If we were without water for a mere 72 hours, our throats would be like sandpaper, we’d get dizzy, confusion would set in, and we would likely pass away. Our lives demand water. Human dependence on this essential liquid creates a powerful image that God uses in Scripture. Let’s look at some of the life-giving truths taught using images of water from Psalm 42 and how this connects with Jesus.
The psalmist opens in Psalm 42:1, equating his thirst for God’s presence to a deer panting (longing and craving) for water. The deer’s very life depends on finding water. In like manner, the psalmist says his soul “thirsts” for God, whom he calls the “living God” (v. 2). The Hebrew for "living God" is ’Elohim khayyim. This name sets Yahweh apart from all other gods of the nations. Only He communes with and gives eternal life to His people. The psalmist rightly pants after Him as if his life depends on it. The seeker, though far from the temple, “remembers” the joy of being satisfied in God’s presence (v. 4).
In his song, the writer tells of experiencing the salty water of his tears. People have taunted him, saying, “Where is your God?” (v. 3, 10). The psalm writer “pours” his soul out in prayer—desperate for Yahweh’s life-giving water to be poured into his soul. Waves of crushing water were rolling over the psalmist (v. 7). Yet, the songwriter declared, “The LORD will command His loving kindnesses in the daytime; and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life” (v. 8). God’s word from Isaiah, the prophet, notes, “The afflicted and needy are seeking water…their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the LORD, will answer them Myself…I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of the valleys” (Isa. 41:17-18).
—desperate for Yahweh’s life-giving water to be poured into his soul.
And indeed, in the fullness of time, God did send Living Water to His people in the person of Jesus Christ. The apostle John wrote, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37). Jesus told the desperate woman at the well who was dipping deep for water, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). And in John’s vision of God’s restoration he says, “Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost” (Rev. 21:6).
The psalmist longed with all his being for the presence of God as living water to quench his thirst. Jesus’s presence in our lives is the answer for humankind. Let’s slake our thirst and partake of Him freely!
Want to learn how to praise and pray your way through the Psalms? The Psalms of the Bible: Being Refreshed and Strengthened in the Psalms study guide will help you do just that. Check it out!
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