As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
As the hart pants for water, so the soul pants for God with urgent, intense, wholehearted thirst. That thirst is for the living God Himself, not merely for His gifts, and for the living water of His grace in Christ by which souls are refreshed and made to flourish. It is earnest, fervent, wrestling prayer rather than feeble lip-service, clinging to Jesus in childlike trust and holding to His pledged word that His grace is sufficient. It is yearning for His Spirit and for holiness itself, longing to be sanctified, to do His will, and to grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ. When the perishing soul so pants after Him, He strengthens it with peace beyond understanding, and those who drink of the water of life diffuse its blessings to others.
Thirst Image and Setting
The verse pictures longing for God as urgent, intense, wholehearted thirst, like a hart, deer, or thirsty animal panting for water brooks and streams. It is sincere, affectionate desire for God that belongs to earnest, fervent prayer rather than feeble, heartless prayer and mere lip-service. The seeking is to be earnest and wholehearted, made the fixed desire while pressing toward the calling in Christ. It is a deep hunger for God and for the rich gifts of heaven, including righteousness. When people feel they will perish and cannot endure without God's help and earnestly pant after Him, He strengthens them and gives peace beyond understanding.
The thirst is thirst and panting for living waters, for the living God. It is longing for the water of life found in the grace of Christ, which each person may receive. From Him the pure streams of salvation flow, and longing and adoration are directed upward to Him. Believers who have peace and trust are still invited to come to the fountain of salvation and drink, so that their souls may be refreshed, strengthened, and made to flourish in God.
The verse belongs to a discouraged condition with tears as meat day and night and enemies asking where God is. Even then the soul pants and thirsts for God, for the living God, with longing to come and appear before Him. It is set before such a person to cure looking on the dark side and thinking and talking unbelief, directing desire toward God and holding to hope in God for the help of His countenance. Troubles are to be taken to the Lord as a present help in every time of need who never disappoints, rather than to human beings.
Merely singing or reciting the verse in church while the heart is set on worldly pleasure, display, and indulgence and remains unconverted does not prove genuine longing or righteousness, but gives false testimony. The genuine longing of the soul after God must come from the heart and the understanding. Taking part in church service in that unconverted state leaves a church member no more righteous in God's sight than the worst sinner.
Longing for God Himself
The panting is for God Himself, the true and living God, not merely for the things that come from Him and not for an imagined or speculative idea of Him. It is need for Him above everything else, with the urgency of thirst. That need is desire for His presence and helping power, for His grace and for His strength in weakness, for communion with Him and the impress of His Holy Spirit, for the revealing of His salvation, for deliverance from unbelief and darkness, and for the clear shining of His truth upon His people.
Longing for God is longing directed to the precious Saviour, for His salvation and for a clearer view of Jesus. It loves to think of His spotless life and to meditate upon His lessons. It tells Him all fears and perplexities while trusting under the shield of His wings, and it refuses to complain even when the body is full of pain. Jesus Christ, the Prince of heaven made flesh and dwelling among people, Himself thirsted for the living God in behalf of humanity. In that longing communion He received power to give to everyone who receives Him to become sons of God.
This thirst can remain even when believers already have peace and trust in God, calling them still to come to the fountain of salvation and drink so their souls may be refreshed, strengthened, and made to flourish. It is desire for a living experience of God and for full and free salvation, which mere belief that Christ will come again does not satisfy, because truth must purify the soul and find a response in the heart. Even people with little religion may feel conviction and an instinctive hunger to know more of truth and of God's ways. Even in wicked New York there is a people thirsting for Him as a thirsty deer thirsts for water, panting after the pure waters of Lebanon in longing for pure truth from God.
Earnest Prayer and Trust
Prayer is earnest, fervent longing for God, the soul thirsting for Him as a hart pants for water. It is sincere, affectionate desire for God, earnest, fervent, wrestling prayer, not feeble, heartless prayer and mere lip-service.
Such panting means putting trust in the Lord Jesus and crying after God in the home amid pain and suffering. It means being filled and imbued with the Spirit of Christ and clinging to Jesus as His child in childlike trust, saying I trust in Thee. This belongs especially to wakeful nights of communion with God and to prayer for the meekness and lowliness of Christ in present trial, holding to His pledged word that His grace is sufficient when little else can be done. That trust brings relief and praise to the Lord for His goodness and mercy.
It is a deeper soul hunger for the rich gifts heaven has to bestow and a hunger and thirst after righteousness. It comes to the heavenly Father with the trusting faith of a little child, telling Him all needs and pouring out supplications in faith that He will work. It devotes more time to earnest prayer and draws largely from His inexhaustible supply of divine wisdom and strength, always ready to pardon and help for the solemn work entrusted.
The longing wakes with praise and thanksgiving to God in bed before rising, offering request with thanksgiving and praise. Rising to bow before God, it commits the keeping of the soul to Him who is merciful and full of love and tender compassion whose lovingkindness fails not, and asks of Him the living water. It first is instructed itself in order to do good to poor souls who need counsel, then imparts the knowledge of that experience and urges others to come to the living fountain to drink of the water of life. It also longs for heavenly wisdom and for His counsel and direction, urging petitions to the Lord God of heaven in prayer. Even in weariness when the mind needs rest it holds thankfulness for His great goodness and loving-kindness, joined with prayer for blessing to attend written words sent to others.
Longing for the living God is longing for His Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, sought with the whole heart together with others and alone in earnest secret prayer. It comes right to the cross to seek Christ and His love, mercy, and compassion and to see how He values the human soul. Held in meekness and humbleness of mind in connection with Christ, it fits teachers and workers to work in Christ's lines, diffuse light to those around them, and labor for souls with mercy, love, and tenderness as those who must give an account in the judgment. So held, it moves the youth and moves others in every branch of work with Christ as Helper, going singing toward Zion even among hard characters, unto mighty revealings of the Spirit as on the day of Pentecost.
The panting soul thirsts for God, for the living God, with longing to come and appear before Him, even while tears are meat day and night and enemies ask where God is. It is set before the discouraged as a cure for looking on the dark side and thinking and talking unbelief, directing desire toward God and holding to hope in God for the help of His countenance. It takes troubles to the Lord as a present help in every time of need who never disappoints rather than taking them to human beings. It is an earnest wish, hope, and prayer that the Spirit of the Lord shall be graciously given to His people, expressed in hoping and praying and laboring for the good of others with confidence that the Lord will give strength for service.
Spirit, Holiness, and Sanctification
The panting is earnest yearning for the living God and His Spirit, deep longing like that of a thirsty deer for streams of water, joined to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to pleading for Him to give His Spirit and showers of grace to His people. It is deep, wakeful longing for the gift of the Holy Spirit, felt with a deeply stirred mind in sleepless night watchfulness over the present condition of the world and what is to come, when everything that can be shaken will be shaken and people placed in testing will reveal what human beings do when God's law is no longer respected.
When the carnal heart is changed and sees the beauty of holiness, it longs for holiness as intensely as a thirsty hart longs for water. That longing goes with love for God and His law, and it makes Christ's yoke easy and His burden light. It belongs with desire for sanctification and a life spent doing God's will. It means setting the mark high and growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ, making God's will for sanctification one's own will and pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ, awaking from indifference, lukewarmness, and self-satisfaction with fixed purpose and putting all the energy of being into conformity to the will of God until holy, with works in harmony with the works of Christ.
The panting after God is a panting after holiness in those filled with the love of Christ, who are settled and rooted and grounded in truth with the simplicity and unreserved obedience of a little child. It means longing after God with the whole heart, trusting Him as the portion forever, holding His Word precious, wanting to put on Christ and have His presence abiding continually, to breathe a pure and holy atmosphere, to behold Him by the eye of faith as precious, and to speak the precious truth because the last great conflict is very nigh. It is individual longing that opens the door of the heart to the Lord who waits to bless, needing Jesus with us every moment with living, acting faith, drawing hard and continuously with Christ and laboring in cooperation with God for advancement in spiritual life, while the power of the Holy Spirit works all who will be worked. It is earnest seeking that finds Him when humble enough to receive wisdom and be taught His way, longing for strong faith and a decided testimony that will not be weakened, and for a deep experience that will stand the test before them, since Bible truth will prevail.
Strength, Blessing, and Witness
The panting is the urgency of a thirsty deer seeking water, the sense that without God's help a person will perish and cannot endure. When that earnest longing is felt, He gives strength. With the strength comes peace beyond understanding. Such longing belongs with sincere prayer and dependence on His saving grace.
Longing for the living God is Christ abiding in the soul, unfolding and developing its resources. That inward longing becomes a longing to make known the riches of His grace, because He is the King of righteousness. Those who are settled and rooted and grounded in truth with childlike simplicity and unreserved obedience become repositories of sacred truth, and in proportion as they receive they desire others to receive the same blessings. As they make known the rich treasure, more and still more of the grace of Christ is imparted to them, and as they search the Scriptures more and more gems of truth are revealed to them. Even in wicked New York there is such thirst, a panting after pure truth as after the pure waters of Lebanon, which shows the city is ready to be worked and that truth must be carried there in the power of God.
The same panting is morning thankfulness that turns to agonized intercession when God's Word has been given yet hearts turn from truth. It aches over those taken up with pleasing fables and grieves that even ministers are drawn from established truth to falsehood. It sees souls under satanic deception drawing others into the snare, each deceived soul in turn deceiving others, and cries in agony of soul for God to have compassion and not allow agencies working mind upon mind to prevail. It asks how long this terrible thing shall be tolerated, inquiring what more can be done, with confidence that God will not suffer His people to be deceived if they place trust in no human being. The longed-for water of life is found in the grace of Christ, and each person may receive it, and those who receive His blessings diffuse them to others.
As the hart pants for water, so the soul pants for God with urgent, intense, wholehearted thirst. That thirst is for the living God Himself, not merely for His gifts, and for the living water of His grace in Christ by which souls are refreshed and made to flourish. It is earnest, fervent, wrestling prayer rather than feeble lip-service, clinging to Jesus in childlike trust and holding to His pledged word that His grace is sufficient. It is yearning for His Spirit and for holiness itself, longing to be sanctified, to do His will, and to grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ. When the perishing soul so pants after Him, He strengthens it with peace beyond understanding, and those who drink of the water of life diffuse its blessings to others.
Thirst Image and Setting
The verse pictures longing for God as urgent, intense, wholehearted thirst, like a hart, deer, or thirsty animal panting for water brooks and streams. It is sincere, affectionate desire for God that belongs to earnest, fervent prayer rather than feeble, heartless prayer and mere lip-service. The seeking is to be earnest and wholehearted, made the fixed desire while pressing toward the calling in Christ. It is a deep hunger for God and for the rich gifts of heaven, including righteousness. When people feel they will perish and cannot endure without God's help and earnestly pant after Him, He strengthens them and gives peace beyond understanding.
The thirst is thirst and panting for living waters, for the living God. It is longing for the water of life found in the grace of Christ, which each person may receive. From Him the pure streams of salvation flow, and longing and adoration are directed upward to Him. Believers who have peace and trust are still invited to come to the fountain of salvation and drink, so that their souls may be refreshed, strengthened, and made to flourish in God.
The verse belongs to a discouraged condition with tears as meat day and night and enemies asking where God is. Even then the soul pants and thirsts for God, for the living God, with longing to come and appear before Him. It is set before such a person to cure looking on the dark side and thinking and talking unbelief, directing desire toward God and holding to hope in God for the help of His countenance. Troubles are to be taken to the Lord as a present help in every time of need who never disappoints, rather than to human beings.
Merely singing or reciting the verse in church while the heart is set on worldly pleasure, display, and indulgence and remains unconverted does not prove genuine longing or righteousness, but gives false testimony. The genuine longing of the soul after God must come from the heart and the understanding. Taking part in church service in that unconverted state leaves a church member no more righteous in God's sight than the worst sinner.
Longing for God Himself
The panting is for God Himself, the true and living God, not merely for the things that come from Him and not for an imagined or speculative idea of Him. It is need for Him above everything else, with the urgency of thirst. That need is desire for His presence and helping power, for His grace and for His strength in weakness, for communion with Him and the impress of His Holy Spirit, for the revealing of His salvation, for deliverance from unbelief and darkness, and for the clear shining of His truth upon His people.
Longing for God is longing directed to the precious Saviour, for His salvation and for a clearer view of Jesus. It loves to think of His spotless life and to meditate upon His lessons. It tells Him all fears and perplexities while trusting under the shield of His wings, and it refuses to complain even when the body is full of pain. Jesus Christ, the Prince of heaven made flesh and dwelling among people, Himself thirsted for the living God in behalf of humanity. In that longing communion He received power to give to everyone who receives Him to become sons of God.
This thirst can remain even when believers already have peace and trust in God, calling them still to come to the fountain of salvation and drink so their souls may be refreshed, strengthened, and made to flourish. It is desire for a living experience of God and for full and free salvation, which mere belief that Christ will come again does not satisfy, because truth must purify the soul and find a response in the heart. Even people with little religion may feel conviction and an instinctive hunger to know more of truth and of God's ways. Even in wicked New York there is a people thirsting for Him as a thirsty deer thirsts for water, panting after the pure waters of Lebanon in longing for pure truth from God.
Earnest Prayer and Trust
Prayer is earnest, fervent longing for God, the soul thirsting for Him as a hart pants for water. It is sincere, affectionate desire for God, earnest, fervent, wrestling prayer, not feeble, heartless prayer and mere lip-service.
Such panting means putting trust in the Lord Jesus and crying after God in the home amid pain and suffering. It means being filled and imbued with the Spirit of Christ and clinging to Jesus as His child in childlike trust, saying I trust in Thee. This belongs especially to wakeful nights of communion with God and to prayer for the meekness and lowliness of Christ in present trial, holding to His pledged word that His grace is sufficient when little else can be done. That trust brings relief and praise to the Lord for His goodness and mercy.
It is a deeper soul hunger for the rich gifts heaven has to bestow and a hunger and thirst after righteousness. It comes to the heavenly Father with the trusting faith of a little child, telling Him all needs and pouring out supplications in faith that He will work. It devotes more time to earnest prayer and draws largely from His inexhaustible supply of divine wisdom and strength, always ready to pardon and help for the solemn work entrusted.
The longing wakes with praise and thanksgiving to God in bed before rising, offering request with thanksgiving and praise. Rising to bow before God, it commits the keeping of the soul to Him who is merciful and full of love and tender compassion whose lovingkindness fails not, and asks of Him the living water. It first is instructed itself in order to do good to poor souls who need counsel, then imparts the knowledge of that experience and urges others to come to the living fountain to drink of the water of life. It also longs for heavenly wisdom and for His counsel and direction, urging petitions to the Lord God of heaven in prayer. Even in weariness when the mind needs rest it holds thankfulness for His great goodness and loving-kindness, joined with prayer for blessing to attend written words sent to others.
Longing for the living God is longing for His Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, sought with the whole heart together with others and alone in earnest secret prayer. It comes right to the cross to seek Christ and His love, mercy, and compassion and to see how He values the human soul. Held in meekness and humbleness of mind in connection with Christ, it fits teachers and workers to work in Christ's lines, diffuse light to those around them, and labor for souls with mercy, love, and tenderness as those who must give an account in the judgment. So held, it moves the youth and moves others in every branch of work with Christ as Helper, going singing toward Zion even among hard characters, unto mighty revealings of the Spirit as on the day of Pentecost.
The panting soul thirsts for God, for the living God, with longing to come and appear before Him, even while tears are meat day and night and enemies ask where God is. It is set before the discouraged as a cure for looking on the dark side and thinking and talking unbelief, directing desire toward God and holding to hope in God for the help of His countenance. It takes troubles to the Lord as a present help in every time of need who never disappoints rather than taking them to human beings. It is an earnest wish, hope, and prayer that the Spirit of the Lord shall be graciously given to His people, expressed in hoping and praying and laboring for the good of others with confidence that the Lord will give strength for service.
Spirit, Holiness, and Sanctification
The panting is earnest yearning for the living God and His Spirit, deep longing like that of a thirsty deer for streams of water, joined to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to pleading for Him to give His Spirit and showers of grace to His people. It is deep, wakeful longing for the gift of the Holy Spirit, felt with a deeply stirred mind in sleepless night watchfulness over the present condition of the world and what is to come, when everything that can be shaken will be shaken and people placed in testing will reveal what human beings do when God's law is no longer respected.
When the carnal heart is changed and sees the beauty of holiness, it longs for holiness as intensely as a thirsty hart longs for water. That longing goes with love for God and His law, and it makes Christ's yoke easy and His burden light. It belongs with desire for sanctification and a life spent doing God's will. It means setting the mark high and growing up to the full stature of men and women in Christ, making God's will for sanctification one's own will and pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ, awaking from indifference, lukewarmness, and self-satisfaction with fixed purpose and putting all the energy of being into conformity to the will of God until holy, with works in harmony with the works of Christ.
The panting after God is a panting after holiness in those filled with the love of Christ, who are settled and rooted and grounded in truth with the simplicity and unreserved obedience of a little child. It means longing after God with the whole heart, trusting Him as the portion forever, holding His Word precious, wanting to put on Christ and have His presence abiding continually, to breathe a pure and holy atmosphere, to behold Him by the eye of faith as precious, and to speak the precious truth because the last great conflict is very nigh. It is individual longing that opens the door of the heart to the Lord who waits to bless, needing Jesus with us every moment with living, acting faith, drawing hard and continuously with Christ and laboring in cooperation with God for advancement in spiritual life, while the power of the Holy Spirit works all who will be worked. It is earnest seeking that finds Him when humble enough to receive wisdom and be taught His way, longing for strong faith and a decided testimony that will not be weakened, and for a deep experience that will stand the test before them, since Bible truth will prevail.
Strength, Blessing, and Witness
The panting is the urgency of a thirsty deer seeking water, the sense that without God's help a person will perish and cannot endure. When that earnest longing is felt, He gives strength. With the strength comes peace beyond understanding. Such longing belongs with sincere prayer and dependence on His saving grace.
Longing for the living God is Christ abiding in the soul, unfolding and developing its resources. That inward longing becomes a longing to make known the riches of His grace, because He is the King of righteousness. Those who are settled and rooted and grounded in truth with childlike simplicity and unreserved obedience become repositories of sacred truth, and in proportion as they receive they desire others to receive the same blessings. As they make known the rich treasure, more and still more of the grace of Christ is imparted to them, and as they search the Scriptures more and more gems of truth are revealed to them. Even in wicked New York there is such thirst, a panting after pure truth as after the pure waters of Lebanon, which shows the city is ready to be worked and that truth must be carried there in the power of God.
The same panting is morning thankfulness that turns to agonized intercession when God's Word has been given yet hearts turn from truth. It aches over those taken up with pleasing fables and grieves that even ministers are drawn from established truth to falsehood. It sees souls under satanic deception drawing others into the snare, each deceived soul in turn deceiving others, and cries in agony of soul for God to have compassion and not allow agencies working mind upon mind to prevail. It asks how long this terrible thing shall be tolerated, inquiring what more can be done, with confidence that God will not suffer His people to be deceived if they place trust in no human being. The longed-for water of life is found in the grace of Christ, and each person may receive it, and those who receive His blessings diffuse them to others.