You have not heard anything quite so disconcerting as an American bulldog breathing and panting after a vigorous run. The first time I heard our granddog Ellie after a workout in the yard, I feared she was in dire need of medical attention.
American bulldogs are brachycephalic, which means they are short snouted. Ellie was panting as God intended her to do. He specifically constructed her nose and face in just that way, so she could get a sufficient amount of oxygen.
In the same way American bulldogs were created to pant for more oxygen, God's children were created to pant after our awesome and amazing God!
Psalm 119:130-132 instructs us to open our mouths and pant, to long for God's commands and precepts.
The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
I open my mouth and pant,
longing for your commands.
Turn to me and have mercy on me,
as you always do to those who love your name.
Psalm 42:1 compares our fervor for seeking God to a parched deer panting for streams of water.
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
Then, what exactly does it mean to "pant after God"?
World English Dictionary at dictionary.com defines panting as: breathing hard and quickly after exertion; breathing with more effort than usual; convulsive breathing, as from violent exertion or excitement; a short, quick, labored effort at breathing; a gasp; to long with breathless or intense eagerness; or to yearn.
Collins English Dictionary1 adds that panting is: to have a frantic desire (for).
As I think about Ellie's convulsive, noisy breathing after her exuberant physical exertion, I must ask myself, "Can others see and hear my panting after God?"
In my quietest meditations and prayer time, "Am I intensely and breathlessly, earnestly, and frantically yearning for my LORD?"
Faith walks being with a strong desire to commune with our Creator. These Psalms incite us to search our hearts for an even more fervent yearning after our awesome God! This impassioned and breathless pursuit should be increasing as we journey onward. An ardent zeal for a close relationship with God and a burning commitment to follow His commands should be blazing within us . . . even when persecution and trials surround us.
May we emulate the psalmist at the end of Psalm 42 by placing our hope in God, and by praising Him, our Savior and our God, as we pant breathlessly in our pursuit of Him!
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of Jordan,
the heights of Hermon - from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me -
a prayer to the God of my live.
I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"
My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Psalm 42
1 pant. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th
Edition. Retrieved September 10, 2010, from Dictionary.com website:
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