Observe the intensity of this desire. “As the deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after You.” The panting of a thirsty deer is something terrible to see; it appears to thirst all over; every pore of its body is thirsting. It is not alone that heated tongue, those snorting nostrils, those glaring eyes, but the creature in every part, in every hair thirsts and pants; and so with the believer without God! . . . Surely the psalmist chose thirst for this reason, because it is a longing not to be appeased. People have gone for days without food, but they could not during the same length of time, abstain from drink; in a long and weary march, soldiers have been able to endure much absence of food, but hundreds have died from lack of drink. It has been said that you can palliate hunger for a while, but thirst is awful; you cannot reason with it; thirst has no ears. You cannot forget it, the more thirsty one becomes, the more does the need thrust itself before you. O my God, painful as is such a spiritual thirst, yet would I desire to be always in this state when I'm not in immediate fellowship with You! I would be so thirsty as to never to find a moment’s peace, nor ease, nor comfort, except when I am near to You. “Tears have been my meat,” says David, “day and night” (Psalm 42:3). As though he could get nothing from himself by way of comfort, for his soul flowed over at his eyes in briny tears which made him even thirstier; still his cry went up at morn and midnight, “My God, my God, I must behold You; I must approach You; I must enjoy Your love. Shut me not up in this dungeon, cast me not from Your presence, take not your Holy Spirit from me; bring me to Yourself again, for I long, I groan, I faint, I die for You! O come to me and manifest Your favor.” Such is the strong desire of the text, and such let ours be.

Another characteristic of this longing is vitality. Thirst is connected with the very springs of life. We must drink or die. So the Christian comes to feel that it is not a luxury to walk with God—a luxury with which he or she may perhaps dispense, but it is an absolute necessity for the spirit. Consider, my brothers and sisters, what danger we are in when we live at a distance from God; what danger of backsliding further and further; what danger of being tempted to gross sin. Consider how we are grieving the Holy Spirit; consider what comforts and mercies we are losing; consider what dishonor we are likely to bring upon the holy name we profess; consider how unkind we are to the Husband of our souls, to that dear heavenly Lover who did not spare His heart’s blood that He might buy us for Himself, that He might have all our heart’s love. Consider all this and we shall make it a vital point to return to our God. It will not seem to us as though it might be or might not be, but we shall that it must be! We cannot be content without the light of Jehovah’s countenance. O God, as the deer must die without water, so must my soul die without a sense of your love again restored to me!

The feminine form of “hart” is “hind.” Consider, also, then, the following promises:

“God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet: and setteth me upon my high places” (2 Samuel 22:33, 34).

“The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places” (Habakkuk 3:19).

“Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:4–6).