At the Refreshing Stream

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

✙ Psalm 42:1-2 ✙

Psalm 42 is one of the loveliest chapters in the entire Bible. It's a psalm of longing for God. And there's something about that longing which is universal. With only one exception (found in v. 8), the Name for God is simply God, as opposed to the covenant Name (unspoken in most translations) so often used throughout the rest of the Book of Psalms.

Panting and thirsting are physical expressions that relate to us the deep need our spirits have for the Divine. To be in God's presence is to be satisfied, while being separated from God is to be in deep need. This is therefore a psalm whose theology goes beyond a single religion—be it Jewish or Christian—to include all people in the family of God. Whomever I meet at the refreshing stream, together we can slake our thirst for the Divine, for they and I are siblings.

Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.

✙ Augustine of Hippo ✙

I pray in the Name of the One who taught me: Our Father...