‘As The Deer’

As the deer panteth after the water brooks, so panteh my soul after thee, O God.

Psalm 42:1

We have had times in our spiritual experience when God has drawn very near.  We have enjoyed the sense of His Presence in exceptional ways.  Those times are very dear, and very sweet.  We must confess that at other times, we have lacked that sense of His Presence, although we cannot always determine why it is that we have lost that comfortable sense of His nearness.  The writer of the psalm before us was in such a condition.  To express his situation, he resorts to the simile which forms our text for today.  He says, ‘as the deer panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.’  We can picture a deer in the forest, perhaps pursued by hunters or a pack of wild dogs.  Over the hill and down the dale bounds the beleaguered hart fleeing, for its’ life.  Its’ pursuers will give it no rest, and it develops an insatiable, exhausting thirst.  So are we, when God seems distant.  It is Christ Who will slake our thirst.  It is Christ Who cried, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’  Christ alone can provide that of which our soul stands most in need.  When our soul is dried within us, we resort to Him, Who can meet us at our point of deepest need.  Today, if you are ‘as the deer’, look to Christ.  He will satisfy your thirst, as no one else can.

Our Gracious Master and Our God,
we rejoice that You meet us at our point of deepest need.
We praise You that in our most desperate hour,
You will satisfy our thirst.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Honest to God

O my God, my soul is cast down within me….

Psalm 42:6a

Our friends know us as we are, and love us anyway.  Christ is the Great Friend of His people.  Because He is God, He knows all things.  He knows us better than we know ourselves.  The psalmist who wrote our text for today was struggling.  He is very clear about his struggle and is most forthright about where he is spiritually.  As he prays, he declares, ‘O my God, my soul is cast down within me.’  Because of his relationship with God, he resorts to the place of prayer in his raw and unvarnished condition.  He is honest to God.  There is no pretense or image-mongering.  This is an important concept for us to grasp.  Honesty before God breeds honesty before others.  What is also important is that when we are at our worst, Christ still lends a listening ear.  Because He knows us better than we know ourselves, He knows the depths of our heartaches and the source of our depression.  We may be totally honest with Him.  Perhaps today you find yourself where the psalmist was.  Your soul is cast down within you.  Go to Christ with your heartache.  Do not fear to speak to Him of your anxiety and depression.  There are others before you that have been like you.  They have gone to Christ in their raw and unvarnished condition.  He has not failed them and He will not fail you.  He knows you already, and loves you.  Be honest to God.

Our Kind and Gracious God,
we rejoice that we may come to You without fear.
We praise You that You know us for who we are,
and receive us for Jesus’ sake.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

A God For All Seasons

Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

Psalm 42:8

God is a God for all seasons.  As the psalmist who penned our text contemplates his woeful condition, he finds that God is his only hope.  His enemies have taunted him with the question, ‘Where is your God?’  He has given up on worship at the house of God where he ‘used to go.’  He has been depressed and his soul has been ‘cast down.’  When all around his soul has given way, he has resorted to his only refuge.  He says to himself, ‘Hope in God.’  In our text for today, the psalmist cites the utter consistency and dependability of God.  He says,  ‘Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindess in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.’  Here is a God for the daylight hours and for the seasons of darkness.  We all have them.  When we look to Christ, we see that He is a God for all seasons.  Consider how many miracles He worked, and how many souls He engaged during the daylight hours.  He ‘went about doing good.’  Beyond that, contemplate how many times He encountered folk in the dark times, when the winds howled, and the waves were high.  So, Christ is a God for all our seasons.  When we are well, He is our God.  When we are ill, He is still our God.  Whether we are rejoicing in the sun or sorrowing in the darkness, Christ is always ours.  ‘Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindenss in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.’  He is our Hope in every season.  Jesus never fails.

Our Good and Kind Savior,
we rejoice that You draw near to us
and meet us at our point of need.
We praise You that in all our changing seasons
You remain ever faithful.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘Waves and Billows’

….all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

Psalm 42:7b

The Psalms plumb the depths of the experiences of the people of God.  We find within them joy and sorrow, rejoicing and weeping, elation and depression.  We all love the mountaintop, but we find ourselves at times in the valley.  The harbor is quiet and peaceful, but we are often on the open sea with towering waves, wild winds, and no safe haven in sight.  As we look at the few words which comprise our text for today, we consider the circumstance which the psalmist describes.  He says, ‘All your waves and billows have gone over me.’  There are several things here for us to consider.  We ought to dwell a bit upon the fact that God does control the ‘waves and billows.’  Even in his distress, the psalmist recognizes that they are ‘Your waves and billows.’  Even the most unsettling of our circumstances are under the control of the Sovereign God.  There is also the fact that although the ‘waves and billows’ had ‘gone over’ the psalmist, they had not utterly drowned him.  Even in the hardest of circumstances, the Hand of God had preserved him.  So the disciples, when they experienced storms upon the sea, found that Christ preserved them on every occasion.  If He preserved them, we can hope that He will also preserve us.  The third consideration for us is that even at his worst, the psalmist knew that he could still resort to God.  Our text is part of a lengthy prayer of a most distressed soul; so, ‘we have an anchor that keeps the soul.’  Christ is our never failing Keeper.  Even though ‘waves and billows have gone over’ us, we are yet in Christ, and Jesus never fails.

Our All-Powerful God,
we rejoice in the protection of Your Almighty Hand.
We praise You that Christ our Master,
still preserves us in the midst of the stormy seas.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning