A choice: Crisp clear water bubbling up from an endless spring offering cool liquid to wet and satisfy the parched tongue or a small stagnant puddle with salty warm water swimming with the particles of debris that lie on the ground beneath it? If you were thirsty which water source would you want to drink from, would you want to use to quench the longing of your palate?
In Psalm 42 we read how the Psalmist has a longing, a deep thirst for the living God. But Why? Why does he have this unquenched thirst? It's because he has chosen to drink of his tears day and night (vs. 3). While tears may look like water they are not. They are a combination of mucus, saline, and oil. Not a very appealing substitution for clean pure water and they only leave you more parched then before you let them soak into your tongue.
Does this seem far-fetched? I mean who really drinks their tears instead of water? Who can possibly shed enough tears to fill a glass to drink from anyway? And even if you could who would want to drink a glass of oily saline saturated mucus? Yet this is something we have all been guilty of at some point in our lives. Instead of going to God and satisfying our souls with his quenching grace we choose to drink from the mucus filled cup of trials and heartache.
When we have difficulties in our lives we can sometimes tend to sit and feast on our tears, the struggles we are facing, the pain in our lives. Our focus is on our problems. We sit and dwell and soak up the impurities of our hearts: the doubt, the fears, the hurts, the confusion, the hopelessness, the turmoil, the sadness…shall I go on? We can do this day in and day out and then wonder why our hearts feel even more desperate, even more thirsty for hope, confidence, joy, peace, healing…I could go on! We waste our time on the worry and discontentment of trials and all we get in return is an even deeper thirst to live in the quenched freedom that is only found in God through Christ Jesus.
In John 4 Jesus is speaking to a woman by a well who has spent years drinking in the tears of life's trials. But he gives her the cure for her parched and weary soul:
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Everyone who drinks this water (well water, tears of trial) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty…"
If your soul is feeling parched then you have stopped drinking solely from the fountain of living water, the Grace of God poured out to you through Jesus Christ. You have started to move away from the well-spring of life. The Psalmist admitted this:
"…how I used to (that would be past tense) go with the multitude (brothers & sisters in the Lord), leading the procession to the house of God (this throne of Grace), with shouts of joy and thanksgiving (with worship) among the festive throng." Psalm 42:4
The Psalmist moved away. He stopped praising God. He stopped worshiping God. He stopped focusing on his big and mighty God and lost sight of the joy and thanksgiving to be found in the source of living water. He lost the taste of Grace that was available to him as long as he stayed close to the source. All that is now left to him are the salty tears of turmoil.
The cure? Return to the fountain of living water! Dive deep into the waters that are the word of God. Let them sweep over you. Immerse yourself in them. Drench yourself in who God is, in his promises, and in the hope that he has for all those who savor him in their hearts. Surround yourselves with fellow believers who can help you empty your cup of tears and the debris of pain that lives in them and who can help remind you of the Grace of God that is yours to drink of. Then, thrive off of God's Grace in spite of whatever life may have in store.
I am reminded of a song by Ronnie Freeman called "Come To The River" (it's one of my favorites). I encourage you to take a moment, close your eyes, and listen to the words in light of what God revealed to us today. May you always remember to stay close to the only source that will keep your thirst quenched – the Living Water…Jesus Christ!
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