Hunger and Thirst

Only Jesus Christ can destroy a soul in such wondrous beauty that love and admiration towards Him flows from it, not bitterness. We were made for Him. Salvation awakens us to the desperate longing we were always meant to have and never could. What we know when we are lost is not longing. It is deception. We move from brief satisfaction to brief satisfaction. Our lost-longing fools itself into thinking it can be filled. The longing that comes from the new birth knows that it will never be filled here. So it quits looking. And while the longing does remain, it is satisfied. The minute God ceased His walking in the cool of the day with man, there is nowhere on earth where the fellowship we were made for can be fully enjoyed. Safe in Christ, I yearn for what I once had and lost in the Garden. So while I am healed, I ache. My soul hurts. He is with me. And He is not. I am full. And I am starving.

Consider this contrast:

John 4:13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 6:33 “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

Psalm 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2a My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

Psalm 63:1 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.

I think I would be hermeneutically sound to say of the verses above, “The longing of the Psalmist’s heart, of our hearts, was quenched forever in Jesus, the Living Water.” That may be a good sermon. But would it tell the whole story? I don’t know. Because my question would be, how does the Psalmist know that God will quench His thirst? Why is it that he thirsts for God? Why is it that he faints in the desert land for God? Couldn’t there be a thousand other things to quench his soul’s thirst? That’s the story of our lives, isn’t it? Not if we have already tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Notice the word “as” in the two psalms above. “In the same way” as a deer or as near fainting in a parched desert, so his soul pants and faints for God. This comes from experience, not idealism.

God is infinite. When He not only gives the water but is the water, there is something different about that water. It satisfies like a canteen of fresh, ice cold water in the desert. And it makes you thirstier like handfuls of salt water adrift at sea. Why in the world is there such a thing as actual water that does not quench your thirst but only makes you thirstier? I wonder. Since God does so many things by accident.

When God not only gives the bread but is the bread, there is something different about that bread. The very nature of earthly food is to speed up your metabolism, to be processed, which means you will be hungry again. Food satisfies for a moment. One bite of bread and one drink of water only satisfy for awhile. They are not infinite. This is beginning to crack the surface of what I believe Jesus was really saying in John 4 and 6. If the bread and the water are different, the hunger they are meant to satisfy is different. Knowing Christ does not eradicate my need for food and water to survive. But I don’t need to survive. That is not my greatest need. And this hunger, this thirst, this need…to live when I die…his bread and water satisfy forever. He is my Bread. He is my Water. And this grace, this mercy, this love create in me a longing to be near such a One with every ounce of my being. And I cannot see Him. I cannot put my fingers in the scars or lean against His chest. I do not see Him face to face. But He is with me, even though He is not.

The longing of the Psalmist is transformed in Jesus. My longing is under the grace of the Cross, fixed in the person of Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. The Psalmist longed for what had not appeared; I hope for what has appeared once and for all to take away my sins. God is forever for me. He will never be against me again. My longing is filled with satisfaction. My days are not bleak. My heart is not deserted. I will never feel that thirst again. I will never know that hunger again. It is not as though I long for A husband like the Psalmist; I long for MY Husband, the Eternal Groom, the Risen Christ!

So some mornings will be spent with my face in my hands, wishing I could see Him. Everyday will be spent longing to worship Him face to face. And this hurts. I can literally feel it in my stomach even now. But we do not weep as those who have no hope. And we do not long as though who have no coming Savior. That thirst is quenched; that hunger is satisfied. Until He comes, I will be a deer in the forest and a wanderer in the desert. But I will have a Brook over the next hill and an Oasis just over the horizon. My Shepherd, My Lamb, My King, My Jesus.