The psalmist knew what it was to be athirst for God. As thirsty as the deer longing for the water brooks, he says today. We are all athirst for God whether or not we are aware of it. As St. Augustine put it, “You have made us for yourself, and we are restless until we find rest in you, O Lord.” Elsewhere (Ps.63:1b) the psalmist again describes his intense longing for the presence of God as an overwhelming thirst: “my soul faints for you, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.” While many around the world know the reality of lack of water, it is hard for us in this country where potable water is so readily accessible at the turn of the tap to imagine what it would be like to be “in a barren and dry land where there is no water.” Just how desperate would we be in such a place? It literally would be a matter of life and death. We know the body can’t survive without water. Neither can the soul without God—that is the point the psalmist is making with his thirst metaphor.

No matter how we may try to satisfy that mysterious emptiness we feel inside with the ways of the world, nothing works for long, if at all. It is not enough for us to give God a polite nod on Sunday morning when we need to be satiated from deep within. We need to recognize and acknowledge that deep thirst in our souls that nothing can satisfy but the unsurpassing love of God, that desire, that longing in our hearts that the psalmist describes. It is there!

The good news is that the Lord “satisfies the thirsty and the hungry he fills with good things.” (Ps.107:9) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reiterates that promise: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (i.e., a right relationship with God) for they will be filled.” (Mt. 5:6) When we finally open our dried-up hearts to God, we can trust the Holy One to quench our thirst with springs of living water.