The Deer of Hope
 

“In viewing this incredible masterpiece,
one thinks of the illustrative word-painting techniques of Bach’s sacred music
which achieves extraordinary power in its ability to express a humane, 
heartfelt gesture of faith.
 Its drama is never theatrical, rather, it derives from an inner striving,
a hard-won but triumphant victory over doubt and death.”
Critic’s Choice Award

“My soul thirsts for God, the Living God.”  Psalm 42a

Feeling separated from God, this psalmist wouldn’t rest until he restored his relationship with God because he knew that his very life depended on it.

“When can I go and meet with God?”  Psalm 42b

How many Christians, I wonder, are able to identify with the intense longings and thirst that were in the psalmist’s heart when he cried:

“As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for You, O God”.

“Pants”!  Notice the choice of word.  The picture of a deer which has been running, perhaps from some predator or a wildfire, and is desperate for a drink.

Do you know something of this spiritual desperation?  this panting after God?

There is in the heart of each of us a thirst and desire for God which He Himself has placed there.  But many never get in touch with those longings and thirsts.  Why, generally speaking, is there so little “panting” after God in modern day Christianity?  I frequently hear testimonies given by people who talk about their relationship with the Lord in the same way that a business person talks about the company which treats him or her well.  They use all the right words, but there appears to be so little passion in their souls.

How different from the apostle Paul who, in 2 Corinthians 5:14, tells us that the love of Christ “compels” him.  The Greek word he uses, sunecho, is a powerful and passionate word that could equally be translated as constrains, drives, seizes, masters, dominates, fires, galvanizes.  The secret of the great apostle’s passion was that he was in touch with the great ache in his soul, which God has placed not only in him but in all His human creation, and because he knew also how to pant after God.  Do you?

Loving Father, if it is true that only the truly thirsty “pant” then I have to ask myself:  How thirsty am I for You?  Help me take that question to heart today and come up with a truly honest answer.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.