Psalm 63
Longing to worship the Lord
Have you longed to worship God....I mean really long to just be in His presence? I've had some desert periods in my life where I have struggled to "feel" God's presence but I can't say that I modeled David's ability to worship the Lord like he did in this psalm. At the time that I meditated on this psalm, I was not experiencing a spiritual lull in my life but I was definitely in a place that created a desire to go deeper in my relationship with God. The words of David struck a cord with me that caused me to want to record these reflections. (Notes taken from www.biblearchaeology.org)
Introductory Notes: "A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
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King David was in a very inhospitable environment with disastrous circumstances beyond his control when he composed Psalm 63. His son, Prince Absalom, instigated a revolt against him. King David fled eastward from Jerusalem through the Judean Desert, most likely at the end of the summer (cf. 2 Sam. 16:1). David escaped to the Levitical city of Mahanaim, in the friendlier region of Gilead on the other side of the Jordan River (2 Sam. 17:24; CBA 109).
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Vs 1
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You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. |
David begins this psalm with a declaration of faith and expresses his desire to worship the Lord even though he had been cut off from access to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, which at the time of this writing was a tent constructed by David next to his palace. The wilderness afforded David solitude and quiet times to contemplate the Lord, His ways, and His attributes. David declares his faith in the Lord as his personal God. For David, God was the living God who acted in history and was intimately involved in David’s life. David had a personal relationship with the Lord.
David describes him thirsting for the Lord as he thirsts for water in the wilderness, |
Vs 2-4
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I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love [lovingkindness] is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. |
David reminisces about the power and glory of God in the sanctuary. David brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:12-23) and placed it in a tent dwelling ( 2 Samuel 7:26). I know that David witnessed many powerful acts of God, but I can't help wonder if David recognized no greater power than the power for God to forgive as was demonstrate by the Mercy Seat which sat on top of the Ark of the Covenant. According to the Hebrew Bible, the mercy seat was the gold lid with two cherubim beaten out of the ends of it to cover and create the space into which God would appear. This gold cover was placed on the Ark of the Covenant.
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David was fully confident in His sovereignty and lovingkindness. In verse three, David declares that the LORD’s “lovingkindness is better than life.” The Hebrew word for lovingkindness is hesed and it has a powerful word picture associated with it. Like a stork (hesedu) that lovingly watches over and guards its young so the Lord is lovingly loyal to the covenants that He made with His people Israel. He is faithful to His people, even when they are not faithful to Him. He watches over His people, provides for them, and protects them because He made unconditional covenants with Abraham and David. Because he understood this important attribute of God, David said that, even with parched lips, he would praise the Lord. He blessed the Lord by lifting up his hands and would do this for the rest of his life (63:4; cf. Ps. 104:33; 146:2; 1 Tim. 2:8)
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Vs 5
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I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you. NASB: My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, |
Although David was thirsty because of the dryness of the wilderness, he was satisfied and content because his confidence was in the Lord and His promises. As the king lay awake that night contemplating the lovingkindness of the Lord, he was reminded of the sacrifices that were offered in the sanctuary. He said he was satisfied as with “marrow and fatness,” in other words, the best and richest food. David could be contemplating a banquet in his palace, but it is more likely that he was thinking about the sacrifices in the sanctuary. The “fatness” (chlev) was the result of the pleasant Bar-B-Q aroma of burning animal fat on the altar. The Mosaic Law prohibited people from eating any fat (Lev. 7:23-25) because all the fat was for the Lord (Lev. 3:16). Don’t worry; God does not have a problem with cholesterol! We do. David’s palace was not that far away from the sanctuary, and, if the wind were blowing just right, he could smell the sweet-smelling aroma of burning fat.
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Vs 6
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On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night. NASB: When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches, |
As David lay awake that night in the Plains of the Wilderness (2 Sam. 17:16) near Jericho, he was trying to sort out the day’s events. He was thankful to the Lord for His help in getting his family and followers out of Jerusalem before Absalom’s army was able to approach the city and do any harm to it. He remembered the goodness of God and meditated on the Lord Himself.
he word meditate is the same word used in Psalm 1:2: “But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in His Law he meditates day and night.” It is in the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy) that the Lord and His ways are revealed. The word meditate is a pastoral word that David gleaned from observing his sheep. Sheep have four stomachs. The sheep would eat the grass and flowers in the fields, and the foliage would go down into one stomach. Later, while the sheep was resting in the shade, it would regurgitate, which is the same word that is translated meditate, the foliage, chew it over again, and send it back down to another stomach. I am sure David had large portions of the Torah memorized so that at night he could bring to mind those passages that spoke of the Lord and apply them to his present situation. |
Vs 7 - 8
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Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me. |
David rejoices in the shadow of God’s wings. Some commentators have suggested the wings were a reference to the cherubim above the mercy seat in the sanctuary.I think this is fitting considering that David may have been reflecting on the Ark of the Covenant in verse 2. Moses used a similar word picture in Psalm 91:4: “He [the Almighty] shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge.” David uses this word picture in other psalms (Ps. 17:8; 36:7; 57:1). I think David’s word picture came from nature. Perhaps that evening David had seen a partridge in the wilderness gathering her young under her wings when she felt threatened by the people with David, or, in the heat of the afternoon, the young might have sought shade under their mother’s wings.
David turns to his younger days for the word picture of a defenseless lamb following close by its shepherd for protection. The right hand of God is always the hand of power and protection. |
Vs 9-11
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Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced. |
David speaks of himself in the third person as “the king.” His victory, however, was bittersweet. The revolt had been suppressed, but his son was dead. On a personal level, David mourned the death of his son (2 Sam. 18:33-19:7), yet he says in this psalm that, because the revolt was over, the king rejoiced.
David and his followers had sworn an oath to the Lord and were victorious because they feared Him (Deut. 6:13; 10:20). But those who had not sworn by the Lord were speechless (Ps. 38:12; 41:5-8). This is a euphemistic way of saying they died. Ahithophel hung himself and Absalom was killed by Joab and his men (2 Sam. 17:23; 18:14-15). |