Desperation, enacted

My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.
(Psalm 63:5-8)

Yesterday, during my Word reading a blinking light caught my attention in Psalm 63: "My soul clings to you." I immediately thought of the passage in Ruth that speaks of Ruth clinging to Naomi and wondered if the Hebrew verb 'cling' was the same. Pause. Continue.

I flipped to Luke, where I have been reading Jesus. I had just finished the capital-T Triumphal Entry when suddenly Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, warning of impending destruction, and then:

Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, "It is written, 'AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER,' but you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN." And He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him,and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said.
(Luke 19:45-48)

The connection was at least topically made: knowing God, and following Him, results in increasing levels of desperation for Him. King David said that his soul clung to God in that dry and weary land; those following Jesus--despite the best efforts of their religious leaders to kill Christ--were hanging on to His every word. Then, the idea: what if it is not just topically connected in my brain? What if the language of Scripture itself communicates the intersection of desperation for God and utter dependence on Jesus and His words?

Full speed. Yes, the verb used in Psalm 63 of David's soul clinging to God (דבק) is the same verb used of Ruth clinging to Naomi in Ruth 1 and the same verb used in Genesis 2:24 of the husband clinging to his wife. Not only that, but the Hebrew translation of Luke 19:48 actually uses the same verb to describe the crowd of people hanging on to every word Jesus said! These first-century AD followers were literally clinging to all of Jesus' words.

As someone who has followed Him for many years now, it can be easy for my familiarity with His words to replace desperation for His words--and for Him. But this familiarity is no excuse. My status as a human guarantees continual dependence on Him; and the language of Scripture makes clear what I instinctively know in the dry and weary times: my existence should personify a desperation satisfied by Him and Him alone.