Psalm 63:1-11 O God, you are my God; early will I seek you: my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land… I. CONCERNING THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS. 1. Where is the fountain of living waters? It is everywhere. 2. What is in the fountain of life? The incomprehensible Being with whom it is speaks of Himself in this sovereign exclusive style, "I live." 3. What comes out of the fountain of life? "Every good and every perfect gift." Particularly the Mediator and His fulness. The reconciliation of the world. The forgiveness of sins. The justification of the ungodly: The sanctification of the unholy. Grace and glory. 4. Which is the way of a thirsty man to get a drink of the fountain of life? "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," ere, II. CONCERNING THIRSTING AND LONGING FOR GOD, WITH WHOM IS THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. The rise, the tendency, the strength, the operation, and energies of these holy affections, may be observed in the following particulars — 1. The thirst for God is the desire or longing of the new heart. 2. The thirsting and longing of the renewed mind for God are influenced by the knowledge and taste of His favour in Christ Jesus. Before we thirst for God, or long for him, we must know that He is, and taste that He is gracious. 3. The thirst or longing for God is attended with crying and tears. This mourning and crying among the sons of regeneration is not the noise and din of peevishness and discontent. It is the crying of the spirit of adoption in their heart, for the nourishing and strengthening of their life, with those pleasures and joys which they believe are in its fountain. 4. Thirsting for God, the fountain of living waters, increases with indulgence. The more freely and abundantly the thirsty soul is indulged in drinking at the fountain, the keener and more vehement is its thirst. 5. In thirsting and longing for God, there are strong mixtures of faith, and love, and hope, and joy, and the other graces of the Spirit. 6. Providential occurrences give the new heart a keener sensibility in thirsting and longing for God. III. HOW THIRSTING AND LONGING FOR GOD, THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS, CONTRIBUTE AID TO THE SUSTAINING OF THE LIVELINESS AND VIGOUR OF PIETY, WHEN CUT OFF FROM THE RIVERS AND STREAMS OF THE SANCTUARY. 1. These energies of the new heart in a dry and thirsty land, keep its intercourse with the fountain lively night and day. 2. Assurances of favour through the offices of the Mediator are sent down from the fountain to the thirsting and longing soul. 3. In thirsting and longing for God in a dry and thirsty land, experience shoots up and rises be a great height. 4. In thirsting and longing for God in a dry and thirsty land, the fruit of righteousness sown in the new heart springs, and grows, and ripens, and comes to maturity. 5. In a dry and thirsty land, piety is removed from the fat places of the earth which are full of things unfavourable to its growth.In conclusion, observe — 1. The difference between animal and spiritual thirsting. 2. Intercourse with the Deity through the Mediator is not confined to courts, altars, and tabernacles. The whole wilderness of Judah, dry and thirsty as it might be, was a chamber of audience, into which David had access to the Deity day and night, to complain, to petition, and consult; and all around was court, altar, tabernacle, and holy of holies. He longed notwithstanding to be restored, and no wonder. Institutions for the multitude that kept holyday in the city were more desirable than the chamber opened in the field to an individual, 3. The Lord is not harsh and unkind, in schooling His chosen in a wilderness, and trying them with hunger and thirst. Their education in the science and exercises of piety requires it, and His intention is to do them good at the latter end. (A. Shanks.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.} O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; |
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