As the Hart Panteth

The Flame

This psalm names genuine, physical longing, panteth, the image of a deer genuinely desperate for water, not casual interest but urgent, bodily need, applied directly to the soul’s own longing for God, worth holding as the actual quality of desire this whole book’s exploration of first love has been describing.

This is worth examining against however much your own pursuit of God has settled into casual, unhurried interest rather than this psalm’s own described urgency, panting, genuine desperation, the kind of longing that cannot be satisfied by anything less than the actual water brooks themselves.

Notice this psalm was likely written during genuine difficulty, its surrounding verses describing real distress and questioning, suggesting this panting longing was not produced by easy, comfortable circumstances, but persisted, genuinely, even through actual hardship, worth trusting as available regardless of your own current circumstances.

Consider today what genuine panting after God, rather than merely casual interest, might actually look like in your own life, urgent enough to actually reorder priorities, the way a genuinely thirsty deer reorders every other concern around the single, urgent need for water, applied to your own soul’s actual longing for him.