How God Creates & Sustains a Thirsty Soul: Psalm 63

1.  He calls us into a relationship with Himself that is personal.

"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" (v. 1).

"The longing of these verses is not the groping of a stranger, feeling his way towards God, but the eagerness of a friend, almost of a lover, to be in touch with the one he holds dear." -- Derek Kidner

"Thirst is an insatiable longing after that which is one of the most essential supports of life; there is no reasoning with it, no forgetting it, no despising it, no overcoming it by stoical indifference.  Thirst will be heard; the whole man must yield to its power: even thus is it with that divine desire which the grace of God creates in regenerated men; only God himself can satisfy the craving of a soul really aroused by the Holy Spirit." -- C.H. Spurgeon

2.  He reveals Himself to us in ways that are experiential.

"So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory" (v. 2).

"There is in true grace an infinite circle: a man by thirsting receives, and receiving thirsts for more." -- Thomas Shepard, founder of Harvard University

"Spiritual good is of a satisfying nature; and for that very reason, the soul that tastes, and knows its nature, will thirst after it, and a fullness of it, that it may be satisfied.  And the more he experiences, and the more he knows this excellent, unparalleled, exquisite, and satisfying sweetness, the more earnestly he will hunger and thirst for more." -- Jonathan Edwards

3.  God leads us into situations that force us to make an appraisal of what He is worth to us.

"Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you" (v. 3).

Let us pray with A.W. Tozer:

O God, I have tasted Your goodness,

and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.

I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace.

I am ashamed of my lack of desire.

O God, the Triune God, 

I want to want You;

I long to be filled with longing;

I thirst to be made more thirsty still.

Show me Your glory, I pray,

so I may know You indeed.

Begin in mercy a new work of love within me…

Give me grace to rise and follow You up from this misty lowland

where I have wandered so long.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God