Desire For His Presence

Chapter Two

Desire For His presence


Psalms 84: 2. “My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cries out for the living God.”

When one goes without food for too long, a degree of weakness usually sets in. This is the beginning of meaning the Psalmists suggest in “longing” for the Master’s table. They use “kacaph” to portray one growing “pale”. They portray one that “pines after” His table, even to a deep desire. They just seem to never get enough of the goodness of His presence.

Whether it’s a perceived lack of food from the Master’s table, or just a seemingly insatiable desire for the “meat” of His Word, the necessary progression flows to the next level. The Psalmists now say, “yea, even fainteth”. They use “kalah” to convey the severity or urgency of the matter. If they can’t feed on His goodness, everything will come to an end. They will cease to exist. Even with proper preparation, they are incomplete and consumed within their spirit.

This is the gravity under which the Psalmists desire the presence of their Lord. Yet, there is only a hint of doom in the meaning they lay before us. They say their “heart and flesh cry out…” Here, the Psalmists use “ranan”. Even though the prime root word has a slightly negative connotation in “to creak in a harsh or shrill sound”, it carries a significant message of faith, hope, and triumphant praise, especially in a meaning very close to my heart. It means “to sing or cause to sing aloud”. No matter the depth of despair, many times a mere song can lift the human spirit—precious communion with their Lord, within the protective confines of “His courts”.

In closing this part, I am reminded of a popular song, “As The Deer”. I leave the reader with words from the same Psalmists, in the 42nd, that inspired that beautiful tune.

1.“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.

2.My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

3.My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, where is your God?

4.When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

5.Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

6.O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, and from the heights of Hermon, from the Hill Mizar.

7.Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all your waves and billows have gone over me.

8.The Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me—a prayer to the God of my life.”

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