Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 42 ERV, Ch. 43 NKJV, Ch. 44 CEV

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Thoughts

Many years ago, I was an apprentice carpenter. The first job I ever had in this field was building condominiums in Palm Desert, California. Palm Desert is next door to Palm Springs. So yes, it’s in the Southern California desert. And yes, the job was in the summer. I looked up the temperatures in July and August 1978, the year I had this job. Most every day the temperature reached 110 degrees. We would begin our day’s work at 5 a.m., if memory serves, when the temperature was only about 85, but once the sun came up, the mercury would quickly rise.

Verses 1 and 2 in the NLT more accurately captures David’s meaning than our translation today, the ERV. It says, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God.”

Whenever I read these verses, I think of my time in Palm Desert. I know what it’s like to long for fresh, cold water. 

I have also had times in my life where I felt, spiritually, that I was in a desert, separated from God. To be sure, when I feel apart from God, it’s my fault, because God doesn’t change. If someone has drifted away, it’s me that does the drifting. But God is faithful. He lets me do what I do. And as a good Father, He lets me feel the consequences of my wandering ways. And without fail, I begin to thirst, I begin to long for His presence again. 

I’ll be honest. I currently have loved ones who have wandered away from God. And my fervent prayers to God for them is that they would experience this same longing for Him that David wrote about, and that I myself have experienced. A deer is driven by thirst to that cool stream of water. My prayer is that my loved ones will be driven to the refreshing arms of a loving God.