Psalm 63:1
Hurricane Irene recently paid a visit to coastal Northeastern North Carolina. While the winds were heavy, they didn’t bring the destruction for which the coast had braced. Yet, widespread devastation and destruction was present. Flood waters from the winds blowing water in, out and around the sounds produced flooding that people had not seen in their life time and only rarely had heard about in history. For people who use personal wells and water pumps, while their land was flooded, could not get water to drink as their water pumps were inoperable due to the electricity being out. For others who were connected to county water supplies they could not get water as supplies were contaminated. Due to the lack of electricity even boiling water to make it clean was an impossible remedy. There was water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink. While we know the limits we can go without drinking water, many of us never realize that we thirst for the water the leads to real life.
Like David, we Christians are fond of proclaiming, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you” (Psalm 63:1). While we proclaim that God is our God, do we earnestly seek him? Or, do we just pay lip service to the God that has delivered us? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs lists water as one of the basics for our physical survival. And, when a storm cuts off that vital supply we thirst. We beg. We plead for that vital substance. But, can you say, like David, that for your spiritual survival, for God [your] soul thirsts for [Him]” (Psalm 1b)?
David uses the powerful imagery of thirst, the most basics of human needs, throughout the Psalms. Is today the day that while you are in a world that seems like you are “in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1d), that you earnestly seek him? Irish poet Nahum Tate wrote in 1698:
Through all the changing scenes of life,
In trouble and in joy,
The praises of my God shall still
My heart and tongue employ.
Until next time May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You: All Y’all!
Bobby Cohoon
Minister, Manteo Church of Christ
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com
