Part of my assignment on my mission trip is to compose a devotional on Psalm 63, “Our One Greatest Need” to be shared on one of our trips to a nearby village. I thought I’d share it here now, and I’ll share much more about the trip when I’m home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Psalm 63:1-5 says:

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you
my body longs for you
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

David says specifically “My soul thirsts for you.”  Water is one of the most important needs we have, along with food and shelter.  At some point, each of us experiences thirst.  What makes us thirsty?  A long walk, hot sun, hard work, salty food, or even just waking up in the morning.

We are made to need water.  Our bodies are about 70% water.  Our very blood is 90% water.  If we don’t have enough water to drink each day, we become dehydrated.  We can feel weak, confused, tired, unable to do our work. When we go too long without water we can even faint or die.  So how do we make sure that doesn’t happen?  Our bodies are made to tell us, so when we need more water, we get thirsty.

When we feel that dry, thirsty feeling in our throat, we need to drink some water.  Would we feel thirsty and go fill a cup with water from the ocean?  It’s too salty and would just make us sick instead.  Would we eat more food?  There’s not enough water in the food and it can even make us choke because it’s too hard to swallow when we are thirsty.  Would we drink a soda?  Maybe, because it is a liquid and easy to swallow, but it is sweet, and sweet things make us thirsty again very soon.  The way to truly satisfy our thirst is to drink clean, clear water.  And we must drink that water regularly so we stay healthy and our bodies work like they are supposed to.

God created our physical bodies to need water.  But He didn’t just create our bodies, He also created our hearts and our spirits.  And like our bodies need water, our spirit needs God.  One day, Jesus met a woman at the village well.  It was the middle of the day, and the village women would come to the well very early to get their water so they could take it home to care for their families and their animals.  A woman who came to the well in the hot middle of the day was trying to avoid seeing anyone else.  She might be embarrassed about the way she lived and didn’t want to hear anyone talking about the bad choices that she made.  She was surprised to see Jesus there because getting water was women’s work and men didn’t usually come to the well. 

He asked her if she would give him a drink of water.  She was very surprised, because not only was a man at the well, but he was a man from another town, and people from those two towns did not speak to one another.  Jesus told her if she only know she was talking to God himself, she would ask for living water that would satisfy her soul more than any drinking water could satisfy her  thirst.  She didn’t understand, she thought he would give her some kind of special water so she wouldn’t have to come to the well any more.  When Jesus told her to go get her husband and come back, she said she didn’t have a husband.  Jesus  told her that even though they had never met, he knew that she had had five husbands, and was now living with a man she wasn’t married to.  She was so surprised that he knew about her life!  Her soul had been thirsty for someone to love her, and instead of looking to God, she had one bad relationship after another.  She was so excited to learn who Jesus was and how he could help her that she ran to the village right away to tell everyone what had happened to her.  She even forgot to take her water jar with her!

God wants us to draw close to Him, to talk to Him in prayer and praise Him for His goodness and His love for us.  He loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus to die for our sins so that we can live good, clean lives and go to live with Him in Heaven when we die.  There are so many things in the world that we can turn to hoping it will satisfy the longing of our hearts, like money or relationships, but when we go to those things instead of God, we end up empty and lonely.  Our souls are still thirsty.  He wants us to understand that we are thirsty for His love and His word, and only those things will truly satisfy us.

Back in Psalm 63, verses 6-8 say:

On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

God wants to be our help.  Like a mother bird, He spreads his wings over us and keeps us safe.  He promises in Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”  Let’s seek him that way, with ALL of our heart, and let’s stop looking for the things of this world to satisfy a thirst that only God’s love can quench.