Dehydrated Deer or Flowing Fountain?

Psalm 42

1 To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,

while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng

and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise,

a multitude keeping festival.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation

6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves

have gone over me.

8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,

my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Sometimes we get so dehydrated and don't realize we desperately need water. A pesron can survive approximately three to five days without water, in extreme conditions depending on the circumstances and the individual up to ten days. 

The Psalmist writes that his souls thirsts for GOD, for the living GOD.

Our souls require hydration as well. GOD didn't just send a glass, a water bottle, a jug of water, he sent Jesus, the fountain, the endless supply of living water into the dry parched land of our lives.

- Jesus wants to water your heart.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 7:37-39

- Jesus wants to reconnect you to the fountain. 

Jeremiah 17:13 ESV — O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.

- Jesus wants to give you a drink in "his name".

John 4:10 ESV — Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

- Jesus is waiting beside you, but you have to ask and believe, ‘Give me a drink’.

John 7:38 ESV — Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

- Jesus wants to give you his Holy Spirit and an endless supply.

The Psalmist in this psalm is very sad and depressed, tears are his food, his soul is downcast, he is in turmoil, verse 5. He doesn’t know how to answer those with the question him with "Where is your God?” Even going to religious festivals and worship doesn't seem to help him. It has been proven that dehydration negatively effects our mood. It causes hormonal imbalances that can mimic symptoms of anxiety and depression, including irritability, sadness, and exhaustion. Our body needs water to survive and likewise our souls need living water. 

My prayer, Heavenly Father I know some of us forget day by day to stay hydrated. Alot of us struggle with dehydration and its effects. Help us to have clarity of thought to see our need of your living water daily. Help us to be always ready to give a cup of cold living water in your name not for reward, but because we want to be your children following your example, In Jesus name amen.

Dont be a dehydrated deer, be a flowing fountain.