As the Deer

 

I love wildlife so it’s no wonder I love this hymn. I especially enjoy seeing deer. There’s just something special about sitting and watching them. They are my favorite animal to photograph. During spring and summer I leave my house at first light and drive around looking for fawn. It’s one of my favorite activities. I love seeing buck too. They are so elusive; when I see one it thrills my heart. I have many pictures of deer from my drives.

Martin J. Nystrom is both the author and composer of this hymn. Most of us were born before this hymn was written.

Nystrom was born in 1956 in Seattle, Washington, to a mother who grew up in the Christian Reformed Church; his father was brought up in the Evangelical Covenant Church.

“As the deer” was written 1982. The hymn is based on Psalm 42:1, which states, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” A relatively recent hymn when you consider how long ago some of the most popular hymns were written, it has risen in prominence to stand alongside the well-beloved classics we know and sing today.

Nystrom tells this story: “In 1984 I was a school teacher in Seattle, and since I had the summer off, I decided to go back to Bible College, but only for the summer term. I headed for Dallas, Texas and Christ For the Nations Institute. A young woman I was interested in would be there. Little did I know what was about to happen to me, especially with all that I would be exposed to and the worship emphasis of the school.”

He discovered that things were not going to work out with the young woman, and he was stuck in a program during a very hot Dallas summer.  He was broke and heartbroken.

"I had a roommate at the institute who was a very vibrant Christian.” Nystrom continues. “He challenged me to go on a Fast - a period of time when a person refrains from eating solid food in order to give time to the reading of the Bible and to prayer.

“I took up the challenge, and on the 19th day of the Fast I found myself sitting at a piano trying to write a song. I was simply playing chord progressions when I noticed a Bible on the music stand of the piano. It was open to Psalm 42. My eyes fell on the first verse of that chapter... “As the hart (deer) panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” After reading the verse I began to sing its message, right off the page.

“I wrote the first verse and the chorus of the song, pretty much straight through. The whole of the adventure was completed in a matter of minutes. I then repeated the song I had just written. I wanted to seal it in my mind.

"I had no intention of showing the song to anyone. It was to be for my own devotional time with the Lord. However, before leaving the school to go back to Seattle, I did share it with one person, Dave Butterbaugh. He introduced it to the students of the school and it became a favorite.

"Since that introduction of the song, it has been translated into several languages and is often sung in other countries. Orchestras have used it. It has been sung in unusually different styles."

Marty continued to write songs and travel extensively, teaching in worship conferences. In Korea in the 1990s, he attended one such conference and as he walked into the stadium 100,000 Koreans were singing "As the Deer."

Marty is now married and father of two sons and lives in the Seattle area. He has a degree in music education from Oral Roberts University and has taught music in a wide variety of settings. He has written over 120 songs that have been released by publishers of Christian praise and worship music.

More recently he has served as a song development manager for Integrity Music, for whom he has written more than seventy songs. Nystrom is featured as worship leader on five Integrity “Hosanna” tapes. He also gives presentations at numerous conferences throughout the world.

His best known song is the worship chorus, 'As the Deer.' He notes that, “I seem to write songs when I am not purposefully trying to write one.”

Verse One

“As the deer panteth for the water,

So my soul longeth after Thee.

You alone are my heart’s desire,

And I long to worship Thee.”

Psalm 42:1

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.”

Biblehub, The Treasury of David: David was heartsick. Ease he did not seek, honor he did not covet, but the enjoyment of communion with God was an urgent need of his soul; he viewed it not merely as the sweetest of all luxuries, but as an absolute necessity, like water to a [deer] (stag). Like the parched traveler in the wilderness, whose skin bottle is empty, and who finds the wells dry, he must drink or die - he must have his God or faint. His soul, his very self, his deepest life, was [unquenchable] (insatiable) for a sense of the Divine Presence. As the hart [panteth] so his soul prays.

Verse Two

“I want You more than gold or silver,

Only You can satisfy.

You alone are the real joy giver,

And the apple of my eye.”

1 Peter 1:8

“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”

Biblehub.com, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary: The matter of a Christian’s joy, is the remembrance of the happiness laid up for him . . . Happy are those whose hearts the Holy Spirit sets on this inheritance. God not only gives His people grace, but preserves them unto glory. Every believer has always something wherein he may greatly rejoice; it should show itself in the countenance and conduct . . . Seek then to believe Christ’s excellence in Himself, and His love to us . . . this will kindle such a fire in the heart as will make it rise up in a sacrifice of love to Him.

Verse Three

“You’re my friend and You are my brother,

Even though You are a King.

I love You more than any other,

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Studylight.org, Dr. Constable’s Expository Notes: "Friend" is another relative term such as ‘abiding’ or "fellowship." A person can be a casual friend, a close friend, or an intimate friend depending on his or her love and loyalty. Likewise, all believers are God’s friends in one sense, but abiding believers are His friends on a deeper level because they seek to obey Him consistently . . . A good servant also obeys his master. What then is the difference between a servant of God and an intimate friend of God? Jesus proved to His disciples that they were His friends as well as His servants, but, pointing out, that a master shares his plans with his friends but not with his slaves. He had told them what was coming thereby treating them as His friends. Abraham and Moses, the only Old Testament characters whom God called His friends, also received revelations of God’s plans from Him.”

Refrain

“You alone are my strength, my shield,

To You alone may my spirit yield.

You alone are my heart’s desire,

And I long to worship Thee.”

 I chose Psalm 104 for the last Scripture in this study. It’s a long psalm with 33 verses. Charles Spurgeon said: "The Psalm gives an interpretation to the many voices of nature and sings sweetly both of creation and providence. The poem contains a complete cosmos: sea and land, cloud and sunlight, plant and animal, light and darkness, life and death, are all proved to be expressive of the presence of the Lord.”

Sit back and enjoy the beauty of this psalm that brings glory and honor to our God:

Psalm 104: 1-33

“Praise the Lord, my soul. Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. The Lord wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of His upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds His chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants. He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at Your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of Your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place You assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth. He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of His work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate — bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted. There the birds  make their nests; the stork has its home in the junipers. The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for small mammals. He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens. Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening. How many are Your works, Lord! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which You formed to frolic there. All creatures look to You to give them their food at the proper time. When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When You hide your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works—He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him, as I rejoice in the Lord. But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord.”

  

I am indebted to the following resources:

Centrevillepress.com

Staugustine.com

Umcdiscipleship.org

The Complete Book of Hymns, by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen

By His Grace . . .