SUMMER OF PSALMS: PSALM 63

Permission To Be The Real You Series
July 13, 2008
Pastor Nathan J. Thompson

Perhaps you know the story of what happened to Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells. In the terrible rains and flooding in late May, early June, a levee that held in the water of this lake collapsed under the pressure. As a result, all the water in Lake Delton drained out.

So now the lake is completely empty. Homes on the lake no longer have any water to look out on. Tommy Bartlett's water ski show, the duck boats, and the big tour boats, cannot operate. And recently people have been walking on the dry lake bottom with metal detectors trying to find valuables that may have settled at the bottom.

In our walk through life there may also be some times, or some life stages or periods, when we may feel drained-like we're running on empty or are completely dry. It may be a mid-life crisis, or a time of loss, or at those times when you simply wonder if your life has any meaning.

Every person, I believe, has those days and desert times. Many of you know first hand what I am talking about. It's a time when you're feeling lost, or when you're wondering what to do next. It's a time when often those attitudes or relics from your past surface from the sandy bottom.

When this happens it is normal for you to thirst and desire to be filled up again. It is normal for you to long deeply for some new feelings of love, of meaning, of direction, of hope. In those desert times in life it is common to thirst for waters that satisfy and renew.

This, I believe, is the feeling that David shared when he wrote Psalm 63. He cries out, "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you. I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water."

David, we can easily conclude, was having one of those empty and dry times when he writes these words. Something we know about David is that he went through a number of these desert times throughout his life. David often cried out in his thirst for God's life-giving water.

Last Sunday, in our worship focus on Psalm 51, we remembered how David, as king, allowed his thirst for human desire to cause him to sleep with Bathsheba, and to have her husband, Uriah, put in the front lines and killed in order to try and cover his sins.

David, of course, as the king of Israel, had hundreds of wives in his harem, and all he needed to do was say the word, and another young woman would become his wife. And yet even in his abundance, he thirsted for someone who belonged to another. Even in his wealth, he was empty.

And when this child Bathsheba and David conceived was born, it was not healthy and died. Before this child died it says that "David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent his nights laying in sackcloth on the ground." (2 Samuel 12:16). But after 7-days the child died.

The reality was that even with all his wealth, all his power, all his ability to control things, David could not do away with this hurt and pain of losing a child, as well as many other times of failure and hurt. David cries out in Psalm 63, and other times, for God to bring living water to his parched and dry heart.

Many times in my life and ministry I have visited with, and ministered to, people who have been blessed with much personal and financial success. The homes they are able to live in, as well as the travels, and opportunities, and things they can afford, are amazing. These people are often ones this world envies as having the "good life."

And yet some of the things these people have shared with me have been very revealing. Several have said that they would give up all their wealth if only their child could be free of a disability, or of a drug addiction, or of losing their way in life.

Others have shared that they would give it all up if they could have a happy marriage, and a happy family. I have had several women tell me that all this wealth does not make up for their husbands not loving them as they are, or for their husband's infidelity to their job, to their personal ego, or to other women.

The reality is that just like David, having lots of money, power and stuff, does not often do away with this emptiness and thirst inside. In fact, the more we have the easier it is to try to cover over the feelings and junk that is on the bottom of our lake. And as a result, the image of happiness and having it all together is simply masking the real hurts inside.

David, however, in his times of dryness and desert, had learned that God, and God alone, is the only answer to his parched life. And as a result, David goes on to proclaim that he has seen God's power and glory-he knows God's forgiveness and grace.

So he says, "Because your love (God) is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you."

Do you see what happens when you drink from God, and when he satisfies your thirst? It is then that you are filled with worship and praise. It is then that you are satisfied with the richest of spiritual food. In God, according to David, you know a love that is better than life.

And yet today we continue to be a nation and world filled with thirsty, and often dry, people. But where are most of these people trying to quench their thirst and find true life? Well, of course, many are trying to find water and life in money, success, and in the things of this world.

This has led to a society that lives to work, rather than works to live. The focus is often on the illusive dream that the more one has, or the more travels and exciting things a person is able to do, that this will bring life and happiness. And yet many are dry, depleted, in this rat race.

Other people today are thirsty for love, for intimacy, for commitment. And yet in this quest, some are feeling lost and rejected. Some are settling for relationships that are not built on respect and unconditional love. Some are sidestepping a marriage commitment, hoping that in not being tied down they will find true love.

And some people, with this thirst for love and intimacy in their heart, are becoming addicted to pornography and superficial pleasure. Pornography, of course, is exploding in growth, especially with the internet, with DVD's and cable access. It is a booming business.

And yet as growing numbers of respectable people are involved our world suffers. For the rush of an image on a screen cannot satisfy the thirst for love, for caring, for relationship. And as many people are turning to this fantasy world, it is tearing apart the intimacy and respect in many marriages, families, and friendships.

My friend, if you are trapped in this surreal world you need help. Pornography can be as bad, and often worse, than a drug like heroin. It will never satisfy your thirst for self-esteem or love.

Other people today are thirsty for a better self-image, and for a feeling of peace in their heart. And yet this thirst often plays tricks on a person's mind, gives them a false image of themselves and of their bodies, fills them with anxiety, and depression, or with a longing to get rid of this pain by taking their own life.

This thirst is so prominent today especially among young and older teens, and among young adults. It is at epidemic proportions. The reality is that the stuff this world, and us adults, have offered these kids is not satisfying their thirst. The answers do not lie in this crazy and mixed up world we're passing on to them.

I remember on a number of canoe trips I took in the Boundary Waters how even with billions of gallons of fresh water all around, how the kids would often talk often about how thirsty they were. What they were thirsty for, of course, was for a soda like Coke or Mountain Dew.

In our world and life today God has promised us all the infinite and wonderful majesty of his grace and love. It is a water, a bread, a food, that can never run dry. And yet we often still thirst for the soda, the temporal, the quick fix. Only Jesus can offer you a life that never runs dry.

Pat Summerall, the well-known sports announcer, overcame alcoholism and became a follower of Jesus in his late sixties. He said this about water baptism: "I went down in the water, and when I came up it was like a 40-pound weight had been lifted from me. I have a happier life, a healthy life, and a more positive feeling about life than ever before."

About prayer meetings and Bible studies, Summerall added these comments: "It's like an alcoholic looking for a drink. If he wants it bad enough, he can find it-no matter what. I'm like that now when it comes to finding (worship) and Bible studies. No matter where I'm working, I know that I can find them."

My friends, are you earnestly seeking for God? Is your whole being longing for his love? Or are you searching for other things to fill up your life? Are you so busy doing all these other good things, that you have very little time for worship, for community, for listening to God's Word?

Please remember these words of King David-"the love of God is better than life." In other words, God's love is literally out of this world with fullness and meaning. May you turn to him in your dryness, and drink from his never ending supply of life.