Yearning

I was searching for a subject to write about and when our pastor used the word, “yearn” as a central idea for his message on Psalm 63 a couple of weeks ago, I knew I wanted to explore that.

 “Yearn” is not a word we use much in our vernacular these days. My synonym finder listed words like “crave,” “desire,” and “long for” to help define “yearn.” The word seems to have a connotation of great intensity, rather like soul-hunger.

Back at the beginning of time when God created Adam and Eve and placed them as caretakers in the beautiful garden He’d created, everything/everyone was perfect (something we can only guess about). Communion and communication between God and His creation, Man, was also perfect. When sin entered this perfect place through pride or rebellion or whatever you want to label it, that perfect connection between God and Man was broken. And ever since then, that hole in Man’s heart has yearned for God and that perfect connection with Him.

When King David wrote Psalm 63, his kingdom was on a dreadful, downhill slide with his own son, Absalom, seeking to take his throne from him.  David was on the run, not a pleasant sight nor a pleasant plight.

When David said he was yearning for God in a dry and thirsty land, that was literally where he found himself physically because Scripture says he was in the Desert of Judah. Those of us who live in Nevada are well acquainted with dry and thirsty land because we live in it. Nevada’s average rainfall is 7.87 inches. The wilderness of Judah gets a rainfall of 16 inches in a year  yet the pictures look even more bleak than Nevada..

David, the man after God’s own heart, writes in verse 1 that he was seeking, thirsting, and yearning for God. In addition to the harsh country the king was having to traverse, I imagine his father-heart had moved from discomfort and anger to great mental pain. His own son had turned against him and had led many of his countrymen to turn on him as well. This had to be an extremely difficult time for the king.

Yet in the next few verses we witness how God fulfills David’s yearning for Him because David writes in verse 5: “My soul is satisfied…my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.” That doesn’t sound like someone fleeing his enemy in the hot, dry desert. God plainly answered David’s yearning for communication/comfort.

We all have to endure some of that “dry, desert land” time. It may not be in a literal desert like Nevada. It could very likely be a time of illness, a time of loss, whether it be that of a relationship, a loved one, or a layoff at work. As we yearn or seek or thirst or meditate on God’s power and love, we will see His glory and then we can praise Him. Praise leads to a satisfied soul. And a satisfied soul has no need to be concerned about a dry and dusty land.