Lenten Devotional: February 25, 2023

by Kendra Aumack, Pastors Administrative Assistant & Special Projects Coordinator

I love the imagery in this Psalm. A deer rooting in the woods for an opening in the stream. Searching, craving, longing for a sip of the cool refreshing water. The panting breath, the shouts of joy, the roar of waterfalls, the crashing of waves, all of these images bring real the desire, the need, and sometimes the desperation that resides deep in my soul. The need for God rings deep, both when I’m King of my World or when I'm down in the dumps. Deep calls to deep and God’s Spirit washes over me.

Today, read the passage and reflect on the voice deep in your soul as you humbly seek God.

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food

day and night,

while people say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember

as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go to the house of God

under the protection of the Mighty One

with shouts of joy and praise

among the festive throng.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

6 My soul is downcast within me;

therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan,

the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep

in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

have swept over me.

8 By day the Lord directs his love,

at night his song is with me—

a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?”

10 My bones suffer mortal agony

as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long,