reflections on Psalm 63 from evening prayer

Ever been hungry?
not just the ‘I skipped lunch’ kind of hungry,
but really hungry
hungry to the point that you can think of nothing but food

the psalmist yearns, hungers, thirsts for God like that
the way, perhaps, that we all do at one time or another

we search, we seek, we hunger for
the one who we know,
the one who we have known at one time or another
the one who knows us, but who we turn away from

we have partaken of this feast
well-aged wines, food filled with marrow
as Isaiah says
a rich feast that fills us up, satisfies us
this psalmist has written

but this feast can be elusive
not because the table isn’t set
but because we get up,
thinking we have better things to do


it’s a strange kind of searching
since we know for whom we search
and since we know that our God, for whom we search
walks alongside us on our baptismal journey
it’s a strange kind of searching,
because even though God is so close
we still hunger
and turning away, we are continually compelled to turn back
because we hunger so desperately


yet we know that God, who does not abandon us, is there,
waiting for that time when our hunger is so consuming
that we are occupied by nothing else

it is into this hunger that God steps
with the promises of grace and mercy and new life.

amen.