Psalm 63:1-5 – “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You
earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary
land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see
Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My
lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my
hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my
mouth offers praises with joyful lips.”
This is one of my favorite psalms. We're told that this is a
psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. We know that David was the
king when he wrote this psalm (In verse 11 he refers to himself as the king) but
since he was in the wilderness, it's a good assumption that he wrote this when
he was fleeing from Absalom his son, when he took the kingdom in 2 Samuel
chapter 15.
David begins this psalm by talking about his thirst and his yearning for God. He says that he's seeking him earnestly. We know from several places in the Bible that those who earnestly seek Him will find Him.(Deuteronomy 4:29, 1 Chronicles 28:9, 2 Chronicles 15:2, Ezra 8:22, etc) So David is off to an excellent start. It's interesting, he is hiding in the wilderness, “in a dry and weary land where there is no water” and he doesn't say anything in this passage about his physical need. He says he thirsts, but not for water. His soul thirsts for God.
So in verse one he says he'll seek God earnestly and it seems like, to me, that his seeking begins in verse two. “Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.” I can't say that I know exactly what this means, but he says that he has seen God, past tense. So he's thinking back, remembering something. Maybe he's thinking back to the times when he praised God in Jerusalem. But regardless, It seems pretty clear that the first step that took toward seeking God was remembering. Remembering a time when he saw Gods power and glory.
The second step he takes is verse three. “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You.” He's thinking about the lovingkindness of God. (that's a huge topic) David didn't question whether God loved him or not. He was speaking to God, but I think he was basically reminding himself of Gods lovingkindness. It's amazing how this works. When things aren't really going our way and we start to focus on the lovingkindness of God our whole attitude will change. That's what happened to David. When He started focusing on the lovingkindness of God. He knew that it was better than life, and that knowledge resulted in praise. He started praising with his lips.
So he started out in his mind, remembering what God had done, he stated what he knew to be true about God, which resulted in singing, and now in verse four he continues with his mouth. 'So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.' David was praising God, he was blessing God, and he was lifting his hands in the name of the Lord. I can just imagine God filling David up throughout this passage. He starts out talking about thirsting and yearning for God, and slowly he begins to remember things about Him, truths about Him, he gets so full he begins to bless the Lord and sing praises to Him, his hands go up in the air. He was so dry before, but by this point he's so full that he can't contain it. He's overflowing.
And finally in verse five he says, 'My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.' He started out by saying his soul was thirsty, and by this point he says that his soul is satisfied. His soul is no longer dry, because he started seeking the Lord.
So there you have it. In five verses David went from thirst to satisfaction, and in the end he was still praising God and doing it with joy. This is something I want to learn to practice. Whenever something isn't going quite right in my life, I want to learn to immerse myself in God. It starts with thirsting and yearning after Him, When we thirst we'll begin to seek. When we seek we'll find. And when we find we'll be satisfied, and despite our circumstances we'll be overflowing with joy.
David begins this psalm by talking about his thirst and his yearning for God. He says that he's seeking him earnestly. We know from several places in the Bible that those who earnestly seek Him will find Him.(Deuteronomy 4:29, 1 Chronicles 28:9, 2 Chronicles 15:2, Ezra 8:22, etc) So David is off to an excellent start. It's interesting, he is hiding in the wilderness, “in a dry and weary land where there is no water” and he doesn't say anything in this passage about his physical need. He says he thirsts, but not for water. His soul thirsts for God.
So in verse one he says he'll seek God earnestly and it seems like, to me, that his seeking begins in verse two. “Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.” I can't say that I know exactly what this means, but he says that he has seen God, past tense. So he's thinking back, remembering something. Maybe he's thinking back to the times when he praised God in Jerusalem. But regardless, It seems pretty clear that the first step that took toward seeking God was remembering. Remembering a time when he saw Gods power and glory.
The second step he takes is verse three. “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You.” He's thinking about the lovingkindness of God. (that's a huge topic) David didn't question whether God loved him or not. He was speaking to God, but I think he was basically reminding himself of Gods lovingkindness. It's amazing how this works. When things aren't really going our way and we start to focus on the lovingkindness of God our whole attitude will change. That's what happened to David. When He started focusing on the lovingkindness of God. He knew that it was better than life, and that knowledge resulted in praise. He started praising with his lips.
So he started out in his mind, remembering what God had done, he stated what he knew to be true about God, which resulted in singing, and now in verse four he continues with his mouth. 'So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.' David was praising God, he was blessing God, and he was lifting his hands in the name of the Lord. I can just imagine God filling David up throughout this passage. He starts out talking about thirsting and yearning for God, and slowly he begins to remember things about Him, truths about Him, he gets so full he begins to bless the Lord and sing praises to Him, his hands go up in the air. He was so dry before, but by this point he's so full that he can't contain it. He's overflowing.
And finally in verse five he says, 'My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.' He started out by saying his soul was thirsty, and by this point he says that his soul is satisfied. His soul is no longer dry, because he started seeking the Lord.
So there you have it. In five verses David went from thirst to satisfaction, and in the end he was still praising God and doing it with joy. This is something I want to learn to practice. Whenever something isn't going quite right in my life, I want to learn to immerse myself in God. It starts with thirsting and yearning after Him, When we thirst we'll begin to seek. When we seek we'll find. And when we find we'll be satisfied, and despite our circumstances we'll be overflowing with joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment