Deserted

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you God.  I thirst for God, the living God.  When can I come and appear before God?” Psalm 42:1-2

Have you ever felt deserted?  Where you felt like God has abandoned you? Here the psalmist longs for the day when he can be in the presence of God.  He is in a desert and he longs for flowing streams.  Tears have been his food and he feels totally alone.  There are times in our walk with God when it will feel like he has left us.  I am reminded of Deuteronomy 8:2 when Moses reminded the people: “Remember that the LORD your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.”

The reality is God is more concerned with your faith than your comfort.  This Psalm reminds us of this truth and wedged between the psalmist struggles is his declarations of faith. “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your billows have swept over me.” (Psalm 42:7) Here the writer feels like he has lost his footing on the cliff and the waves are pounding him!  Have you ever felt that way?  Yet listen to his response to his situation: “The Lord will send his faithful love by day; his song will be with me in the night—a prayer to the God of my life.” (Psalm 42:8)   

I don’t know where you are today in your life.  I know we all go through periods where we feel deserted by God.  But what I love about my God is these moments are temporary and I trust they serve a purpose to build my faith.  Nothing in life is wasted by God, he will take every opportunity to grow our faith in his faithfulness.  At the end of the day I can declare “Why, my soul, are you so dejected?  Why are you in such turmoil?  Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:11)