fact it is nothing but will-worship.
David wanted to once again see the power and glory of God. I’m not going to try to guess what exactly he meant by God’s power. He could have been thinking about fire from heaven, but I’m not sure that was it. If this took place earlier, he could have been picturing the abdication of Saul from the throne and Jonathan’s pleading with David to take his place. Or more likely, he was thinking about his son Absalom having a change of heart. Or David could have been thinking of something more spiritual.
You may be praying for God’s power, or wrath, to fall on Washington DC, the White House and the Capitol. I think that if David was here tonight, he would have been praying for God’s power to fall on our church as we struggle through this world’s spiritual wilderness. I am praying for God’s saving grace to overcome a few of the unbelieving sinners that we know. I am praying that I might be filled with God’s glory that my Saviour might be glorified in me. I am praying that both you and I grow in the things of the Lord.
David was reaching out by faith toward of the horns of the Altar. He had no authority to call down God’s power or majesty, but he could pray for it – and he did. There is no magic formula to follow before God’s power and glory might be given. All David could do was to reach out by faith.
This Psalm is a testimony to David’s need as well as his faith. He sets before us an example. “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.