PANTING FOR GOD

Meditations from Psalm Forty-Two for the Week of Preparation Summer Communion Season,2026-Monday

The Panting Hart

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” (Psalm 42:1)

My dear flock,

The hart in this verse has a tiresome past. You can hear it in her breathing. And she pants for one of two reasons: either a drought has dried up the stream, or the dogs have been chasing her since dawn. Either way, the thirst was created mile by weary mile. Under inspiration, when the sons of Korah, wanted to capture an image of a soul’s desire after God, they thought on a deer, pictured in her exhaustion. Sides heaving, legs trembling, nose stretched in the direction of refreshment she can smell, but can not see.

Our week of preparation begins with noticing our breathing. Simple breathing. We rush strait way to questions of worthiness, and self-examination. But there is a better approach. Everything else this week can build on it: what does your soul pant for, dear one? Every soul pants in some direction. The past will show you if you look closely. Dear one, notice your daily breathings. What troubles you. What consumes you? What has exhausted you? Notice in what direction your breathlessness lies. It’s the most honest assessment you will make all week.

Now, notice the object in this verse: so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Panting after Thee. Did you know there can be a thirst for the things of God that never once touches Him? A soul may even thirst for the table itself, the elements, the reflection, the beauty of the act, and never thirst for the ‘Thee’. Remember, the deer wants nothing from the brook except the brook. She would ignore a painting of a stream, nor drink form a memory. Preparation is the slow work of moving up from the thought of Christ’s table, to His face. That’s the refreshment of our text, the ‘Thee’.

Here is one comfort for the shy soul drawn from the image. What is panting? It is proof of life! How much, or how hard is not the point right now. If there is in you this week so much as a shallow sigh after Jesus, even a wishing that you thirsted more, that is in the smallest way, a panting after Him. May it grow this week.

One thing more before you go to sleep. There is another hunted deer in the psalm of the cross, Psalm twenty-two. It has a very odd title: upon Aijeleth Shahar, the hind of the morning. The old writers saw Jesus in this title, and I think they saw rightly. Because our Savior was a deer at first light (as it were), run all day by the feral hounds of hell. Verse sixteen says, “dogs have compassed me”. Indeed our Lord was hunted from Nazareth, to Judea, to Samaria, to Gethsemane, to Gabbatha, and at last, to Golgotha. At the end of the running He cried “I thirst!”, “my tongue cleaveth to my jaws” (v.15). The Hind of the Morning panted, so that our panting hearts might know the way, drink deeply, and live. Whatever else this week has in store, it holds a fountain open for sin and uncleanness at its end.

“Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37).

Your friend and pastor,

J. Lewis