PANTING FOR PERFECTION

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so PANTS MY SOUL FOR YOU, O GOD” – Psalm 42: 1

True Passion for Perfection is accompanied by a PANTING FOR PERFECTION in God’s Holy Presence: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so PANTS MY SOUL FOR YOU, O GOD. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psa.42: 1-2). The words of this Psalm are attributed to the sons of Korah who yearned for God as deer pant for water. They deeply desired the Presence of God as one desires food and drink. This deep divine yearning is the Kingdom Pattern that the Lord Jesus commends to us: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Mt.5:6). There must always be a deep desire to establish God as primary in life, and to serve Him.

Let’s immerse in the distress experiences of the sons of Korah. Their food and drink had been their tears, and people all around derided them by asking where their God has gone (v.3). They poured out their souls when they reflect on how they used to go up to the house of God during the appointed festivals (v.4). They rhetorically asked their souls why they were cast down and in distress, for it were better to hope in the praise-worthy God (v.5). Yet, for the moment, they felt distressed, remembering God as if from the depths of Jordan valley and on the heights of Hermon (v.6). They felt as if overwhelmed, as if God’s waves had gone over them (v.7). Gradually however, they began to express confidence in God’s lovingkindness and covenant loyalty such that His song in them would centre on Him proving to be their Rock (vv.8-10).

The Psalm ends with the refrain: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (v.11). Even in the day of distress, rather than allow our souls to be depressed, we do well to reflect and trust in God’s covenant loyalty. He remains our God; and we shall yet praise Him in and despite all difficulties and the taunts of our adversaries. We as Christians can identify with such times when our souls were in distress within us, disquieted on account of personal trial or collective trouble, oppression or persecution, or our sins or those of others. In times when God feels far away we do well to yearn for Him as the deer pants for the water!

The problem with carnal human craving is we often crave the wrong things, like junk foods which have little to no lasting nutritional value. Instead of craving God, we often give in to spiritual junk food that actually hurts us in the long run. 1 John 2: 15-17 warns against craving three types of junk ‘food’:

• Lust of the flesh: fleshly appetites, sensual perversions (relationship without rings; sex without strings outside of marriage); and slothfulness (craving comfort and pleasure more than our Creator).

• Lust of the eyes: greedy ambitions; love of money and possessions above love for God, evidenced in poor deployment of time and resources; spending more energy on amassing and getting things than on getting closer to God.

• Pride of life: self-centred, haughty arrogance that looks down on others, and seldom sees the need for God.

The sense of depression and discouragement behind Psalm 42 led the author to crave and cry out for a closer relationship with God – a positive panting. He wanted and needed to be closer to God and would not rest until he was. He compared himself to a tired, hunted, exhausted, and dehydrated deer, panting with its tongue out, desperate for a drink of cool refreshing water from a mountain brook. No matter the circumstances of our lives, above all else, we need God – in the bad times and the good times as well. God wants us to crave a closer walk with Him more than anything else in life – Panting for Perfection – for God’s Precepts, Purity, and Presence!