Is the psalmist naïve? Is he completely ignorant of suffering in the world? I think not.

Is the psalmist naïve? Is he completely ignorant of suffering in the world? I think not.
To thirst for God, to seek after His teachings and long for His presence, is to adopt the posture of the psalmist in Psalm 119.
Like Job and like David in this psalm, I pray because I seek counsel with God himself, not because, like brushing my teeth, prayer is good for me.
This psalm is about how God protects us on earth. There is nowhere outside of God’s domain, which is a comfort when you find yourself in the desert. Even when we sleep, God keeps watch.
The beauty of this psalm is the promise we find within it, once we no longer see the psalmist’s words as a list of boxes to check and gold stars to earn.
The thirst here is for nothing in a jug, for something a whole lot more than lemonade. The thirst here is for living water in the parched soul of someone who’s wandering in a desert where there’s nothing more than hot sand.