“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:
YOU’LL BE DESPERATELY SEEKING HIM – v. 1 – Hebrew word – “earnestly” – Root of word has 2 meanings: to seek early & to be black. What in the world does that mean?
Imagine being in the wilderness w/ David. In middle of night, moon is new moon phase which means there is no light except the stars. It is dark, pitch black, sho-nuff dark. You can see but not clearly. There’s something out there, but you don’t know if it’s dangerous or not. Is it the enemy sneaking up on you, or one of your fellow warriors? Is it a wild animal, or just one of your horses? Try all you want, but you won’t know for sure until dawn. The black of the night & your desperation in seeking to know what it is bring fear & uncertainty until the light of day comes. As one writer said: “To experience “earnestly” is to experience the need for light at the breaking of the dawn. To experience “earnestly” is to experience the fear and caution and uncertainty of not seeing in the dark. Why do I seek the Lord “earnestly”? Because I need to see!” (https://skipmoen.com/2013/11/breaking-dawn/)
With so many uncertainties in life, w/ so many things that cause fear to creep up & cause anxiety to go down deep into the pit of our stomachs, our only hope is to seek the Lord “earnestly” so that we’ll be able to see what He wants us to do, where He wants us to go, how He wants us to obey Him & change the direction of our life. To thirst for God means to desperately seek Him, “earnestly” seek Him in life’s darkest moments, knowing He’s the only way we will survive.
YOU’LL BE DEVOTED TO WORSHIPING HIM – v. 2-4 – You & I are created to worship. We are all worshipers of something or someone. And to thirst for God means that we will devote ourselves to worshiping Him passionately, authentically, genuinely, personally, & corporately!
David had been in the sanctuary w/ God’s people worshiping God "beholding" the power & glory of God.
- v. 2 - "beholding" - Heb - "chazah" - a longing for a profound, personal encounter with God's manifest presence & glory! THIS is what he had been doing "in the sanctuary" w/ God's people!
And now here he is, out in the wilderness, running for his life. And what’s his response?
- He recognized the steadfast love of God, which led to these 3 actions:
- He praised God out loud
- He blessed God
- He lifted up his hands to God
In the blackest, darkest moments of our lives, when we are so tempted to focus on our circumstances or our feelings or our disappointments & pain, we need to turn our attention to the steadfast love of God. It’s not just good – It’s “better than life!” Song “Better Than Life”:
Better than the riches of this world
Better than the sound of my friend's voices
Better than the biggest dreams in my heart
That's just the start
Better than getting what I say I need
Better than living the life that I want to
Better than the love anyone could give
Your love is
And as we begin to truly see & believe that His love is truly better than life, we will truly worship Him!
- With our mouths – “my lips will praise you” – SING, CHURCH! He is worthy of our vocal praise! If we don’t do it, the rocks will cry out, & I’m not going to let some dirty rock do what I am created to do!
- With our posture – “I will bless you as long as I live” – Heb word for “bless” – kneeling & bowing in deep reverence & adoration
- With our hands – “in your name I will lift my hands” – touchdown, surrender, bringing a gift
Tony Evans: “When you, like David, realize that God’s faithfulness is more important than life-sustaining necessities like food & water, you, too, will ‘praise Him w/ joyful lip.’”
YOU’LL BE DEPENDING ON HIM ALL DAY LONG – v. 5-8 – David knew that the God who helped him defeat Goliath, the God who forgave & restored him after his fall w/ Bathsheba, the God who had protected him in every battle he fought, would continue to satisfy, sustain, & save him.
You & I need to know that same thing & have that same faith. When you’re having one of those sleepless nights (v. 6), depend on the only One who will be your help; the only one who will tenderly shield you in the shadow of His wings; the only One who will hold you up in His right hand – the right hand is a symbol of His sovereign power of absolutely everything that you will ever face. So CLING TO HIM!
CONCLUSION – Sometimes when you get really thirsty, you get what we call the “cotton mouth.” Desperately need a drink of water.
I pray that there a bunch of you who have a spiritual “cotton mouth” today. You know that you desperately need the Lord to work in your life today! So come to Him today & let Him quench your thirst!
