Psalm 42:1-2 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
In his flights from Saul and his enemies, David felt alone and separated from God. In the desert he was empty and dry. He was cut off from the Tabernacle of God’s Presence on earth. He desperately wanted to be there where God was. His soul (mind, will, and emotions) was panting and thirsting for God, the living God, to be in the presence of God.
In our own lives, while wandering through the desert of this world, we also pant for living water and thirst for God. We desperately want to come to the temple where God dwells on earth, which is our body, and have the emptiness filled and the dryness refreshed. St, Augustine said that in the soul of every man is a God-shaped vacuum that can only be filled by God, The Holy Spirit through the gospel fills that vacuum and quenches the thirst. But in our wanderings we leak, so we go to church weekly and come before the Lord daily. He, and nothing and no one else, fills and refills the emptiness within. We no longer pant, for the living God is here.