Psalm Reflection: The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

“My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.” - Psalms 63

We all want something. We all have desires, aspirations, hopes, goals and ambitions. We all recognize that there is a desire in us for something that we do not yet have, and our entire lives are essentially a search for something to fulfill that desire. In other words, we were made for Heaven, and our hearts will desire Heaven until we get there. 

“The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (CCC 27).

We can spend our entire lives settling for earthly alternatives, none of which will ever truly satisfy us, or we can pursue the Lord and become completely satisfied in Him. Easier said than done. 

It is not easy to choose the Lord every day. The world offers us an abundance of cheap alternatives and pleasures that seem appealing, but, in the long run, they do not last and they make us feel even more empty. Unfortunately, that does not prevent us from settling for them anyway.

Imagine waking up stranded in the jungle and you find yourself lost and in need of water. You see water and you ravenously crawl toward it quench your thirst, but you suddenly hear a voice say, “no, do not drink that water!”

“But I am so thirsty!” you say.

The voice answers, “this water will not help you, you need to hike inland for three miles, and I will lead you to water.”

Do you listen, or do you drink the water near you? This is the decision we face every single day: do I say no to the easy things right in front of me and do the hard thing I do not completely understand, or do I settle?

What you do not realize is that the water nearest you is salt water. Like the earthly pleasures of life, it only quenches our thirst temporarily and has detrimental long-term effects. God is always intervening to lead us to fresh water, even if it is more difficult, because he knows the salt water is not good for us.

When a person drinks salt water, the salt is absorbed into their blood stream. Our kidneys can only make waste that is less salty than the salt water. So, to get rid of all the excess salt in a person’s bloodstream, their kidneys would need even more water to filter their blood. As a result, they would die of dehydration as they become thirstier and thirstier. 

That is the spiritual reality of life. We have a thirst in us that nothing on this earth can satisfy. We can listen to God’s voice, and He can lead us to a life of fulfillment, or we can settle for cheap alternatives of pleasure and happiness in the fleeting experiences of the world. Those experiences do not last, and we will inevitably find ourselves in need of more and more of them to keep us satisfied. We end up spiritually dehydrated, completely destitute and depressed, because these things cannot ultimately satisfy our desires.

Where do you see yourself in this? 

Are you drinking the salt water?

Are you listening to the voice?

Are you look for the fresh water, or does it seem too hard of a journey, and you find yourself giving up or turning back?

Sin is like salt water; it all eventually leads to death (Romans 6:23). Sin will never satisfy the deep thirst that lives in us. So do not settle for anything less than what God created you for.

“If you knew the gift of God… you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” - John 4:10

God has infinite freshwater for your soul, and He is waiting for you, but we need to be obedient and persevere on the journey. It may not make sense, we may not understand, but we are called to trust the path He has placed us on and keep moving forward.

Keep pursuing the good, even when it seems difficult or foolish.

Don’t be salty.

I am praying for you, please pray for me, and I will see you in the Eucharist.

Matt

This reflection is based on the Responsorial Psalm for this Sunday, August 30th, 2026, The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Psalms 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9.