By: admin On: June 04, 2012 In: Desire, Longing, Yearning Comments: 0



yearning, desire

My soul breaks with longing for Your judgments at all times.
Psalm 119:20

The longing of the soul can never over-reach its object…

“The longing of the soul can never over-reach its object. The cherished desire, therefore, will become the established habit – the element in which the child of God lives and thrives.” Charles Bridges
TAKING IT IN
“Longing” and the fullness of the meaning of this word is key as we seek to capture the Psalmist’s heart as he pens this verse. Perhaps it is best defined as a “yearning desire” so intense that the soul breaks. There are several commentators who seek to illustrate this longing and perhaps most true to the richness of this passage is the picture of the hunted deer.
Imagine the deer that for many hours has been fleeing from its pursuers until its strength is altogether exhausted and it is ready to faint with fatigue. The deer’s fear of the hunter is at an all time high, as the enemy rapidly advances, ready to seize and tear the deer into pieces. The deer is panting, deeply desiring both rescue and rest.


yearning, desire

As we picture this deer we can hear David’s cry in Psalm 63:
My soul thirsts for You; my soul longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

yearning, desire


MAKING IT MEANINGFUL
There are times in our Christian lives that we feel just like that hunted deer. The fallen world we live in can sap of us of our energy and our very real enemy is ever present walking about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It is in these moments we recognize that it is only God who can save us! We come to His Word desperate to find refuge, desperate to know more of Him, desperate to glean the answers to life’s hard questions. Our souls break with holy longing! Barnes describes this breaking well:
The breaking of the Psalmist’s soul carries the idea of crushing or breaking in pieces by scraping, rubbing or grating. Not that he was crushed by a single blow, but that his soul, his strength was worn away little by little. The yearning to know more of the commands of God acted continually upon him, exhausting his strength, and overcoming him. He so longed for God that, in our language, “it wore upon him” as any ungratified desire does. It was not the possession of the knowledge of God that exhausted him; it was the intenseness of his desire that He might know more of God.
Think about a time, or maybe you find yourself in that season now, when the demands of life weighed heavy upon you and your Bible sat on the shelf. As you grow wearier with each day it goes untouched. You know you need to be in the Word, but life carries you away. Soon your soul begins to ache and yearn for time with God. It is a holy longing that only God can satisfy.
WORKING IT INTO MY HEART
What you and I want to work into our hearts today is that the psalmist’s holy longing was not momentary, but it was “at all times”. Whether he was in times of prosperity or adversity, God’s Word would be the answer to all of life’s questions. Though he might feel much like the hunted deer when life became hard, he knew Who and where to run to. He would find strength for the journey. Amidst the temptations to conform to the world, he would be obedient to renew his mind and live in continued transformation.
His desire echoed the words of Psalm 17:15
As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness;
I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.
May we be encouraged to embrace a life of holy longing where our hearts seek to be revived daily by the Word of God, that we might each and every day awake looking a little more like Him.
yearning, desire


Consider Spurgeon’s words this week:
 “Longing lingers not within a lifeless corpse. Where the heart is breaking with desire there is life. This may comfort some of you: you have not attained as yet to the holiness you admire, but you long for it: ah, then, you are a living soul, the life of God is in you.”

Take a moment now to seek His presence in worship as you consider and recognize your holy longing.




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