Great Is His FaithfulnessSample

Day 6: God Is Faithful to Give You an Unquenchable Thirst

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1

Have you ever wondered why Moses pleaded with God, “Please show me your glory” (Ex. 33:18) after experiencing unsurpassed theophanies? Moses had encountered God in the burning bush, the signs in Egypt, the Red Sea deliverance, the pillars of cloud and fire, the miraculous wilderness provisions, the miraculous victory over the Amalekites, his visions on Mount Sinai, and God directly speaking to him in great detail all along the way. We might wish to ask Moses, “What more do you want?” I imagine Moses would have answered something like, “More of God’s glory, of course. I’ve barely glimpsed it.” And he would have been right.

Then there’s David, who also pleaded with God, “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me” (Ps. 25:4–5)—this after God dramatically chose him “from the sheepfolds” to be Israel’s king (Ps. 78:70), promised him an eternal kingdom (2 Sam. 7:13), prospered nearly everything he did, delivered him repeatedly from conspiring enemies, and guided him all along the way. We might wish to ask David, “What more do you want?” I imagine he too would have answered something like, “To know more of God’s ways, of course. I’ve grasped so little.” And he would have been right.

Great saints are characterized by a deep soul-longing for God (Ps. 63:1), a thirst to be near him like a deer thirsts for water (Ps. 42:1). Such longing made Moses a friend of God (Ex. 33:11) and made David a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). For the highest good any saint will ever experience is to be near God (Ps. 73:28).

To encounter the living God is to glimpse the Source of all joy and pleasure (Ps. 16:11), all hope (Rom. 15:13), all power (Rev. 1:8), and indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). It is to glimpse “the place where all the beauty came from.”[1] And such a glimpse of infinite glory can only leave us longing for more.

This is a wonderful longing. For “none honors God like the thirst of desire.”[2] Why? Because God is the fountain of all satisfaction. And “the best way to glorify a fountain is to get down on your empty hands with your thirsty soul and put your face in the water, and suck life, and then look up and say, ‘Ah.’”[3]

To know and love God is too long to know and love him more. For if you really know him in some measure, it implies that he has faithfully made himself known to you (Matt. 16:17). And if you really love him in some measure, it implies that he faithfully loved you first (1 John 4:19). God’s great longing is for you to be with him where he is, to show you more of his glory forever ( John 17:24). That’s why your soul thirsts for him, and why your thirst will never be fully quenched in this age.

[1] C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (New York: HarperCollins, 2017), 86.

[2] Jim Kerwin, “Desire of God (a.k.a. Oh for Freedom in Worshiping God),” Finest of the Wheat, November 2, 2010, https://finestofthewheat.org/desire-of-god/, quoting Frederick W. Faber (1814–1863).

[3] John Piper, “The Worship of the Christian Leader,” Desiring God, November 8, 1991, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-worship-of-the-christian-leader.

Prayer

Father, “you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you.” And thank you for so faithfully giving me the priceless gift of this unquenchable thirst for more of you, my inconsolable longing to be with you where you are, “the place where all the beauty came from.” Show me more of your glory and let me know more of your ways! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Meditate More

Read Psalm 63.