Psalm 63
This is the underlying tone of some Psalms. Specifically, it is the general experience of Psalm 63
Impetuously, the psalmist enters. He jumps to the fore with vehement force: “God, you are my God, I pine for you; my heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you, like a land parched, dreary and waterless.”
It is difficult to find poetic figures who will express, in such graphic and strong terms, what the psalmist understands as a thirst for God. It almost appears that we are faced with a physiological or animal-like thirst; symbolized by those fallow lands, which in the summer time are so parched, that they break open into deep crevices like thirsty mouths begging ardently for a drop of rain.
Another Psalm, which describes the same phenomenon, uses the comparison of the deer that, after traversing steep mountains and climbing the highest peaks, descend with dizzying speed to the meadows and valleys below, consumed with thirst, in search of fresh streams of water. (Ps 42).
This thirst corresponds to a general feeling, emotional in character, full of nostalgic memories, yearning, attraction and seduction (Jr 20:7). Saint Augustine said that it is like an arrow shot towards a seductive universe. In any case, it involves an energy welling up from one’s depths, always restless and causing restlessness, perpetual inner movement, which is looking for a center of gravity where it can settle down, find its balance, and rest.
Man is a well of infinity, dug according to the measure of infinity; therefore, infinite finites will never be able to satiate it, only infinity will do.
Man is a very unique creature, who carries the image of God reflected in the depth of his waters! Moreover, due to this eternal imprint, he is inevitably, instinctively searching for the Eternal, moving backwards, swimming upstream searching for the Primordial Fountain; a pilgrim of the Absolute!
This thirst or divine sensitivity is invincible in many people; in others, strong, and in others, weak, according to the gift received. We also find people who have not received even a degree of it. Others—many— have allowed it to atrophy for lack of care and attention, or in some, it ends up being extinguished – this occurs most commonly-in the whirlwind of human misfortunes.
In a profound way, Psalm 63 is an anthropological study that provides a clear picture in which one can discover the transcendental and fundamental structure of the human heart.
This explains the following fact: certain tragic phenomena of the human soul are nothing more than the other side of a thirst for God. Humanity’s dissatisfaction; in all its magnitude and breadth, the tedium of life, the feeling of not knowing why we are here in this world; the feeling of emptiness, the general disenchantment … all are none other than the other face of the Infinite.
In the beginning, God placed a seed of His own self in the human soil: He created it to His own liking, according to His own “structure;” It was made by Him and for Him. Whenever the human heart attempts to focus itself on creatures, in whose image one is not made, one is going to feel disjointed and one’s bones are going to creak. Moreover, as Saint Augustine says, man is going to be disquieted and restless, until he affirms himself once more by resting in God.
From the book “Psalms for life”, by Fr. Ignacio Larranaga, OFM
