Psalms 143:5-6. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
One of the things which God’s people are in the habit of doing, when they are in deep trouble, is to look back upon their past experience. You may have seen the bargemen on the canal push backwards that they may propel the barge forwards; and, sometimes, we who believe in Jesus Christ have to push backwards, - to look back on our past experience in order to derive fresh courage for the present hour of trial. So the psalmist says, "I remember the days of old, I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands." Yet in David’s day of distress, when he had meditated upon his experiences in the past, that did not satisfy him. He wanted his God, therefore he cried unto the Lord, "I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land." When the fields have been long dry, because there has been no rain, you see how the earth opens its mouth in great cracks as if it gaped for the rain it so sorely needs, and David’s soul seemed thus gaping with a strong desire after the living God: "My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land."
Psalms 143:5-6. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
One of the things which God’s people are in the habit of doing, when they are in deep trouble, is to look back upon their past experience. You may have seen the bargemen on the canal push backwards that they may propel the barge forwards; and, sometimes, we who believe in Jesus Christ have to push backwards, - to look back on our past experience in order to derive fresh courage for the present hour of trial. So the psalmist says, "I remember the days of old, I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands." Yet in David’s day of distress, when he had meditated upon his experiences in the past, that did not satisfy him. He wanted his God, therefore he cried unto the Lord, "I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land." When the fields have been long dry, because there has been no rain, you see how the earth opens its mouth in great cracks as if it gaped for the rain it so sorely needs, and David’s soul seemed thus gaping with a strong desire after the living God: "My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land."