My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
The verse means an intense, panting longing of the whole heart and being, fixed daily and continually upon God Himself as the living God, unsatisfied without His presence and communion and dwelling with Him. It is a thirst to come before Him for salvation and deliverance, hungering for righteousness and holiness and a living experience of His fullness, and to see the King in His beauty and be made wholly like Him in consecrated Christlikeness. This was Christ's own experience in human flesh, whose soul longed for the living God and received power through that communion to impart to all who receive Him. True prayer is this longing poured out before God in secret and together, night and morning, coming to Christ for His Spirit, grace, and abiding presence with wholehearted trust, and sincere seeking is met by God with teaching, strength, peace, love, and answered promise. That longing belongs especially to the downcast and weary, turning them from unbelief to hope and praise, breaking the hard heart and becoming Christ abiding within to diffuse light and blessing to others to the end.
Thirst for the Living God
The thirst is an intense, panting longing, like a deer panting for water and for living waters, felt with the whole heart and with the whole being crying out after God. It is fixed upon God daily and continually, with the heart unsatisfied and not at rest without Him. This deep longing for the living God calls for seeking Him and His Spirit, leads into prayer, and is met with what He has promised, with strength and deep peace.
The object thirsted for is God Himself as the living God, a longing for His presence and communion and to come and appear before Him. It is desire to draw nearer, to dwell with Him that very day, and to know the joy of dwelling in His presence. It belongs to weary people dissatisfied with half-hearted service and merely outward religion, who reveal the emptiness of everything else and lay their needs before Him in true prayer rather than mere words or formal worship.
This thirst includes yearning for His salvation and deliverance. It is hunger and thirst for righteousness, answered when He makes His power felt and sheds His love in the heart, with praise glorifying Him in return. It is panting after holiness with the simplicity and unreserved obedience of a little child. It is longing for a living experience and for full, free salvation and fullness, which mere belief does not satisfy, continuing until filled with all His fullness.
The thirst is desire to see the King in His beauty and to be made like Him. It is longing to have life as near like Christ's as possible, to reflect His lovely image perfectly and to be wholly consecrated to Him, with Jesus as the pattern. Receiving the grace of Christ as the water of life, which each may have, requires that self die, with its seeking for recognition, so the Spirit of God can take possession of the heart and arouse and move the soul.
The verse describes the experience of Christ as the Prince of heaven living on earth in human flesh on behalf of humanity. His soul longed and thirsted for the living God, and through that longing communion He received power. That same power He imparts to all who receive Him, giving power to become sons of God, and those who claim to be His disciples need to understand this thirst for God as the source of power.
Seeking God in Prayer
True prayer is deep, earnest longing for the living God and for communion with Him, not mere words or formal worship, a thirst to come into His presence that moves the heart to pour itself out before Him. It lays needs before Him and reveals the emptiness of everything else under heaven. It seeks Him with the whole heart, together with others and alone in secret prayer. It becomes prayer when lying down, when awaking in the night, and when arising in the morning, in daily desire for more sacred nearness to Him. It draws nigh in faith and prayer, believing that He exists and rewards all who diligently seek Him, and this faithful seeking brings precious seasons when He draws nigh in return.
Seeking means coming to the cross to seek Christ and His love, mercy, and compassion, and to see how He values the human soul. It desires His Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It thirsts for the grace of Christ, the water of life, which each person may have. It is desire for Jesus and His continual abiding presence, to put Him on, to trust Him with the whole heart, to lay every burden on Him as the great Burden Bearer, to breathe a pure and holy atmosphere, and to behold Him with the eye of faith as precious. It calls for strong faith and a decided testimony that will not waver, and for humility to receive wisdom so that He will teach His way.
Sincere, earnest seeking recognizes that life and salvation depend on His help, and this longing is met with strength from God and deep peace. This longing leads to seeking God in prayer and receiving what He has promised. He is found by earnest seeking, teaches His way to the humble, makes His power felt, and sheds His love in the heart, and the soul responds by glorifying Him with praise. That hunger and thirst for righteousness continues until the soul is filled with all His fullness.
The verse belongs to the downcast and discouraged, turning them away from looking on the dark side and thinking and talking unbelief, and directing them to hope in God and yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. It is felt amid the perils of the last days. It appears in weary people who are dissatisfied with half-hearted service and merely outward religion, and who desire His presence and the Spirit's work within. The swelling, struggling heart full of longing is to break in wholehearted trust, not in discouragement hanging the head like a bulrush, but in trusting wholly while walking obediently, with Christ's love resting on the seeker and with the Lord as strength and protection before and behind, where He works in the person to will and to do as the efficient power in sanctification in which God works and man works.
Transformed Life of Seekers
The thirst for the living God breaks the hard heart and removes the iron harshness of character, placing Christ's hold and superscription upon the soul. It fits workers to diffuse light and to value every soul even when not cast in the same mold. It prepares them to labor for souls as those who must give account in the judgment, doing so with mercy, love, and tenderness. It gives power to move others and to move the youth in school, and to deal more easily with hard characters as laborers together with God.
The longing must be satisfied in order to impart His light and truth to others with earnestness and fervor so that truth becomes a reality to those who hear. That longing should drive earnest, prayerful work for God, with the mind kept from unimportant distractions. It means loving Jesus and remaining in the world as a living channel of light, looking to the close of probation and the end of warfare having left a bright track heavenward. It takes the form of pleading with God for strength and grace for His people, trusting that He hears prayer and rejoicing in Him. It is panting after the living God from thankfulness for His great goodness and lovingkindness, joined with prayer for His blessing to attend written words, even when labor is laid down to rest the weary mind.
Panting after the living God is the life of Christ abiding in the soul, diffusing and developing its resources so that the blessings He gives are diffused to others. It is joined with longing to make known the riches of His grace because He is the King of righteousness, and it is held with resolve not to fail nor be discouraged in order to stay above trial and discouragement. It loves sacred nearness, for to dwell in His presence is bliss indeed and the joy of dwelling with Him. Those filled with Christ's love and made repositories of sacred truth desire others to receive the same blessing, and as they make known the rich treasure of God's grace more of Christ's grace is imparted to them and they become settled and rooted and grounded in the truth. As they search the Scriptures in this panting, more and more gems of truth are revealed to them. They receive mighty revealings of the Spirit as on the day of Pentecost, and go singing all the way to Zion.
The longing comes from a humble heart walking in the light of the Word of God. It is expressed by words and by works in the individual work of the salvation of the soul, in which each person answers to God for his own sins and mistakes instead of laying them upon another. It calls for strong faith and a decided testimony that will not be weakened, and for a deep experience in church members that will stand the test that is before them, because Bible truth will prevail. Even people with little religious knowledge may feel conviction and an inward desire for God and for more truth about His ways and works.
The verse means an intense, panting longing of the whole heart and being, fixed daily and continually upon God Himself as the living God, unsatisfied without His presence and communion and dwelling with Him. It is a thirst to come before Him for salvation and deliverance, hungering for righteousness and holiness and a living experience of His fullness, and to see the King in His beauty and be made wholly like Him in consecrated Christlikeness. This was Christ's own experience in human flesh, whose soul longed for the living God and received power through that communion to impart to all who receive Him. True prayer is this longing poured out before God in secret and together, night and morning, coming to Christ for His Spirit, grace, and abiding presence with wholehearted trust, and sincere seeking is met by God with teaching, strength, peace, love, and answered promise. That longing belongs especially to the downcast and weary, turning them from unbelief to hope and praise, breaking the hard heart and becoming Christ abiding within to diffuse light and blessing to others to the end.
Thirst for the Living God
The thirst is an intense, panting longing, like a deer panting for water and for living waters, felt with the whole heart and with the whole being crying out after God. It is fixed upon God daily and continually, with the heart unsatisfied and not at rest without Him. This deep longing for the living God calls for seeking Him and His Spirit, leads into prayer, and is met with what He has promised, with strength and deep peace.
The object thirsted for is God Himself as the living God, a longing for His presence and communion and to come and appear before Him. It is desire to draw nearer, to dwell with Him that very day, and to know the joy of dwelling in His presence. It belongs to weary people dissatisfied with half-hearted service and merely outward religion, who reveal the emptiness of everything else and lay their needs before Him in true prayer rather than mere words or formal worship.
This thirst includes yearning for His salvation and deliverance. It is hunger and thirst for righteousness, answered when He makes His power felt and sheds His love in the heart, with praise glorifying Him in return. It is panting after holiness with the simplicity and unreserved obedience of a little child. It is longing for a living experience and for full, free salvation and fullness, which mere belief does not satisfy, continuing until filled with all His fullness.
The thirst is desire to see the King in His beauty and to be made like Him. It is longing to have life as near like Christ's as possible, to reflect His lovely image perfectly and to be wholly consecrated to Him, with Jesus as the pattern. Receiving the grace of Christ as the water of life, which each may have, requires that self die, with its seeking for recognition, so the Spirit of God can take possession of the heart and arouse and move the soul.
The verse describes the experience of Christ as the Prince of heaven living on earth in human flesh on behalf of humanity. His soul longed and thirsted for the living God, and through that longing communion He received power. That same power He imparts to all who receive Him, giving power to become sons of God, and those who claim to be His disciples need to understand this thirst for God as the source of power.
Seeking God in Prayer
True prayer is deep, earnest longing for the living God and for communion with Him, not mere words or formal worship, a thirst to come into His presence that moves the heart to pour itself out before Him. It lays needs before Him and reveals the emptiness of everything else under heaven. It seeks Him with the whole heart, together with others and alone in secret prayer. It becomes prayer when lying down, when awaking in the night, and when arising in the morning, in daily desire for more sacred nearness to Him. It draws nigh in faith and prayer, believing that He exists and rewards all who diligently seek Him, and this faithful seeking brings precious seasons when He draws nigh in return.
Seeking means coming to the cross to seek Christ and His love, mercy, and compassion, and to see how He values the human soul. It desires His Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It thirsts for the grace of Christ, the water of life, which each person may have. It is desire for Jesus and His continual abiding presence, to put Him on, to trust Him with the whole heart, to lay every burden on Him as the great Burden Bearer, to breathe a pure and holy atmosphere, and to behold Him with the eye of faith as precious. It calls for strong faith and a decided testimony that will not waver, and for humility to receive wisdom so that He will teach His way.
Sincere, earnest seeking recognizes that life and salvation depend on His help, and this longing is met with strength from God and deep peace. This longing leads to seeking God in prayer and receiving what He has promised. He is found by earnest seeking, teaches His way to the humble, makes His power felt, and sheds His love in the heart, and the soul responds by glorifying Him with praise. That hunger and thirst for righteousness continues until the soul is filled with all His fullness.
The verse belongs to the downcast and discouraged, turning them away from looking on the dark side and thinking and talking unbelief, and directing them to hope in God and yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. It is felt amid the perils of the last days. It appears in weary people who are dissatisfied with half-hearted service and merely outward religion, and who desire His presence and the Spirit's work within. The swelling, struggling heart full of longing is to break in wholehearted trust, not in discouragement hanging the head like a bulrush, but in trusting wholly while walking obediently, with Christ's love resting on the seeker and with the Lord as strength and protection before and behind, where He works in the person to will and to do as the efficient power in sanctification in which God works and man works.
Transformed Life of Seekers
The thirst for the living God breaks the hard heart and removes the iron harshness of character, placing Christ's hold and superscription upon the soul. It fits workers to diffuse light and to value every soul even when not cast in the same mold. It prepares them to labor for souls as those who must give account in the judgment, doing so with mercy, love, and tenderness. It gives power to move others and to move the youth in school, and to deal more easily with hard characters as laborers together with God.
The longing must be satisfied in order to impart His light and truth to others with earnestness and fervor so that truth becomes a reality to those who hear. That longing should drive earnest, prayerful work for God, with the mind kept from unimportant distractions. It means loving Jesus and remaining in the world as a living channel of light, looking to the close of probation and the end of warfare having left a bright track heavenward. It takes the form of pleading with God for strength and grace for His people, trusting that He hears prayer and rejoicing in Him. It is panting after the living God from thankfulness for His great goodness and lovingkindness, joined with prayer for His blessing to attend written words, even when labor is laid down to rest the weary mind.
Panting after the living God is the life of Christ abiding in the soul, diffusing and developing its resources so that the blessings He gives are diffused to others. It is joined with longing to make known the riches of His grace because He is the King of righteousness, and it is held with resolve not to fail nor be discouraged in order to stay above trial and discouragement. It loves sacred nearness, for to dwell in His presence is bliss indeed and the joy of dwelling with Him. Those filled with Christ's love and made repositories of sacred truth desire others to receive the same blessing, and as they make known the rich treasure of God's grace more of Christ's grace is imparted to them and they become settled and rooted and grounded in the truth. As they search the Scriptures in this panting, more and more gems of truth are revealed to them. They receive mighty revealings of the Spirit as on the day of Pentecost, and go singing all the way to Zion.
The longing comes from a humble heart walking in the light of the Word of God. It is expressed by words and by works in the individual work of the salvation of the soul, in which each person answers to God for his own sins and mistakes instead of laying them upon another. It calls for strong faith and a decided testimony that will not be weakened, and for a deep experience in church members that will stand the test that is before them, because Bible truth will prevail. Even people with little religious knowledge may feel conviction and an inward desire for God and for more truth about His ways and works.