2. My soul. All my nature, my inmost
self. Thirsteth. Hunger you can palliate, but thirst is awful,
insatiable, deadly. For God. Not merely for the temple and the
ordinances, but for fellowship with God himself. None but the spiritual can
sympathize with this thirst. For the living God. Because he lives, and
gives the living water, therefore we with greater eagerness desire him. Whenshall I come and appear before God? He who loves the Lord loves also the
assemblies wherein his name is adored. Vain are all pretenses to religion where
the outward means of grace have no attraction. David was never so much at home
as in the house of the Lord; he was not content with private worship; he did
not forsake the place where saints assemble, as the manner of some is. After
God, his Elohim (his God to be worshiped, who had entered into covenant with
him), he pined even as the drooping flowers for the dew. If all our resortings
to public worship were viewed as appearances before God, it would be a sure
mark of grace to delight in them. Alas, how many appear before the minister, or
their fellow-men, and think that enough! “To see the face of God” is a
nearer translation of the Hebrew; but the two ideas may be combined—he would
see his God and be seen by him; this is worth thirsting after!
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