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Psalm 23 A psalm of David. 1The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Introduction
What would it take for you to be really happy? What would have to change in your life? The way you answer that question – the honest answer in your soul – is right now determining the direction of your life. We have a big, tall plant in our house that always grows toward light. No matter where we put that thing, it will bend toward the nearest window. Your soul is like that. It will bend and grow in the direction of whatever it thinks will bring it satisfaction and fulfillment.
He Nourishes and Satisfies
The 23rd Psalm is a list of wonderful benefits that come from having a shepherd/sheep kind of relationship with God. And the first two benefits are in verse 2. One of them is rest, and the other is food and drink. He makes us lie down in a resting place, and He provides green pastures and quiet waters – food and drink. Last week we talked about how God brings you spiritual rest, and how that is needed for you to do God’s will in your life. The second thing you need is spiritual food and drink. What is that? What is spiritual food and drink? Spiritual food and drink is something that does the same thing for your soul that physical food and drink does for your body. What is that? Why do we consume physical food and drink? Two reasons:
1) Nourishment
2) Satisfaction
We eat and drink in order to hydrate and strengthen and fuel our bodies, but we also eat and drink to satisfy cravings and desires. God’s design is for those two to be connected to each other. He built us with appetites so that we would eat and drink enough to nourish and fuel our bodies. If you never got thirsty, you wouldn’t remember to drink enough and you would die. So God gave us thirst and hunger – appetites that motivate us to eat and drink. So the process that God designed is very simple: First your body gets low on nutrition or water. Then you start to feel sensations we call hunger and thirst - unpleasant feelings that drive us to find food and water. So then, driven by those appetites, we go ahead and eat and drink just to feel better, and the result is the nutritional needs inside our body are met.
God designed us in exactly the same way spiritually. In your inner man, you get low on something you need for life. You get low on joy or hope or security or confidence or motivation or strength. So if they could run a spiritual blood test on your soul, they would find dangerously low levels of some of those things. God designed us that way – just like He designed our bodies to continually get low on calories and vitamins and minerals and proteins and water. No matter how healthy you are, your body keeps getting low on those things and needs to be refueled. And it’s the same way with your spirit. God designed your spirit so it would keep getting low on motivation, and keep getting low on strength, and keep getting depleted of joy, and all the various other things you need for life. Your inner man gets low on those things, it creates unpleasant feelings (things like sadness, lack of motivation, emptiness, apathy, depression, anxiety). All those things are the hunger and thirst of the soul designed to drive you to find some spiritual food and drink so you will feel better.
Soul Renewal
That is the idea behind the next phrase in verse 3 - He restores my soul. That phrase means to take an empty, depleted soul and return it to normal so it functions like it’s supposed to. When you get low on strength or hope or joy, and God refills your empty cup; that is what it means to restore your soul.
In our frailty and weakness we are constantly running out of everything.
We run low on strength and become weak.
We run low on hope and get discouraged.
We run low on faith and become fearful worried.
We run low on joy and become enamored with the world’s cheap substitutes.
We run low on love and become self-focused.
We run low on humility and develop inflated self-importance.
Everything we need in life we tend to keep running out of. Every grace God has given that can come in measures runs down to empty if it is not refilled. But God renews us and restores us. He is a God who delights to revive us from our states of weakness, discouragement, fear, boredom, etc. He restores your soul. He re-enlivens you when you have started to wilt and wither. He brings refreshment when you have started to dry up. He is not only a God who gives and sustains life, but He is pleased to revive and invigorate faltering, weary, fading life by feeding your soul. Even on our best days we are in need of some measure of restoration. And if that doesn’t happen – you don’t get a restored soul - what you are left with is abject sorrow and emptiness.
Lamentations 1:16 This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my soul. (exact same phrase)
Restoring the soul supplies comfort and takes away the tears. How do you know if your body is low on water? Your mouth gets dry and you have a desire to drink something. How do you know if your body is low on calories? You get weak and you get an empty feeling in your stomach. How do you know if your spirit is low on the nourishment it needs? You feel depressed, or apathetic, or irritable, or anxious, or restless, or bored, or defeated, or indifferent, or empty, or angry, or discontented. There are all kinds of negative, unpleasant feelings we feel not mainly in our bodies (although they can affect the body), but in your soul. That is hunger and thirst. By God’s design, you are going to feel those feelings whenever you get low on spiritual food and drink.
Why did God make us that way? God gave us those painful hunger and thirst pangs in our souls for the same reason He gave them to our bodies – so we would be motivated to eat and drink. But what does it look like to eat and drink spiritually? What is the spiritual food your soul is craving that will make those painful feelings go away?
God is Spiritual Food and Drink
In Jeremiah 2:13 God refers to Himself as the spring of living water.
Jeremiah 2:13 My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
The water is God Himself. When your soul gets hungry and thirsty, the thing that it is low on is grace from God. A better marriage or a better job or a better body or more money – none of that would help. None of those would restore your soul, because those are not really things your soul is hungry and thirsty for. It seems like they are. It just seems like, “Man, if my husband would just change and not be so…” or “If I had a good job…” – it just really seems like those things would satisfy the cravings inside us. And momentarily they seem to, but then they quickly leave you even hungrier and thirstier than ever, because the only real food and drink that will satisfy your cravings and nourish your soul and renew your life and vitality, is an encounter with the presence of God. That is what your soul is thirsty for.
Psalm 63:1 … my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. … 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods
God Himself is the only spiritual food and drink. The fact that His presence satisfies and nourishes the human soul is one of the attributes of God. And Jesus claimed that attribute for Himself in the New Testament.
John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry
Thirst is Your Friend
So if the Lord Jesus Christ is the food and drink that your soul is craving, can you see how hunger and thirst are your friends? If you never had physical thirst, you would never remember to drink enough and you would die. And if you never had sadness, emptiness, sorrow, anxiety, restlessness, and all the other kinds of soul thirst, you would never be motivated enough to do what it takes to find fellowship with God.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Most of the time we don’t have enough motivation to seek Him with all our heart. There is only one thing that can give you the motivation you need to do that – thirst. Thirst is your friend. Every time you feel emotional pain, praise God for that, because that is one of the most valuable things in the world – if you interpret it for what it is – thirst for God. If you interpret your emotional pain as thirst for something else – a relationship, or alcohol, or medication, or sleep, or music – then it will be wasted and you will be suffering for nothing. But if you use all the pain in your life to increase your appetite for God, it is the greatest gift God could give you. It is the cure for spiritual anorexia – low appetite for God.
The same goes for the God-given pleasures in your life. When something pleasurable happens, preach to your soul: “See, soul – that’s a sample of what God’s presence is like. If you like this, then the way to get more of it is by seeking His presence.” And whenever you suffer any kind of pain – especially emotional pain, preach to your soul and say, “Don’t get confused. Don’t try to drink sand. This pain you’re feeling is thirst for the presence of God – nothing else!” And that thirst is your friend, because it is only when our thirst reaches desperate levels that we are motivated to seek after Him hard enough to actually experience His presence.
How to Drink: Experience His Attributes
So how does that work, exactly? What does it look like to have an experience of the presence of God that satisfies the cravings of the soul? It starts with the Word of God.
Through the Word
Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul.
Exact same phrase. The way God restores our soul is through His Word.
1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk
It cannot happen apart from the Scriptures, and here’s why: It is in the Scriptures that we find out what God is like – His attributes, and what He has promised. When you experience what He is like by trusting in what He has promised, that is what it means to eat and drink God.
So, for example, take the attribute of God’s faithfulness. You open the Bible and read about the fact that God is absolutely trustworthy and faithful. Then you watch for opportunities to experience that aspect of God’s personality. Suppose one day you are experiencing fear and anxiety about the future. And so you open your Bible and read about some of the things God has promised. And you start to rely on that. You make life decisions based on the assumption that God will follow through on those promises. And the time comes, and sure enough – God is faithful. He comes through and does exactly what He promised. If your eyes are open to see that, so you realize what just happened– that you just experienced God’s faithfulness, it will have a strengthening effect on your soul. You go from feeling weak and empty to feeling strong and satisfied. That is what it means to eat and drink God.
Take another example – God’s mercy. You get discouraged about how often you fail and fall into sin so that in your guilt and shame you are unable to enjoy God’s gifts. You can’t enjoy a meal or a rainstorm or a good friend. That is because your soul is dried up and thirsty. Then you confess your sin to God and ask Him to forgive you and to restore you, and you believe His promises that He will, and then, a short time later, you find yourself able to enjoy God’s gifts once again. God has forgiven and restored you. And if your eyes are open to see it, you will realize that you just had an experience of God’s mercy. You just had a big, 44 ounce, ice-cold, spiritual drink and now your soul is nourished and strengthened.
That is what it means to have an experience of the presence of God. It is not some weird, bizarre, esoteric, superstitious mysticism. The presence of God is not someone touching you on the forehead and making you pass out. It is not a feeling of electricity or a quiver in your liver or any of that nonsense. It is the very normal and common experience believers have of experiencing the attributes of God by trusting His promises.
Another example – take God’s enlightening grace. One of the attributes of God is that He reveals truth. So you get to a point where your soul is depleted and you become confused because you don’t know what to do with some situation in your life, and then God enables you to understand some guiding principle from Scripture so you can now see the wise path. If your eyes are open to see what just happened, you will realize that you just received enlightening grace from God. And you say, “Whoa, God is right here in the room with me – with His face turned toward me!” You just had an encounter with His presence.
I could go on and on because there are hundreds of different attributes of God that we can experience. And those experiences are what it means to eat and drink. And that is God’s design. Just like it works with your body – you get depleted, feel hunger pangs, eat and drink, then you are nourished and satisfied. That is how it is supposed to work with the soul. You get spiritually depleted, you feel hunger pangs (emptiness, sadness, lack of motivation, etc.), so you eat and drink by experiencing God’s presence in various ways, and then you are nourished and strengthened and satisfied.
Broken Cisterns
It works great when we do it. The problem comes when we commit the two sins of Jeremiah 2:13.
Jeremiah 2:13 My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water…
That is sin #1. It is not that they turned against God altogether. They just stopped going to Him as their water. When their souls got empty and they were craving something to feel better, they stopped drinking from the spring of God’s attributes. And what they did instead was sin #2.
13 … and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
A cistern is a holding tank for water. The point is they looked to other things besides God to satisfy the thirst and hunger pangs of the soul. When they got discouraged or sad or depressed or bored or empty or confused they went to some other source besides God to feel better.
What other source? It doesn’t say. It doesn’t matter. Any source besides God is a dry well. And any source besides God is sin. It is idolatry, because it puts some created thing in the place of God. God is the only water. And most of the spiritual problems in our lives happen because we are looking at something else as water– like family or health or money or sleep or friends or music or any one of a million other dry wells.
Does that mean you shouldn’t enjoy your family, or your money, or the various gifts God has given you? No. We saw over and over in our study of Ecclesiastes that God wants us to enjoy His gifts. Enjoying God’s gifts is good, as long as you are enjoying them the right way. If you think of God’s attributes as the water for your soul, and your family as one of the straws that enables you to drink of that water, that honors God. Then you can enjoy your family and feast on God at the same time. You enjoy being with your spouse or your kids, and your attention keeps going to the various attributes of God that you are experiencing through your family, so that the more you enjoy your family, the more you desire and delight in God. But when you start thinking of your family as the water – that is when you run into trouble. Then family becomes an idol, and you find yourself having all kinds of sinful reactions when your family fails to satisfy the thirst of your soul.
So back to Psalm 23. The two things the shepherd provides in verse 2 are rest (which we looked at last week), and food and drink (which represents nourishment and satisfaction for the cravings of the soul). And just as last week we saw that God is the only source of real rest (Ps.62:1 My soul finds rest in God alone), so it is with satisfaction of appetites (God alone is the spring of living water and all other sources of satisfaction are broken, leaky cisterns that seem to satisfy for a while but very quickly run dry). Take just a moment and ask yourself, “What does my soul think is water? When I’m down or discouraged or tired or depressed or bored – when my soul gets dried up and thirsty, what is it that my soul thinks would make it all better?” It might not be a bad idea to go ahead and jot it down – what does your soul think is water? One of the biggest keys to solving the spiritual problems in your life is to convince your soul that those things are not water. They are broken cisterns.
You know you are in real trouble any time you hear your soul trying to tell you that God is not enough. You are upset about your situation in life, or you are worried about the future, and you tell your soul, “There’s nothing to be afraid of. When the future arrives, God will be there! You will have access to fellowship with God!” And your soul is not satisfied with that. Your soul says, “That doesn’t matter. Whether God is there or not – unless my wife stops doing this…” or “Unless I get relief from this suffering” or “unless I get this thing I really want, I will not be able to be happy. If all I have is God, but I don’t get this other thing I really want, I can’t be happy.” Whenever you find your soul responding that way, you know you have got a major spiritual problem.
Most people know about Peter’s famous fall into sin, and David’s fall into sin, but did you know that Jeremiah also fell into disqualifying sin in Jeremiah 15? It doesn’t get much press because it’s not as obviously scandalous as David’s adultery and murder, or Peter’s public denial of Christ. But it was serious enough in God’s eyes that Jeremiah could no longer be a prophet until he repented of that sin. It was the sin of thinking God’s presence was not enough to satisfy his aching soul. Jeremiah was experiencing what he called unending pain and grievous and incurable wounds. And in the midst of all that pain, here is what he said to God:
Jeremiah 15:18 Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?
“God – You promise satisfaction, but it isn’t working. You aren’t enough!”
Once he said that, he was no longer allowed to serve God until he repented.
19 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me
God is a faithful, satisfying spring, and a delightful, gratifying banquet table. He is by nature satisfying to the human soul. It is an absolute impossibility for someone to experience His presence and not come away satisfied. And anything we do to obscure that truth or deny that truth slanders God. And the biggest way we obscure or deny the truth of God as the satisfying spring of water is when we fail to drink deeply from that spring, and instead we spend ourselves running after other sources of food and drink that do not satisfy. And in Isaiah 55 it sounds like God is baffled as to why we would do that.
Isaiah 55:1 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Why would you swallow sand when there is a refreshing oasis available?
Gentleness
So, what is it like to have God as your shepherd? He provides rest, nourishment, and satisfaction for your soul. And He does so with all the gentleness of a shepherd caring for a little lamb.
Isaiah 40:11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
Raise your hand if you have young children. You could pencil those people’s names by that last phrase in Isaiah 40:11. Sometimes we have an event at Agape and we forget to arrange for childcare so that the people with young children can attend. We forget about what it’s like for them. God doesn’t. If you have some little ones – God is especially gentle in leading you along because He knows what you have to deal with.
The last phrase of Isaiah 40:11 used to apply to me until all my kids went and grew up – leaving me with just the first half of the verse. And, of course, I’m speaking tongue-in-cheek. If God is especially gentle in leading those who have little ones, doesn’t it also stand to reason that He is gentle in leading those who have some physical problem? Raise your hand if you have a physical weakness of some kind. And wouldn’t it also apply to those who have any other kind of weakness?
And even if you have no special weakness and you really do only get the first half of the verse – that’s not half-bad either. You are still a lamb that he gathers up in His arms and carries close to His heart.
Is God sometimes severe with us? Yes, when we need it, but never beyond what is good for us. Sometimes it is necessary to teach us to stop hoping in broken cisterns. But His primary disposition toward us is one of gentleness.
Psalm 103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust.
Matthew 12:20 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out
When we stop running after dry wells and bread that is not bread, and we look to Him alone for rest and satisfaction, He gently, generously supplies the needs of our souls.
Wait For It…
“I’ve been asking God for renewal, and it’s not happening!”
God does not always act on our timetable, because our timetable is way off from what is best. Sheep do not know what is best for them. If we did, we would never wander from the shepherd. So when you seek refreshment from God and He does not give it right away, wait for Him. Don’t run after some alternative solution. Just wait.
Isaiah 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength.
If you really want the Lord to renew your strength, say no to every alternative that comes along and wait on the Lord.
Hosea 6:2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. 3 Let us know the LORD; let us press on to know him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.
It is hard to wait for the rainy season when you are in the dry season. It is hard to wait for sunrise when the night is dragging on and on. But it will happen. As surely as the sun comes up every morning, God will come and refresh us and restore our souls if we just wait for Him.
Psalm 110:3 From the womb of the dawn you will receive the dew of your youth.
Renewal is on its way.
Enjoy Past, Present, and Future Renewal
And if you doubt that, just think of the past. Think of all those countless times in your life when you have been down and discouraged. How many times has that happened? Think of the times when waves of despondency overtook your heart and you felt powerless to fight them. In times like that you understand how utterly impossible it is for you to lift yourself out of the pit. It would be easier to jump over the moon than to bring yourself out of depression. And yet think of how many times you have recovered—how many times God has lifted you out of the “Slough of Despond.” Any time you have ever gone from faltering to not faltering it was God who restored your soul. There is no explanation for your recovery from those times other than God’s reviving hand. He is the kind of God who restores life to the lifeless, who renews vigor and strength, who repairs and restores the souls of His sheep. Rejoice in being the child of such a God! And remember His past grace! You will never have enough joy in your life just from the present and the future. You also need the river of past joy flowing in to keep your joy levels all the way up to the banks.
Learn to appreciate past grace – as well as present grace. Whenever you feel lively, invigorated, or motivated even in the slightest degree, remind your soul that it is coming from God’s presence. It is not a fluke or that you just happen to feel good today or that you had a good breakfast. If God withdrew His presence a little bit you would be dry, depressed, bored, unmotivated, weary, faltering, and fading. So to the degree that those problems are not present, rejoice that you are experiencing the nearness of His presence.
And spend a little bit of time also looking forward to the next dose of grace, because that is on its way, too. All your best days are still ahead of you. If you are born-again, then your entire existence is more and more movement toward God. You are being conformed to the image of Christ, you are being purified and sanctified, and so you can look forward to times of fellowship with Him and nearness to Him that will be far more satisfying than anything you have experienced in the past. So no matter how good your days get, your best days are all still ahead of you. Even after you have been in heaven 10 million years, your best days will still be future because His glory is infinite and His mercies are new every morning. Let joy over God’s good shepherding flow into your heart from the past, the present, and the future at all times.
Conclusion
David finally has the throne in Israel, he has defeated all this enemies in the surrounding nations, and it is a time of peace – as far as he knows. What he does not know is his son Absalom is intercepting people who are coming to see David with a problem, and telling them that David doesn’t have time for them.
2 Samuel 15:6 Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
That went on for four years – right under David’s nose - his own son is working gathering a following, and undercutting the people’s confidence in David. Then one day Absalom comes in to King David, and says, “Dad, a while back I made a vow to God that I would worship Him in Hebron, so I need to go down there and fulfill my vow.”
9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he went to Hebron. 10 Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.’ ” 11 Two hundred men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter. 12 While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing.
Ahithophel was David’s trusted confidant. Being betrayed by Ahithophel just crushed David. And the first thing Ahithophel advised Absalom to do was sleep with David’s concubines in a tent on top of the palace roof so everyone knew what was happening – which he did.
Well, in verse 13 David finally gets word about what’s going on. Absalom has captured the hearts of the people – these people that David had loved and shepherded and risked his life for again and again. These people David had fought to protect, and had dedicated his life to serving and leading – they all turn against him to follow Absalom. By the time David realizes what had been going on, it was too late to do anything about it. David has no option at this point other than to run for his life. As a young man David spent years of his life running from Saul. Now, as an old man David has to leave his palace and go on the run again – this time from his own son.
14 Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, “Come! We must flee, or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin upon us and put the city to the sword.”
On his way out the Gittites joined David and his men, and David said, “Um, I’m actually probably going to lose this one, so you’d really be better off joining Absalom’s side to be honest.”
30 But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up. …
Then in the next chapter, as David is fleeing into the desert, some guy from Saul’s clan shows up on the ridge above David and starts throwing rocks at David.
2 Samuel 16:6 He pelted David and all the king’s officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David’s right and left. 7 As he cursed, Shimei said, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! 8 The LORD has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!”
Have you ever been at rock bottom, only to have some enemy come along and gloat? And not just gloat, but put their thumb on the wound and just rub it in by saying, “You deserve all this”? David did nothing but good to Saul, but in the revisionist history now Saul’s people are taking pleasure in David’s trouble and saying, “This is God rejecting you.” I have had something similar to that happen to me, and I can tell you it is incredibly painful – especially when you think the person might be right. At this point Abishai speaks up and tells David, “I’ll be right back. I just need to quick go cut that guy’s head off if you don’t mind.”
10 But the king said, “What do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the LORD said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why do you do this?’ ” 11 David then said to Abishai and all his officials, “My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
Don’t cut his head off. What he is saying might be true. Maybe all this is happening because God is displeased with me.
13 So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. 14 The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted.
Long story short – David stays out there in the miserable desert until the inevitable happens in chapter 18. David’s men are attacked by Absalom’s army, and they have to fight. And the very last statement before that happens, right at the end of chapter 17, David is trying to round up some food and drink for his men because:
2 Samuel 17:29 … they have become hungry and tired and thirsty in the desert.
You think you had a rough week last week? This had to be one of the most miserable, painful moments of David’s life. He was used to having his enemies against him, but to have friends and family turn against you - that really hurts. On top of all that was the physical discomfort of being on the run in the desert with no 7-Eleven’s around. When you are really suffering emotionally, physical suffering just intensifies the emotional pain.
Now, put yourself in David’s shoes at that moment. What kind of desires do you think you would have? What do you think you would pray for? If you came to prayer group and they said, “What are your prayer requests?” what would you say? Maybe … some water? Something to eat, so you have strength to survive the desert? Some shelter and rest?
Or maybe you would say, “Pray for my family situation. I want reconciliation with my son who has turned against me and wants to kill me. I want that relationship to be restored. I want to go back home – I’m tired of sleeping on the hard ground in the desert with scorpions crawling on me while I sleep. I want my friends back and my throne back. I want my respectability back.”
Those are some things you might pray for. What did David pray for? What did he desire most at that moment? We know exactly what he prayed, because he wrote down the prayer. It is Psalm 63.
Psalm 63:1 A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek …you! My soul thirsts for … you! My body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
David understood what the thirst of the soul was all about. He knew that none of that other stuff would matter if he did not get the deepest cravings of his soul satisfied by the presence of God. He could get his son back, his family back, his throne back, his house back, and still be as dry and empty as the desert itself. He needed one thing, and that was to drink deeply from the spring of living water. And if he did that, he could be happy and have joy and strength and a renewed soul – even while he was still out there in the desert. And that is exactly what happened.
Psalm 63:5 My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
God can satisfy any thirst. All He requires is that you give up on the broken cisterns, and seek satisfaction from Him alone.
Benediction: Proverbs 9:1 Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars. 2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. 3 She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city. 4 "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. 5 "Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.
Application Questions (James 1:25)
1) When you have thirst pangs in your soul, what are the top two or three broken cisterns you tend to seek relief from?
2) If you have a story of a time when God restored your soul, share it with the group.
