A while back I was listening to one of my favorite songs – As the Deer. While the melody is certainly beautiful the words are truly transformational. Please travel with me on a deep dive into this Christian classic that I pray will encourage you on your journey with the Lord. Below are the words followed by my analysis:
As the Deer
Verse 1
As the deer panteth for the water
So, my soul longeth after Thee
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship Thee
Verse 2
You’re my friend
And You are my brother
Even though You are a king
I love You more than any other
So much more than anything
Verse 3
I want You more than gold or silver
Only You can satisfy
You alone are the real joy giver
And the apple of my eye
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship Thee
My Analysis
Verse 1
As the deer panteth for the water
Picture a deer thirsty for water. It pants with a great desire to satisfy its thirst. Only water can satisfy its thirst – nothing else.
So, my soul longeth after Thee
Now what about us? Our souls can only be satisfied by one thing and that is the Lord. Blaise Pascal said over 350 years ago that every man is born with a spiritual vacuum that only Jesus Christ can fill. (Mark 8:36) says: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Money, fame, sex, and food can never satisfy our deepest yearnings of the soul because we were not created that way. We were created in the image of God and only when we meet our image bearer at the soul level can our deepest longings be met.
You alone are my heart’s desire
The deepest desire of the human heart is to have fellowship with its Creator. Adam and Eve were created to have fellowship with God and so were we. The Bible says that all of us have a heart of stone and we need Holy Ghost surgery to take out our heart of stone and give us a new heart of flesh. And with this new heart we can now worship God in the way that we were originally designed to worship Him.
And I long to worship Thee
With our new hearts we are now free to do what we were created to do and that is to worship Jesus. And there can be nothing more joyful than to worship our Creator.