Prayer of Thirst

Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey PART III
08 March 2015
Dr. Timothy Keller

Psalm 42:1-43:5
1As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2My soul thirst for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
4These things I remember
as I pour out my soul;
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon - From Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfealls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me--
a prayer to the God of my life.
9I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must  go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"
10My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
11Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

43:1 Vindicate me, my God,
and plead my cause
against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked.
2You are God my stronghold.
Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?
3Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.
4Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
5Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS
--Downcast and thirsting
--No indication of anything done wrong or some tragedy
--Sensing God's absence like we need water to survive.
--1 Kings 19 - Take away my life and kill me ; despair; angel cooks for him
--Jonah 4 - Jonah wishes for death
--Despair happens to all - no matter how holy or not

CAUSES OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS
--Disruption of corporate and communal worship.
--Some times, when we lose community, we realize our faith may have been experiencing it through the faith of others.
--External environment-stopped eating
--Underlying root cause is a downcast soul disconnected from God.
--Radical discontent in not finding satisfaction in things we thought were the answer.
--Peggy Lee - Is that all there is (song)
--CS Lewis - longing for things that this world can't satisfy, then we must be made for another world.

CURES FOR SPIRITUAL DRYNESS
--Prayer - pour out your soul with whatever's on your mind....whether you feel like it or not.
--Talk about your hope.  Talking to yourself--What am I allowing to control me that is not God?; Give over to Him--Shift my hope over to Him.
--Comfort yourself with his unconditional love (v.6-therefore I will remember you)

Jesus on the cross - You have forsaken me and I thirst means a complete absence of God