As A Deer Longs For Streams of Water

While the Psalms are filled to overflowing with beautiful images that can be comforting or poignant, the first stanza of Psalm 42 is particularly evocative of our sense of being lost in a world that seems contrary and hostile. The imagery of a deer seems to be misplaced because one does not think of deer as being a common animal in ancient Israel but it is still very powerful because deer are common place in my daily life. It is a rare week when I don't see deer in my neighborhood or even bedded down in my yard.

The interesting thing about the deer I see is that they are essentially urbanized and make their living munching on whatever they find in yards and parks and that includes flowers, shrubs and trees that were planted with love and effort. The response we tend to have toward the deer calls to mind the hostility the psalmist is lamenting. The deer are only trying to make a living but they are creating anger and hostility that is directed at them. While they don't have to fear many natural predators, they have to be on guard for dogs on the loose and for vehicles. When the fence around the backyard was down for replacement, I have to confess the use of a pellet gun in a doomed effort to keep them out of the garden and away for the birdbaths and fountain.

The deer, however, are not sentient but we are. I am. Time and experience are bringing clarity to my questioning if reliance on God is the better thing compared to reliance on my own will. I am aware the emptiness of the thirst within ne arises out of a need for living water that only comes from God. I have committed to seeking his waters and await their delivery. 

Like the psalmist, I can recall the times of joy when we entered into his presence and how sweet the memories of those moments remain well after they have passed. Recollection and remembrance resurrect dreams of peace that are right here directly in front of me. 

Deep calls to deep - the waves seem overwhelming and violently dangerous as the dark and separation beckons me with temptations to yield to moment pleasures that are not benign but are in fact cancerous and threaten my well-being. The great lesson from the laments we find the Psalms is that no matter how dark the night or fierce the storm or hostile the surroundings, the cry for help is an appeal to God. The prayer will sustain psalmist. My prayer will sustain me as I look ahead to the troubled waters and forbidding slopes that lie between me and relief.

Richard Rohr writes about God's love:

"Love protects us from nothing, even as it unexplainably sustains us in all things. Access to this love is not limited by our finite ideas of what it is or what it should be. Rather, this love overwhelms our abilities to comprehend it, as it so unexplainably sustains us and continues to draw us to itself in all that life might send our way."

This is not a day of deliverance but it is a day of hope and determination. 

Psalm 42:12

"Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, my savior and my God."