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Psalm 42:1-2

[1] As the deer pants for the water brooks,

So my soul pants for You, O God.

[2] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;

When shall I come and appear before God?

Notes:

Three Ways People Thirst:

1. Non-Believers Thirst, But Not For God

“It will be as when a hungry man dreams - And behold, he is eating; But when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied. Or as when a thirsty man dreams - And behold, he is drinking, But when he awakens, behold, he is faint And his thirst is not quenched” (Isaiah 29:8).

1. SALT: Salt creates thirst!

2. SIN: Sin that cannot satisfy causes our thirst to grow greater.

Jeremiah said, “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me—the fountain of living water. They have dug their own wells which are broken and cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13)

“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again” (John 4:13-14)

3. The SPIRIT: Only God can create more thirst within Non-Believer.

"I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” (John 6:35)

2. Believers Who Feel Distant From God

“As the deer pants for the water brooks,
so my soul pants for You, God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1-2).

1. The psalmist felt isolated and a sense of despair.     

2. The simile compared the psalmist’s yearning for God’s presence to a deer desiring water.

-He yearned to taste the presence of God.

-He yearned to experience the living God.

-His longing intensified when he asked rhetorically, “When can I see God face to face?” 

3. Believers Who Want More of God

1. To thirst to know God:

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).

2. To thirst for His Word.

“Teach me Your way, O Lord” (Psalm 27:11)

“Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of Your Word” (Psalm 119:18)

“But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and upon His Law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:3)

3. To Thirst for His wisdom:

“If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who give to all men liberally and will not withhold” (James 1:5) 

4. To thirst for His love:

“That you may be able to comprehend with all the   saints what is the width, and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).