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In this state of mind there is something sad. But something commendable also. For the next best thing to having close communion with God is to be wretched until we find Him.

I. THE OBJECT OF THE DESIRE which is here described. It was for God. Probably this psalm belongs to the time of the revolt of Absalom. But David's desire is not for lost royalties, wealth, palaces, children: no, nor the temple, nor his country, but God. He longed to appear again before God, so that —

1. He might unite in the worship of the people.

2. Gain restored confidence as to his interest in the love of God, and to have it shed abroad in his heart. May such desires be ours.

II. THE CHARACTERISTICS of this desire.

1. Directness. The hart panteth, there can be no doubt what for. So with David, he goes straight to the point. He knew what he needed.

2. Unity. As the hart longs for nothing but the water brooks, so David for God only. Have you ever seen a little child that has lost its way crying in the streets for "mother"? Now, you shall give that child what you will, but it will not stay crying for "mother." I know it is thus with all the family of God in regard to an absent God.

3. The intensity of this desire. How awful is thirst. In a long and weary march soldiers have been able to endure much want of solid food, but — as in the marches of Alexander — they have died by hundreds from thirst.

4. Its vitality. Thirst is connected with the very springs of life. Men must drink or die.

5. And it is an expressive desire. The Scotch version reads — "Like as the hart for water brooks, In thirst doth pant and bray." And in the margin of our Bibles it reads, "As the hart brayeth," etc. The hart, usually so silent, now begins to bray in its agony. So the believer hath a desire which forceth itself into expression. It may be inarticulate, "groanings which cannot be uttered," but they are all the more sincere and deep. In all ways will he express before God his great desire.

III. ITS EXCITING CAUSES.

1. Something inward, the secret life within. A camel does not pant after water brooks, because it carries its own supplies of water within it; but the hart does because it has no such resources.

2. But also something outward. The hart because of the heat, the distance, the dogs. So the believer. The source of David's longings lay partly in the past. We remember delightful seasons gone by. Also from the present, lie was at that moment in eminent distress. And the future. "Hope thou in God," saith he, "for I shall yet praise Him."

IV. COMFORTABLE ENCOURAGEMENTS. There is no thirst like the thirst of the man who has once known what the sweetness of the wine of heaven is. A poor king must be poor indeed. Yet out of our strong desires after God there come these comforts.

1. The thought — whence come they? This desire is a gift from God.

2. If He has given it me, will He not fulfil it?

3. And if I have wandered from my God, tie is willing to forgive. Let us return to Him, then, and let us recollect that when we return we shall soon be uplifted into the light. It does not take long for the Lord to make summer-time in the wintry heart.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: {To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.} As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

WEB: As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.