NONE but the true believer longs after God, for in order to thirst after God His Name must be loved. Amongst those, of whom the Scripture speaks as longing after God, perhaps the first in eagerness is David; the man after God’s own heart.
David had seen the panting gazelle pursued by the hunters, and driven from its haunts, eagerly longing after the cooling stream. Tc the passionate desire of the hart for the water he compares the longings of his soul after God. “As the hart panteth” (or brayeth) “after” (or over) “the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (Psa. 42:1, 21<<To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.>> As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1‑2).) It is customary in hilly districts in sunny lands to convey the water in covered watercourses from the hill tops to the valleys, and these watercourses are sometimes several miles long. It is supposed that the figure presents the gazelle standing over the watercourse, and smelling the water, and, indeed, hearing its rippling, but being unable to reach it.
A good sign it is when there is deep longing after God in His people. Too many are content to remain in their experience at a distance from Him, and, unlike the man after God’s heart, they do not thirst for Him. Deep desire after God lies at the root of much of that spiritual prosperity which distinguishes some Christians from others. When the Apostle Paul says, “That I may know Him” (Phil. 3:1010That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (Philippians 3:10)), he breathes a spirit similar to that of King David. True, David longed after God in His courts on earth, and Paul for Christ in the heavens above, but each desired the Lord Himself.