O God, You are my God; early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Psalm 63:1-2 (NKJV)

The psalmist David is going through yet another rough time that seemed to be his lot in life. After being driven from his throne by his own son Absalom, he finds himself far away from the sanctuary of God in the wilderness of Judea. It is a place where none of us should ever want to be. It was a dry place because of a severe lack of water. Where there is no water, there is no life. David did not miss his family, friends, or his own palace. What David missed most was the House of God. It was his sanctuary and his place of prayer, worship, and sacrifice. It was the place where at the dawning of each new day he met face to face with God.

Any place that is void of the presence of Almighty God can immediately be considered a “dry place.” David realized the desolation of his experience. He describes his location as a “dry and thirsty land.” In other versions of scripture it is characterized as a “dry and weary land.” There are several ways to find oneself in this same predicament. David was forced there by an act of rebellion at the hands of his own son. Then there are times that we can wander there through a lack of prayer and fellowship with God. At other times we are secretly seduced and tempted by the enemy himself to wander away from the sanctuary and before we know it we are at that place null and void of God’s presence in our life. We really don’t want to go there.

David describes his longing for God as an unquenchable “thirst”, that only God’s presence could satisfy. David’s spiritual dilemma began to manifest far beyond a mental, emotional, or volitional craving. He began to have physical symptoms that left his body weak and drained. The only questions to be raised towards any believer who is found in a dry place is, “are you thirsty for God?” Do you long for His presence? Are you almost at a point that you have to have the presence of God in your life or you feel that you will die? To sense anything less than a hunger and thirst for God’s presence could perhaps be symptomatic of being in that dry place too long, or not knowing how to gain your release. David found his deliverance in the sanctuary. It was his place of rest and refuge from the wrath of is enemies.

If we were driven into exile, what would we miss the most? Would it be our home, our car, or comforts? Or would we miss most the house of God and perhaps even more importantly the God of the house? The sentiments of David in the text would resemble the latter. He looked for God’s power and glory in the sanctuary. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul for you Oh God. My soul pants for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm 42:1-2 (NKJV)