Wednesday, July 15, 2026

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (Psalm 42: 1 -2, New Revised Standard Version)

               Hydration break. If you have been watching the World Cup, you will be familiar with this phrase. Around the half-way point in the game of each half or overtime if there is one, play is stopped for a players' hydration break because of the high heat and humidity. It is more than just a water break as the players drink enhanced liquids like Gatorade for the electrolytes. My crack research team, i.e. Google, found out what an electrolyte is and does. “Electrolytes are minerals in your body that carry an electrical charge and are essential for nerve function, muscle contraction, hydration, and maintaining fluid and pH balance.”  Apparently, they help a player recover more quickly and keep on going.

                They tracked one player in yesterday’s game between France and Spain. He ran almost 13 kilometers. That is about 8 miles for us old fogeys. I wouldn’t need electrolytes, I’d need an ambulance if I was out in that heat even for a few feet, never mind for 90 minutes. It brings to mind the Apostle Paul’s words, “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:14)

                David wrote Psalm 42 in the depths of discouragement. “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?” It doesn’t really tell us why he is so down in the dumps. There are fleeting references to his enemies but overall, one gets the impression that he really doesn’t know the reasons for his angst. One gets the impression of David, slouched on his throne, just feeling out-of-sorts, grumpy, edgy, irritable, unhappy. Well, maybe I am describing myself when I get discouraged. You can make your own self-identifying conclusions. But discouragement can be a real tough mood to deal with. It eats away at your spirit. It erodes your self-confidence. It saps your energy. One needs spiritual electrolytes.

                Moreover, David’s discouragement has him feeling distant from God. “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief…” (v.9) He wants to put his hope in God (v.5) but it is a challenge. It is as if he is almost trying to talk himself into having more faith. But he is not really convincing himself either at the same time. He longs for the good old days, when life was full of joy, praise, thanksgiving. But now he is dealing with disappointment. “My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be” (v.4) Life is dragging on. Life is complicated. God doesn’t appear to be at home, right now. Discouragement defines who he has become in the moment. There are no answers. He is a conflicted picture of sadness and hope.

“Why am I discouraged?
  Why is my heart so sad?
  I will put my hope in God!
  I will praise him again - my Savior and my God!” (vs.11)

                David needs a spiritual hydration break, some spiritual electrolytes. “I want to drink God, deep drafts of God. I’m thirsty for God-alive.” (v, 2, The Message Bible) He longs for spiritual renewal. He desires spiritual refreshment. He, at least, understands that he, on his own, cannot find freedom from his discouragement without God’s help and intervention. Neither does he simply give up and give in to his discouragement. He struggles to find the words of faith, hope, trust and to turn to God as the living source of his salvation from his discouragement. Way, deep down in his soul, he is confident that there is a way out, a way forward. “I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again - my Savior and my God!” (v.5) He is ready to press on, hold on, keep on, as long as God is with him. No, he is not out of the desert just yet as he composed this Psalm, but he expresses his deep thirst for the spiritual electrolytes which will give him strength, fortitude, endurance and stamina.

                This Psalm reminds us of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John’s Gospel.  She has been living a tough, rugged lifestyle, coming out in the hot noon-day sun to collect some water for her dull and routine daily chores. But Jesus offers her more than just a hydration break under the hot sun. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10) It has never dawned on her that there may be or could be something more than how she was living. “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” (v.11) Like David, she sees the world as empty. But Jesus offers her hope, salvation, renewal, regeneration, revitalization, “but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” And like the deer that is thirsting for flowing rivers, like David who lives in hope, the woman reaches out to Jesus for her salvation. “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” (v.15)

                We all feel discouraged from time to time. Others live in depression. There are no easy or immediate solutions to either. But we have hope and possibility for recovery when we put our trust in God through Jesus Christ. Allow God to draw deeply from his well of gracious Love and Grace. We all could use a sacred, hydration break.

 

Prayer,

Our Living God, there are times in our lives that we don’t know or understand what is happening to us or why. We fight our feelings and feel discouragement or futility. Help us to open our livers, especially in those times, to you. Help us to seek refreshment and renewal from the wells of your Love and Grace. Help us to take the cup of Living Water from Jesus’ hands and know that we have been given New Life in him, in whose name we pray, Amen.