Are You Thirsty? Series

“ARE YOU THIRSTY?” Psalm 63

FBCF – 7/20/25

Jon Daniels

INTRO – Sprite commercial – “Obey Your Thirst.”

What’s your favorite soft drink? (allow responses) Vicki is a Dr. Pepper Zero fan. I’m a Coke Zero guy unless I’m on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Then it’s this (show pic of Kola Real Naranja).

I know all the health nuts are going to tackle me after church today & tell me how bad all those drinks are for me. But let me make this clear: This is not a sermon about the health benefits of soft drinks b/c there ain’t any no matter how thirsty you are.

But this IS a sermon about the spiritual health benefits of being thirsty for God! The Sprite commercial at beginning of sermon ended w/ 3 words: “Obey your thirst.” And I would encourage you to obey your thirst as long as your thirst is a soul thirst for the Lord!

EXPLANATION – Psalm 63

Remember that we said that there are different categories of Psalms: Lament, Thanksgiving, Hymns, Poetry, Wisdom, & others. Psalm 63 starts off in the style of a lament, seeking God in a time of trouble. But as you move into the Psalm, you start sensing a growing confidence in the Lord: His power, His provision, & His power that He gives to His people in their times of trouble. And David was in trouble when he was writing this Psalm.

He states in v. 1 “my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, in a dry & weary land where there is no water.” He was not only spiritually thirsty – he was also most likely physically thirsty b/c he was literally on the run at this point in his life. Most scholars believe he was running from his son, Absalom, who wanted to kill him. Absalom had rebelled against David as his father & king, & he built an army to go against David. When David found out about the conspiracy against him, he & his army fled from Jerusalem. He was physically, emotionally, & spiritually weary. Think about it: The fear of his son’s army finding him & killing him – the grief over his own son wanting to kill him – the reality that he & his army were going to have to battle against his own flesh & blood – he had a lot of reasons to feel deeply thirsty, to feel debilitatingly faint, & desperately weary.

This theme of spiritual thirst runs throughout the Bible from the OT all the way to Revelation.

- Prophet Isaiah – Isaiah 55:1 – “Come, everyone who thirsts; come to the waters...”

- Matthew 5:6 - “Blessed are those who hunger & thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

- Jesus & woman @ well – John 4:13-14 – “Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

- John 7:37 – “…If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…”

- Revelation 22:17 – Some of last words in Bible – “The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”

- John Piper: “God is profoundly honored when people know that they will die of hunger & thirst if they don’t have God.”

- F.F. Bruce: “The soul’s deepest thirst is for God Himself, who has made us so we can never be satisfied w/out Him.”

APPLICATION – We need to be thirsty for God!

We all get thirsty – mowing yard, working in garden, exercising, practicing for whatever sport you play, even preaching makes you thirst.

We also can be thirsty for other things: for love, acceptance, appreciation, recognition, friendships or romantic relationships, accomplishment & achievement. These things aren’t wrong or sinful. But we must be careful b/c these thirsts can lead us down destructive paths when they become insatiable thirsts & drive everything else in our lives. And, we can also be thirsty for things that are blatantly sinful: a thirst for money that drives us into greed – a thirst for sex that drives us to have sex before we’re married or outside of our marriage – a thirst for popularity that drives us to push others down to make ourselves look better.

So, would you say that you are thirsty for God? Some say YES – others “I’m not sure, I want to be, but I don’t know what it means?” Let’s talk about it. To be thirsty for God means: