Psalm 42

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
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? vv.1-2

Read chapter 42
I love the old hymn to these verses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bJGFX5O6Ns 

Psalm 42 starts the second book of the psalms (there are five books).  It starts off with a lament, crying out for the need of God.  As the deer pants for water, especially at the sight or smell of water but cannot reach it, so is how our souls pant for God.  We all need water to live and when we are without it we get parched, even longer without it we get delirious, too long without water we die.  There's not a soul doesn't need water, yet many go around parched trying to quench their thirst by what does not satisfy.  The psalm is longing for God to be in their pressence, to be ruling over the world, not being able to stand the waiting any longer for the promises and hope of God's Kingdom.  Charles Spurgeon puts it, "It is the cry of a man far removed from the outward ordinances and worship of God, sighing for the long loved house of his God; and at the same time it is the voice of a spiritual believer, under depressions, longing for the renewal of the divine presence, struggling with doubts and fears, but yet holding his ground by faith in the living God." Does your soul long for God as an animal thirsts?  If you do or have, you know its sweet bitterness.  What is your soul panting for?