Hunger, Thirst and Psalm 1

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matt 5:6 NIV).

Hunger and thirst are both present, active, participles in Greek, signifying continuous action. I do not know a better way to start 2021 then by hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

This is a deep longing like when you are famished and in need of food or “dying of thirst” so to speak. This righteousness is one that can only be filled or satisfied (ESV) by God. The righteousness that Jesus is speaking of here isn’t forensic, imputed righteousness, our right standing before God we receive at the time of salvation. The righteousness that Jesus is speaking about here is practical in that we are to want to do what God says is right and see what God says is right done on earth as it is in Heaven.

In light of Jesus’s call to upright living and correct conduct, I cannot help but to think of Psalm 1 which says:

1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish (ESV).

In Psalm 1 the blessed person does NOT walk, stand nor sit with the wicked, sinners or scoffers. The blessed person is the one who delights and meditates on God’s law, applying what He says.

As God continuously knows (qal, participle) the way of the righteous believer in Psalm 1, so too does He know the heart and conduct of the believer that is continuously and longingly hungering and thirsting for righteousness. The person whose conduct delights in meditating on the Word, seeking His will and righteousness to be done on the earth is the one who will be filled and satisfied both now and in eternity.

May this New Year be one where we hunger and thirst to know God and His righteousness more than ever before!

Father God, thank You that You Word is alive and practical! Thank You that when we famished in our hunger and thirst for You and Your righteousness that You will fill us. Lord God, stir this reader to want to know You more! Lord God, when we meditate on You and Your attributes, we decrease thinking about ourselves. Lord God, forgive us for all the ways that we fall short and bring shame to Your Name rather than glory, honor and praise. Lord God, thank You that You will one day hold all false prophets and false teachers accountable for the way they confuse and mislead people. Lord God, draw us closer to You today. In Jesus’s Name I pray. Amen.

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Blue Collar Theologian

My name is Mandy Sweigart-Quinn, I live in Lancaster, PA and I am a “Blue Collar Theologian.” I love Jesus! I am passionate about His Word (The Holy Bible)! I come alive when I can encourage others in their walk with Jesus (whether by writing or speaking). As a “Blue Collar Theologian” it is my aim to live/practice/work out my Christian hope with sincerity, authenticity and genuineness. As a “Blue Collar Theologian,” I strive to meet people right where they are (“Incarnational Theology”). I graduated in May 2019 from Capital Seminary and Graduate School with a Master's in Biblical Studies. I am a passionate, excited and enthusiastic person! I love flowers, sports and sunsets. Since January 2, 2018 I have had the privilege of being married to Nathan.

95 thoughts on “Hunger, Thirst and Psalm 1”

  1. May our thirst and hunger always be for Him, may our prayers be for our friends and family who don’t know God…that they may be filled with a hunger/thirst for Him. Amen.
    Bless you Mandy for this timely reminder of true priorites.

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    1. Alan, thank you for your encouragement! After I hit the publish button I started freaking out that maybe I was doing too much with this post. I can get so excited to write and share that sometimes what makes sense to me may not translate well to you, the reader. So, thank you again very much for your time and encouragement!! Love and blessings to you and Susan.

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  2. You are right, Mandy! We will humbly and persistently seek GOD, His way, and live a sanctified life. We must also know Him more through His Word and His will for us. See later today. Blessings to you, Nathan and your parents!

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  4. Adding to Alan Kearns’ comment, I think this passage is to be applied (a) individually for each Christian’s own present hungering/thirsting in pursuit of righteousness, (b) corporately towards the Great Commission, and (c) eschatologically for the future vindication of the righteous (cf. Rev 6:9-11). Credit must be given to Charles H. Talbert’s Reading the Sermon on the Mount: Character Formation and Decision Making in Matthew 5–7 (p 52) for (c).

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    2. I will admit, I was torn between writing this as I did or writing a separate post for each. I very much had the eschaton in mind; however, in all three points that you raise I am not sure how well I conveyed these in my writing. I think that if one is really hungering and thirsting they cannot help but to display that in their personal conduct, seeking God’s righteousness and will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven, knowing that the reward for the righteous is eternity with their Triune God. As I said to Annie, I really see this as a dance. The more that we hunger and thirst, the more God satisfies us and the more God satisfies the more we hunger and thirst. Thank you again for this!

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      1. IMO, a certain amount of ambiguity is OK in a post. That way you can see if a reader draws a particular aspect out, and, if not, it can be used for a subsequent post.

        In any case, one can certainly construe an eschatological implication from this:

        The righteousness that Jesus is speaking about here is practical in that we are to want to do what God says is right and see what God says is right done on earth as it is in Heaven.

        Frankly, from my perspective, I’d only initially considered personal character formation in Matthew 5:6, and it wasn’t until Alan’s comment that I could see the Great Commission also implied, and then Talbert’s insights helped me see the eschatological. I’d always assumed “…shall/will be filled” was merely for one’s life on earth.

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      2. Craig, you are a wonderful man of God, thank you! I appreciate what you are saying about ambiguity! You wrote asking for feedback about posts and you have given far more than what you have received from me, thank you! Thank you for taking the time to read this! I am also glad this comment section exists where we can sharpen each other! Blessings, brother!

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  5. Interesting, Mandy. Hunger and thirst are thought of as negative, but it feels so good when these desires are satisfied! The “thirst” may be constant, but if we are the person described in Psalm 1, – like a tree planted by a stream – we will always have a source of water, even when everything around us is dry, as long as our roots in Him are deep. 😉

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    1. It’s like a dance the more we hunger and thirst the more He satisfies and the more He satisfies the more we hunger and thirst for Him and His Righteousness. Great comment! Thank you, Annie for taking the time to read and share your thoughts!!

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  7. Now that is a great word. What good news for those of us who are disciples of Jesus.

    Love this: “The blessed person is the one who delights and meditates on God’s law, applying what He says.”

    May we do so every day.

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  10. Totally agree Mandy. My verse for this year is “He must increase, I must decrease”.
    Thank you for this encouraging post. I also like what you said about false prophets in your prayer .
    💕

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  13. Mandy, thank you for this encouraging post and prayer! Jesus presents hungering and thirsting for righteousness as the goal/expectation, and Psalm 1 complements. How do we get there? How do we move from indifference and lukewarmness to zeal fore the Lord? This is a heart issue. We will hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness in proportion to how much we love Him. I have spent much of my Christian walk NOT hungering and thirsting for God’s righteousness because my love for Him had grown cold. Praise God for His patience and mercy!

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    1. Well said, Papa Tom! This is a heart issue for sure! I join you in praising God for His patience and mercy. I admit, I am one of the least patient and most easily frustrated people on the planet. I am thankful for His correction and that He doesn’t give up on us!

      Praying for God to prepare you for Monday and Monday for you! I can’t wait to hear about it!

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      1. Thanks, Mandy! After I returned to the Lord in 2014, I immediately heard much preaching on God’s grace, a joyous contrast to the legalism I had left. Serving and obeying God out of a joyful and grateful heart rather than guilt.

        Thank you for your prayers! I’m excited about my “second career.”

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  14. Before I respond to your comment on my post: Let’s pray for our country! Craziness I’m sure you are hearing about right now.
    I hate to get rid of books without giving them away to someone that can read it. Besides giving them away to church members I also donate it to the local library. If the book has a Gospel focus and is simple I think its worth using it evangelistically and I find local “little libraries” around my neighborhood to put them there: https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/
    Are there little libraries in your area?

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  15. I’ve been so taxed with talking to people Wednesday with everything that happened nationally…your post makes me realize its my heartbeat: I want more of God and His righteousness

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  16. This language is really powerful if you really take it to heart. Hungering and thirsting after something is sort of primal almost, like a desperate need to find what you are looking for, a “I will not be denied” attitude.

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    1. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Ps 42:1 ESV) and “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps 63:1–this is one of my favorites!). You are right Josh about this being primal. Thank you for your comment!!!

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  17. It’s funny how many times I’ve heard those verses, but they’ve never quite sunk in for me. If you hear something all the time, you almost forget the power of the words. God gave us the Bible for a reason, and we can’t ever let ourselves become desensitized to its great truths.

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  20. Youth group went well! One of the boys shared how other kids in his school talk with hostility about Jesus and Christianity and politics. Its important we ground our kids with the Gospel and Christian worldview. The last 48 hours with Big Tech censorship is crazy…I too wonder how long we have…

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      2. During the election I know many conservatives had their views go down and I checked and I saw that too if you tag things political. Fb did stop my page once because I had a Bible contradiction answer that the skeptics ask will there be many Jews and I think FB program assume it was an antiseptic post but that’s understandable. The thing that annoys me more is Twitter where I report antifa account and they don’t remove them. Only once did they remove someone I reported and that was because the guy said he wanted to hurt police dogs. It’s the dog that did it I think for Twitter deciding to block…

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      8. The last 48 hours we see big tech really moving. It’s like after the election and for sure Trump is not president they are going to respond strongly to protect their hegemony so it’s the big four on top (Google, Fb, Amazon and Apple)

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    1. With Trump being impeached again, this will be interesting. Kent and I are going to Skype or Friday we would love for you to join us. I don’t know if you like talking with people at that hour. I don’t know if Nancy is awake then as well. Anytime that works for you will work for Kent and I. Thought it may be quicker/easier to ask you here than email JOKING! Don’t chain yourself to email total joke, context is hard to read on here!!!!!

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      7. 2 AM actually sounds best and I think sticking with it is good but I think I’m still 50/50 not because I don’t want to but today I’ll be helping people with various things and also going out and about doing social distancing delivery of Communion elements for our future communion service and that always have a way of knocking me out and also pushing my post prep lol. I’ll try to make it tonight but no promises is that ok?

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      8. Personally, I would prefer to wait until you’re more sure only because I am setting my alarm to wake up extra early so I can make Nathan’s lunch and stuff since we would be talking when he is getting ready to leave for work. Normally Kent and I Skype at 9pm his time, 8am my time and that would be 5am your time, that’s awful for you! I don’t know what your evenings are like if y’all maybe would want to coordinate a time in the evening like 7pm your time, which would be 10pm my time and 11am Kent’s time. Sorry, not trying to be a pain or anything like that!

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      12. Let’s just try another week so that you can get your stuff done and rest your eye! I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds with my response to Crissy. If there was ever a case for a contradiction it would be “who is Noah’s oldest son?”

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      13. Thanks! Next time might be better since I’m most concern about my eyes. Your response to Crissy didn’t over step at all! I saw your comment just now about the more important question. I was copy and pasting straight from the Skeptic Annotated Bible the question and the verses. It doesn’t seem it register to them about the translation issue of “the elder” in Genesis 10:21, or at least not what I’ve seen so far.

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      14. Oh, I didn’t realize that was the skeptics question, that’s funny!! The skeptic then would be taking whichever translation he uses at face value, now that’s ironic!!! Even though Ham is the “disqualified” son he is still listed numerous times as second, again because of being more prominent than Japheth even though Ham is the youngest. I know you enjoy pondering the Table of Nations, this is fascinating stuff. If in fact Japheth is the oldest, then God once again chose the second born such as Abel and Jacob. I DESPISE that Noah’s cursing of Canaan has been used to support slavery. Ham was NOT cursed. NOT all of Ham’s children were cursed, only Canaan. Once all the Canaanites were destroyed, the curse was finished! I could rant about that for HOURS!

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      15. Yeah the table of nations is fascinating; too bad there was at one time some who misunderstood the curse of Ham. Also I usually use the question and verses the skeptics share for the series. Reason being people searching the exact questions end up on the blog so the blog could act as a fact checking ministry (sorta)

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      16. That totally makes sense! When I asked you the other day if you wrote on this, I honestly was coming from a place of who was older Japheth or Shem so my presupposition was that the skeptic would pick up on this. I am SO sorry, I will add to Crissy’s comment the question the skeptic should ask is “who is Noah’s oldest son?” Again, I am sorry about that! I let my own thinking totally go wild and that was wrong of me!

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      17. Oh no, no problem! Thanks for the interaction I corrected my post to reflect my view as yours on the post, it took longer for me to get to it since I was driving all over today for ministry

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  24. Concerning books I think our kids always love learning and love books but I also don’t want to overwhelm you with giving so much to us! There’s been so much blessings from you to my family already!
    Thanks for sharing what are your favorite books in the Bible! What you said about Leviticus makes me want to look into it more.
    So my favorite book in the Law of Moses is Genesis. The narratives with it setting the foundation of looking for the “Promise Seed” really shapes the OT looking for a Messiah and I constantly discover things in this book!
    My favorite historical narrative is Ruth. Man there’s so much pack in that little book!
    My favorite writings is the Psalms; but there’s so much I still can learn from that big book!
    My favorite Major Prophet is probably Isaiah but there’s so much I need to study in general with prophecies!
    My favorite Minor Prophet is hard: It is both Jonah and Zechariah. Zechariah for its future prophecies and prediction of the Messiah and Jonah since I feel its a literary master piece with all the literary device in that book!
    Favorite Gospel: At the moment, Mark. I guess after seeing how much it picks up OT allusions I never saw this as a simple short book on Jesus again.
    Favorite Pauline Philemon! Man this book is a masterpiece of pastoral wisdom in navigating difficult issues, the slave and free discussion, and just what does appealing for people to do the charitable thing looks like.
    Favorite General Epistle: Can’t think of any that sticks out but probably James.
    So of all those we overlap with James!

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    1. We have more overlap than you think! I appreciate your reasons behind your picks!
      Genesis is absolutely foundational! I chose Leviticus because well, no one does. If we were ever to lose Scripture, someone has to preserve Leviticus.
      I should have said at this moment in regards to the Gospels as well. I love the urgency in Mark’s account.
      Historical narrative I agree with you about Ruth. The hesed (covenant faithfulness) that is revealed in that short story is second to none. If you follow the Hebrew canon, Ruth follows Proverbs which means that Ruth is the archetypal Proverbs 31 woman that Hebrew men are to look for. I am gonna blog on this so don’t steal my thunder! Hahaha kidding!!!
      It’s funny I was gonna write that my favorite minor prophet was Jonah so we def agree with the significance of Jonah theologically and in style.
      I vacillated between Philemon and Galatians but settled on Galatians because of Paul’s refutation of the Judiazers. There is indeed no slave nor free, Greek or Gentile in Christ Jesus!

      I love the Psalms, I put them in a category of their own. Job fascinates me because he is before Abraham, which means that from the outset, God dealt with human suffering. That should be taught WAY more than it is!

      Ecclesiastes reminds me of myself that without God or working for God everything is meaningless and like chasing after the wind.

      Also, I started Dreher’s book today. I recommend it and would love to talk with you about it!

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      1. You got to make this into a post of your favorite books! I’m thinking of doing that as a back up post from when I’m too busy or too sleepy. Looking forward to that Ruth post!

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  27. Mandy, I really like the way you write!

    It reads like a great conversation, and I love a good chat! So thanks for taking the time to think about what you are writing. I spent the pandemic studying the beatitudes and am not sure I could communicate their meaning and impact on the Christian life like you have in the last 2 posts I have just read, (maybe it was for my learning and not sharing. )

    And amen to your prayer.

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    1. I just said in my last response to you that I am sorry it’s so long, I try very hard to write like I talk! I am SO glad that you “love a good chat” as well, praising God for this!! Thank you for your kind words! It takes discernment and being in tune with the Spirit to know what is for your personal edification and what is for you and others (I hope that makes sense!).

      Not that you do this so please don’t take it that way, it lends to our above points. Right before I entered Seminary my long running prayer request was that I would NOT forsake my own God (quiet) time with the Lord because of my studies. One of the worst things, in my opinion, is when we start seeking God’s Word to teach others (sermon, Sunday school lesson, blog post etc) rather than to let God’s Word teach and transform us first. And then we preach/teach/write from an overflow. I hope that makes sense!

      Thank you for praying with me!!

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