There are very few who pant, cry for God.
When a deer is chased by unrelenting hounds, it will spend its last bit of strength running, jumping, twisting, turning, while looking for the refuge found in a river or lake.
Deer are great swimmers, sometimes crossing miles of open water at speeds up to 13 miles per hour. When in the water, they avoid the vegetation along the bank, leaving no scent for their pursuers, and they will even lay still in the water, with nothing but their noses sticking up. The Psalmist said that he cried, brayed, panted for God as a deer does for water.
The deer finds refreshment as well as refuge in the water. Water quenches the desire and sustains the life.
Hardly anyone is fleeing from sin, temptation, darkness.
Hardly anyone is fleeing to God. Certainly not with the intensity of a deer running for its life.
Hardly anyone thirsts for God.
People either do not realize the dangers around them or they mistakenly trust in false security. Our only hope is to be in Christ, to hide in Christ, to live in Christ, to drink deeply the waters of life that Christ provides.
Psalms 42:1-2
(1) ...As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
(2) My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
Psalms 63:1-3
(1) ...O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
(2) To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
(3) Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
Psalms 84:2
(2) My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
