You Need to Drink More Water!
Perhaps you are the type of person who always carries around a bottle of water, encouraging others to drink more. Perhaps, like me, you are the recipient of such encouragements.
I was recently thinking about water as I read Psalm 42. I typically think of Psalm 42 and 43 as great psalms of hope in despair, where a thrice-used refrain declares,
“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
What struck me this time around were the water references. Psalm 42 begins with David describing his soul’s thirst for God like a deer’s thirst for streams of water (v. 1). He then speaks of his tears as his food. Tears as food? The psalm moves dramatically as David continues, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me” (v. 7). I thought about how tears, despite their abundance, stand in stark contrast to being swept over by waves. From a drop to a deluge with a soul in need of a Savior!
When tears are our food and life seems to be a constant deluge, we need to find our comfort in our union with Christ, lest we be like those in Jeremiah’s time: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (2:13).
And remember the disciples in Luke 8:24-25, who when faced with overwhelming waves declared, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” Jesus responded by rebuking the wind and the raging waters, thus calming the storm. He also asked the disciples, “Where is your faith?”
In contrast, we must remember these comforting words from Isaiah 12:1-3: “In that day you will say: 'I will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.' With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
This passage brings to mind Jesus’ wonderful interaction with the woman at the well where he offers living water which becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). And he quotes Isaiah 55 when he says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37-38).
So, if you are drinking your own tears or feeling overwhelmed by the torrents of life, remember the promise of Christ: “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:16-17).
And again, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Rev. 21:5-7).
So come, think upon and drink from the spiritual rock that is Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). Come for the first time or for the 500th time. Because, like me, you probably need to drink more Water!
