1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, 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?
Dear heavenly Father, when weariness begins to outlast grace, and heaviness feels more daily than hope, and things we thought would change for the better continue a downward spiral… where can we go but to you? Father, we crave your heart-renewing, perspective-giving, thirst-satisfying presence. More than anything else, we need an artesian spring of your living water to well up in the desert of our discouragement.
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
Whether it’s the devil, the culture, or our own unbelief, we’re tired of the chorus that keeps calling your faithfulness, goodness, and might into question. Father, that you love us in Jesus, and that you are in control of all things is our theology and profession; make it our doxology and possession—even if some things don’t change till heaven.
4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
Memories of days when we felt your thick enlivening presence in our midst, and your liberating heart and hand upon us—those memories sometime mock us, but more often woo us. Father, we long to be restored to the joy of our salvation—to our first-love relationship with Jesus. We want this more than we want circumstances to change, life to be easy, and all of our burdens lifted.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
Father, you know all the details of our broken stories and aching hearts; what we know is that you are good, that you can be trusted, and that hope is the order of this day. Because the gospel is true, hope is always the order of any day. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ strong and loving name.