Psalm 42:1-3 - Longing For God

Psalm 42:1-3 Longing For God

1As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
3My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
"Where is your God?"

What is the nature of God? – I have been fascinated by the work on one John Dominic Crossan. Crossan is the author of several books on historical perspectives of Jesus and the people of that part of the world in the first century. I have several of them, including The Birth of Christianity and Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography. As a member of the controversial Jesus Seminar group, he has certainly caused a lot of stir among ecclesiastical circles and readers of all types. Some love him, some seem to hate him, and some are confused enough to want to read more. I have even attended a weekend seminar of his, and have listened to tapes of that seminar several times. One of his most interesting themes which he seems able to back up with a reasonable high degree of scholarship is the idea of a Covenental Kingdom (Jesus) and a Commercial Kingdom (Caesar), provoking questions about how that plays out in our centuries.
At one point in the seminar, Crossan gets down to an almost whispering reverent style of speaking as he talks of the difference between believing in the nature of God as a Creator God, believing in God as a Killer God. He asks the question, “What is the nature of your God?” and depending upon that answer, how do you act that out?.
Crossan sees Jesus sending out, not disciples or students, the original twelve, but all people, as God’s companions, who would be God’s companions in establishing a Covenental Kingdom on this earth. He also says there are two motifs running through the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments: God as a Killer or Destroyer/Punisher God, to reach Justice, or God as a Creator/come to the Banquet/ Graceful God. Crossan says he is glad Revelations is in the Bible because it puts the nature of our own violence in front of us. He speaks several times of one scene in Revelations in which the justice of god results in blood being bridle-high for 200 miles. He also speaks of some examples of non-violent resistance the early Christian church acted out in Rome, and of the shop-churches formed to band together and collect alms to bank for widows, orphans and single women without means, to keep them from having to become prostitutes in those days.
Crossan provokes me into really thinking, what IS the nature of my God? This Psalm reminds me that all over the earth, most of us thirst for a living God who will offer us the cool, quenching waters of Grace, Forgiveness, Salvation, and Peace on Earth. The Psalmist says, My tears have been my food, day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
At one point Crossan admits to being a Christian and a believer, but he defines this as believing that justice makes the world work properly because God is a god of justice. He says all of creation is God’s creation, and so it is a just creation, and will only work as a just creation. Food, better than tears, for thought. May it be so. -RSP