Created for intimacy with the God
Psalm 42:1-2
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.
Psa 42:2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Psalm 42:1-2 (The Message)
A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH
1–3 42 A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;
I want to drink God, deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God-alive. I wonder, “Will I ever make it— arrive and drink in God’s presence?”
Psalm 42:1-2 (AMP)
To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of the sons of Korah.
AS THE hart pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for You, O God.
2 My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? [John 7:37; I Thess. 1:9, 10.]
We were created for intimacy/worship:
Josephine Baker….
She said you don’t love me, but you worship me because of what you think I can do for you
It is hard for you and me to understand just how much God loves and desires a love relationship with us
To get a glimpse of it all you need to do is read the book of Hosea it is not a book about a man and a woman, it is a book about a God and His creation
Listen to God,
Jer 31:3 the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Ed Vallowe writes that “eternal love is the exciting cause of human salvation”
God’s illimitable love is the fountain-head out of which flows the purifying stream of mans redemption
God is the persistent lover continually pursuing individuals and nations when it seem all hope is fled
Love is the motivating power that brought the Son out of the throne room of glory; across the pearly shores of Gods paradise down past revolving orbs and shining stars to be manifested as man that He might die the substitutionary sacrificial death upon the cross
God desires to be intimate with us
God is asking as He asked Adam, where are you?
The answer is the same, I was hiding
We are hiding from our fears, hiding from pain, hiding from our desperate fear of being known and an ultimately a feeble attempt to hide from God
Here is the paradox; we can have a close loving relationship with him, but everything around us works against developing intimacy with Him
We are too busy, financial pressures, or competing values.
The illusion of independence
So God initiates the contact and creates environments that foster or encourage intimacy
He allows or permits events that cause intimacy
We will have intimacy if we can get it in three minutes or less about the amount of time it takes to pop popcorn
If we will have intimacy it will require that we unclench our fist, check our unforgiving spirit at the door, dismiss our fears and anxieties, and throw ourselves in humility and submission before His Holy presence
Intimacy is a lifestyle
It is not an event:
a. It is an experience
The psalmist says where can I go to meet with Him?
b. Not based upon knowledge
c. Based upon position
As the hunted hart instinctively seeks the river to bathe its smoking flanks and to escape the dogs, even so my weary, persecuted soul pants after the Lord my God.
Kept away from public worship, David was heartsick.
Ease he did not seek, honor he did not covet, but the enjoyment of communion with God was an urgent and absolute necessity, like water to a stag. Have you personally felt the same? The next best thing to living in the light of the Lord’s love is to be unhappy till we have it, and to pant hourly after it. Thirst is a perpetual appetite. When it is as natural for us to long after God as for an animal to thirst, it is well with our souls, however painful our feelings. The eagerness of our desires may be pleaded with God, and the more so because there are special promises for the importunate and fervent.
Intimacy involves Surrender:
No hiding any secrets
a. It involves trust
In any relationship there is always the vulnerability that comes with honesty and openness
There must be a willingness to be transparent
b. It involves a shift of focus:
V 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God
Intimacy produces a Change in behavior:
You start becoming like the person that you areintimate with
