Psalm 63

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

{1} O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee:
my soul thirsteth for thee,
my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land,
where no water is;

{2} To see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
{3} Because thy lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips shall praise thee.

{4} Thus will I bless thee while I live:
I will lift up my hands in thy name.
{5} My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness;
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
{6} When I remember thee upon my bed,
and meditate on thee in the night watches.

{7} Because thou hast been my help,
therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
{8} My soul followeth hard after thee:
thy right hand upholdeth me.

{9} But those that seek my soul, to destroy it,
shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
{10} They shall fall by the sword:
they shall be a portion for foxes.

{11} But the king shall rejoice in God;
every one that sweareth by him shall glory:
but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

I think this was a night time prayer: “I will remember you upon my bed.” We complain sometimes about being unable to sleep. Perhaps we don’t realize that our spirit knows the distance between us and God and is restless. It isn’t necessary to roll out of bed, to kneel to pray. The psalms exemplify prayer in almost any bodily position. It is our spirit that must bow, must kneel in submission. It is our spirit that reaches out to God even though our body is at rest.

The psalm is said to have been written when David was on the run in the Judean desert, hence the reference to a thirst for God in a dry and thirsty land. You can feel like you are in a spiritual desert, and there is no cure for it except the water David sought. He wanted so much to see God’s power and his glory. And yet, even though God loved him dearly, he never spoke directly to David. He only spoke through a prophet.

With a psalm like this one, you can begin to understand why God called David, “A man after mine own heart.” It is strange, in a way, because David was not only a fighting man, he was a sinner as well. But in all his life, David never forgot God, never pursued another God. “My soul follows hard after you,” he said.

It is clear from a psalm like this one, that David loved God with all his heart.

 

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