Psalm 63 commentary

PSALM 63 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of
Judah.
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "TITLE. A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judeah.
This was probably written while David was fleeing from Absalom; certainly at the
time he wrote it he was king (Psalms 63:11), and hard pressed by those who sought
his life. David did not leave off singing because he was in the wilderness, neither did
he in slovenly idleness go on repeating Psalms intended for other occasions; but he
carefully made his worship suitable to his circumstances, and presented to his God a
wilderness hymn when he was in the wilderness. There was no desert in his heart,
though there was a desert around him. We too may expect to be cast into rough
places ere we go hence. In such seasons, may the Eternal Comforter abide with us,
and cause us to bless the Lord at all times, making even the solitary place to become
a temple for Jehovah. The distinguishing word of this Psalm is EARLY. When the
bed is the softest we are most tempted to rise at lazy hours; but when comfort is
gone, and the couch is hard, if we rise the earlier to seek the Lord, we have much for
which to thank the wilderness.
DIVISIO . In Psalms 63:1-8 verses the writer expresses his holy desires after God,
and his confidence in him, and then in Psalms 63:9-11 remaining three verses he
prophesies the overthrow of all his enemies. This Psalm is peculiarly suitable for the
bed of sickness, or in any constrained absence from public worship.
COKE, "Title. ‫מזמור‬ ‫לדוד‬ mizmor ledavid.— The beginning of this psalm evidently
shews, that David was, when he wrote it, in a wilderness or desart country, (1
Samuel 22:5 probably the forest of Hareth, or Ziph, belonging to Judah,) absent
from the sanctuary: for he therein expresses the impatience of his desires to be
restored to the solemnity of divine worship, and resolves, that, when God grants him
that satisfaction, he will continually employ himself in celebrating his
lovingkindness; Psalms 63:3-4. This, he tells us, would be to him a more grateful
entertainment than the richest feast, Psalms 63:5.—should employ his waking hours
in the watches of the night, Psalms 63:6 and confirm his pleasing trust and
confidence in the divine protection, Psalms 63:7.—And from his adherence to God,
and past experience of his favour, he assures himself of the disappointment and

destruction of his enemies; but that himself, and all who feared God, should rejoice
in his salvation, Psalms 63:8-11. Chandler.
ELLICOTT, "The figure of the first verse misunderstood (see ote) led to the
inscription referring this psalm to the wandering period of David’s life, a reference
entirely out of keeping with the contents of the poem, even if it were Davidic. The
conjecture is far more probable which makes it the sigh of an exile for restoration to
the sacred scenes and institutions of his country, now cherished in memory; and so
truly does it express the sentiments which would be common to all the pious
community of Israel, that we need not vex ourselves with an enquiry, for which the
data are so insufficient, into the precise individual or even the precise time to which
it first refers. The last verse seems to carry us back to the troubled times
immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem, when the existence of monarchy
was trembling in the balance, and when some of those already in exile might be
supposed to be watching its fortunes with feelings in which hope contended with
misgiving, and faith with fear. The poetical form is irregular.
1 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.
BAR ES, "O God, thou art my God - The words here rendered God are not the
same in the original. The first one - ‫אלהים‬ 'Elohiym - is in the plural number, and is the
word which is usually employed to designate God Gen_1:1; the second - ‫אל‬ 'Êl - is a word
which is very often applied to God with the idea of strength - a strong, a mighty One; and

there is probably this underlying idea here, that God was the source of his strength, or
that in speaking of God as his God, he was conscious of referring to him as Almighty. It
was the divine attribute of power on which his mind mainly rested when he spoke of him
as his God. He did not appeal to him merely as God, with no reference to a particular
attribute; but he had particularly in his eye his power or his ability to deliver and save
him. In Psa_22:1, where, in our version, we have the same expression, “My God, my
God,” the two words in the original are identical, and are the same which is used here -
‫אל‬ 'Êl - as expressive of strength or power. The idea suggested here is, that in appealing
to God, while we address him as our God, and refer to his general character as God, it is
not improper to have in our minds some particular attribute of his character - power,
mercy, love, truth, faithfulness, etc. - as the special ground of our appeal.
Early will I seek thee - The word used here has reference to the early dawn, or the
morning; and the noun which is derived from the verb, means the aurora, the dawn, the
morning. The proper idea, therefore, would be that of seeking God in the morning, or
the early dawn; that is, as the first thing in the day. Compare the notes at Isa_26:9. The
meaning here is, that he would seek God as the first thing in the day; first in his plans
and purposes; first in all things. He would seek God before other things came in to
distract and divert his attention; he would seek God when he formed his plans for the
day, and before other influences came in, to control and direct him. The favor of God
was the supreme desire of his heart, and that desire would be indicated by his making
him the earliest - the first - object of his search. His first thoughts - his best thoughts -
therefore, he resolved should be given to God. A desire to seek God as the first object in
life - in youth - in each returning day - at the beginning of each year, season, month,
week - in all our plans and enterprises - is one of the most certain evidences of true piety;
and religion flourishes most in the soul, and flourishes only in the soul, when we make
God the first object of our affections and desires.
My soul thirsteth for thee - See the notes at Psa_42:2.
My flesh longeth for thee - All my passions and desires - my whole nature. The two
words - “soul” and “flesh,” are designed to embrace the entire man, and to express the
idea that he longed supremely for God; that all his desires, whether springing directly
from the soul, or the needs of the body, rose to God as the only source from which they
could be gratified.
In a dry and thirsty land - That is, As one longs for water in a parched desert, so
my soul longs for God. The word thirsty is in the margin, as in Hebrew, weary. The idea
is that of a land where, from its parched nature - its barrenness - its rocks - its heat - its
desolation - one would be faint and weary on a journey.
Where no water is - No running streams; no gushing fountains; nothing to allay the
thirst.
CLARKE, "O God, thou art my God - He who can say so, and feels what he says,
need not fear the face of any adversary. He has God, and all sufficiency in him.
Early will I seek thee - From the dawn of day. De luce, from the light, Vulgate; as
soon as day breaks; and often before this, for his eyes prevented the night-watches; and
he longed and watched for God more than they who watched for the morning. The old
Psalter says, God my God, til the fram light I wake; and paraphrases thus: God of all,
thurgh myght; thu is my God, thurgh lufe and devocion; speciali till the I wak. Fra light,

that is, fra thy tym that the light of thi grace be in me, that excites fra night of sine. And
makes me wak till the in delite of luf, and swetnes in saul. Thai wak till God, that setes
all thar thoght on God, and for getns the werld. Thai slep till God, that settis thair hert
on ani creatur - I wak till the, and that gars me thirst in saule and body.
What first lays hold of the heart in the morning is likely to occupy the place all the day.
First impressions are the most durable, because there is not a multitude of ideas to drive
them out, or prevent them from being deeply fixed in the moral feeling.
In a dry and thirsty land - ‫בארץ‬ beerets, In a land: but several MSS. have ‫כארץ‬
keerets, As a dry and thirsty land, etc.
GILL, "O God, thou art my God,.... Not by nature only, or by birth; not merely as an
Israelite and son of Abraham; but by grace through Christ, and in virtue of an everlasting
covenant, the blessings and promises of which were applied unto him; and he, by faith,
could now claim his interest in them, and in his God as his covenant God; who is a God
at hand and afar off, was his God in the wilderness of Judea, as in his palace at
Jerusalem. The Targum is,
"thou art my strength;''
early will I seek thee; or "I will morning thee" (o); I will seek thee as soon as the morning
appears; and so the Targum,
"I will arise in the morning before thee;''
it has respect to prayer in the morning, and to seeking God early, and in the first place;
see Psa_5:3; or "diligently" (p); as a merchant seeks for goodly pearls, or other
commodities suitable for him; so Aben Ezra suggests, as if the word was to be derived,
not from ‫,שחר‬ "the morning", but from ‫,סחר‬ "merchandise"; and those who seek the Lord
both early and diligently shall find him, and not lose their labour, Pro_2:4;
my soul thirsteth for thee; after his word, worship, and ordinances; after greater
knowledge of him, communion with him, and more grace from him; particularly after
pardoning grace and justifying righteousness; see Psa_42:1; My flesh longeth for thee;
which is expressive of the same thing in different words; and denotes, that he most
earnestly desired, with his whole self, his heart, soul, and strength, that he might enjoy
the presence of God;
in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; such was the wilderness of Judea,
where he now was, and where he was destitute of the means of grace, of the ordinances
of God's house, and wanted comfort and refreshment for his soul, which he thirsted and
longed after, as a thirsty man after water in a desert place.
HE RY, "The title tells us when the psalm was penned, when David was in the
wilderness of Judah; that is, in the forest of Hareth (1Sa_22:5) or in the wilderness of

Ziph, 1Sa_23:15. 1. Even in Canaan, though a fruitful land and the people numerous, yet
there were wildernesses, places less fruitful and less inhabited than other places. It will
be so in the world, in the church, but not in heaven; there it is all city, all paradise, and
no desert ground; the wilderness there shall blossom as the rose. 2. The best and dearest
of God's saints and servants may sometimes have their lot cast in a wilderness, which
speaks them lonely and solitary, desolate and afflicted, wanting, wandering, and
unsettled, and quite at a loss what to do with themselves. 3. All the straits and difficulties
of a wilderness must not put us out of tune for sacred songs; but even then it is our duty
and interest to keep up a cheerful communion with God. There are psalms proper for a
wilderness, and we have reason to thank God that it is the wilderness of Judah we are in,
not the wilderness of Sin.
David, in these verses, stirs up himself to take hold on God,
I. By a lively active faith: O God! thou art my God. Note, In all our addresses to God
we must eye him as God, and our God, and this will be our comfort in a wilderness-state.
We must acknowledge that God is, that we speak to one that really exists and is present
with us, when we say, O God! which is a serious word; pity it should ever be used as a by-
word. And we must own his authority over us and propriety in us, and our relation to
him: “Thou art my God, mine by creation and therefore my rightful owner and ruler,
mine by covenant and my own consent.” We must speak it with the greatest pleasure to
ourselves, and thankfulness to God, as those that are resolved to abide by it: O God! thou
art my God.
II. By pious and devout affections, pursuant to the choice he had made of God and the
covenant he had made with him.
1. He resolves to seek God, and his favour and grace: Thou art my God, and therefore I
will seek thee; for should not a people seek unto their God? Isa_8:19. We must seek him;
we must covet his favour as our chief good and consult his glory as our highest end; we
must seek acquaintance with him by his word and seek mercy from him by prayer. We
must seek him, (1.) Early, with the utmost care, as those that are afraid of missing him;
we must begin our days with him, begin every day with him: Early will I seek thee. (2.)
Earnestly: “My soul thirsteth for thee and my flesh longeth for thee (that is, my whole
man is affected with this pursuit) here in a dry and thirsty land.” Observe, [1.] His
complaint in the want of God's favourable presence. He was in a dry and thirsty land; so
he reckoned it, not so much because it was a wilderness as because it was at a distance
from the ark, from the word and sacraments. This world is a weary land (so the word
is); it is so to the worldly that have their portion in it - it will yield them no true
satisfaction; it is so to the godly that have their passage through it - it is a valley of Baca;
they can promise themselves little from it. [2.] His importunity for that presence of God:
My soul thirsteth, longeth, for thee. His want quickened his desires, which were very
intense; he thirsted as the hunted hart for the water-brooks; he would take up with
nothing short of it. His desires were almost impatient; he longed, he languished, till he
should be restored to the liberty of God's ordinances. Note, Gracious souls look down
upon the world with a holy disdain and look up to God with a holy desire.
JAMISO , "Psa_63:1-11. The historical occasion referred to by the title was probably
during Absalom’s rebellion (compare 2Sa_15:23, 2Sa_15:28; 2Sa_16:2). David expresses
an earnest desire for God’s favor, and a confident expectation of realizing it in his
deliverance and the ruin of his enemies.
early ... seek thee — earnestly (Isa_26:9). The figurative terms -

dry and thirsty — literally, “weary,” denoting moral destitution, suited his outward
circumstances.
soul — and - flesh — the whole man (Psa_16:9, Psa_16:10).
CALVI , "1.O God! thou art my God. The wilderness of Judah, spoken of in the
title, can be no other than that of Ziph, where David wandered so long in a state of
concealment. We may rely upon the truth of the record he gives us of his exercise
when under his trials; and it is apparent that he never allowed himself to be so far
overcome by them, as to cease lifting up his prayers to heaven, and even resting,
with a firm and constant faith, upon the divine promises. Apt as we are, when
assaulted by the very slightest trials, to lose the comfort of any knowledge of God we
may previously have possessed, it is necessary that we should notice this, and learn,
by his example, to struggle to maintain our confidence under the worst troubles that
can befall us. He does more than simply pray; he sets the Lord before him as his
God, that he may throw all his cares unhesitatingly upon him, deserted as he was of
man, and a poor outcast in the waste and howling wilderness. His faith, shown in
this persuasion of the favor and help of God, had the effect of exciting him to
constant and vehement prayer for the grace which he expected. In saying that his
soul thirsted, and his flesh longed, he alludes to the destitution and poverty which he
lay under in the wilderness, and intimates, that though deprived of the ordinary
means of subsistence, he looked to God as his meat and his drink, directing all his
desires to him. When he represents his soul as thirsting, and his flesh as hungering,
we are not to seek for any nice or subtile design in the distinction. He means simply
that he desired God, both with soul and body. For although the body, strictly
speaking, is not of itself influenced by desire, we know that the feelings of the soul
intimately and extensively affect it.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. O God, thou art my God; or, O God, thou art my Mighty
One. The last Psalm left the echo of power ringing in the ear, and it is here
remembered. Strong affiance bids the fugitive poet confess his allegiance to the only
living God; and firm faith enables him to claim him as his own. He has no doubts
about his possession of his God; and why should other believers have any? The
straightforward, clear language of this opening sentence would be far more
becoming in Christians than the timorous and doubtful expressions so usual among
professors. How sweet is such language! Is there any other word comparable to it
for delights? Meus Deus. Can angels say more?
Early will I seek thee. Possession breeds desire. Full assurance is no hindrance to
diligence, but is the mainspring of it. How can I seek another man's God? but it is
with ardent desire that I seek after him whom I know to be my own. Observe the
eagerness implied in the time mentioned; he will not wait for noon or the cool
eventide; he is up at cockcrowing to meet his God. Communion with God is so sweet
that the chill of the morning is forgotten, and the luxury of the couch is despised.
The morning is the time for dew and freshness, and the psalmist consecrates it to
prayer and devout fellowship. The best of men have been betimes on their knees.
The word early has not only the sense of early in the morning, but that of eagerness,
immediateness. He who truly longs for God longs for him now. Holy desires are

among the most powerful influences that stir our inner nature; hence the next
sentence,
My soul thirsteth for thee. Thirst is an insatiable longing after that which is one of
the most essential supports of life; there is no reasoning with it, no forgetting it, no
despising it, no overcoming it by stoical indifference. Thirst will be heard; the whole
man must yield to its power; even thus is it with that divine desire which the grace
of God creates in regenerate men; only God himself can satisfy the craving of a soul
really aroused by the Holy Spirit.
My flesh longeth for thee; by the two words soul and flesh, he denotes the whole of
his being. The flesh, in the ew Testament sense of it, never longs after the Lord,
but rather it lusteth against the spirit; David only refers to that sympathy which is
sometimes created in our bodily frame by vehement emotions of the soul. Our
corporeal nature usually tugs in the other direction, but the spirit when ardent can
compel it to throw in what power it has upon the other side. When the wilderness
caused David weariness, discomfort, and thirst, his flesh cried out in unison with the
desire of his soul.
In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. A weary place and a weary heart make
the presence of God the more desirable: if there be nothing below and nothing
within to cheer, it is a thousand mercies that we may look up and find all we need.
How frequently have believers traversed in their experience this dry and thirsty
land, where spiritual joys are things forgotten! and how truly can they testify that
the only true necessity of that country is the near presence of their God! The
absence of outward comforts can be borne with serenity when we walk with God;
and the most lavish multiplication of them avails not when he withdraws. Only after
God, therefore, let us pant. Let all desires be gathered into one. Seeking first the
kingdom of God--all else shall be added unto us.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Title. When he was in the wilderness of Judah. Even in Canaan, though a fruitful
land, and the people numerous, yet there were wildernesses... It will be so in the
world, in the church, but not in heaven... All the straits and difficulties of a
wilderness must not put us out of tune for sacred songs; but even then it is our duty
and interest to keep up a cheerful communion with God. There are Psalms proper
for a wilderness; and we have reason to thank God it is the wilderness of Judah we
are in, not the wilderness of Sin. Matthew Henry.
Title. The Wilderness of Judah is the whole wilderness towards the east of the tribe
of Judah, bounded on the north by the tribe of Benjamin, stretching southward to
the south west end of the Dead Sea; westward, to the Dead Sea and the Jordan; and
eastward to the mountains of Judah. E. W. Hengstenberg.
Title The term wilderness rkdm, as distinguished from hdre, (a steppe) was given to
a district which was not regularly cultivated and inhabited, but used for pasturage
(from rbd, to drive), being generally without wood and defective in water, but not
entirely destitute of vegetation. J. P. Lange.
Title. Hagar saw God in the wilderness, and called a well by the name derived from
that vision, Beerlahairoi. Genesis 16:13-14. Moses saw God in the wilderness.
Exodus 3:1-4. Elijah saw God in the wilderness. 1 Kings 19:4-18. David saw God in
the wilderness. The Christian church will see God in the wilderness. Revelation
12:6-14. Every devout soul which has loved to see God in his house will be refreshed

by visions of God in the wilderness of solitude, sorrow, sickness, and death.
Christopher Wordsworth.
Whole Psalm. This is unquestionably one of the most beautiful and touching Psalms
in the whole Psalter. Donne says of it: "As the whole Book of Psalms is, oleum
offusun (as the spouse speaks of the name of Christ), an ointment poured out upon
all sort of sores, a cerecloth that supplies all bruises, a balm that searches all
wounds; so are there some certain Psalms that are imperial Psalms, that command
over all affections and spread themselves over all occasions--catholic, universal
Psalms, that apply themselves to all necessities. This is one of these; for of those
constitutions which are called apostolical, one is that the church should meet every
day to sing this Psalm. And, accordingly, St. Chrysostom testifies, `That it was
decreed and ordained by the primitive Fathers, that no day should pass without the
public singing of this Psalm.'" J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is aptly described by Clauss as "A precious confession of a
soul thirsting after God and his grace, and finding itself quickened through inward
communion with him, and which knows how to commit its outward lot also into his
hand." Its lesson is, that the consciousness of communion with God in trouble is the
sure pledge of deliverance. This is the peculiar fountain of consolation which is
opened up to the sufferer in the Psalm. The Berleb Bible describes it as a Psalm
"which proceeds from a spirit really in earnest. It was the favourite Psalm of M.
Schade, the famous preacher in Berlin, which he daily prayed with such earnestness
and appropriation to himself, that it was impossible to hear it without emotion." E.
W. Hengstenberg.
Ver. 1. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee (or, I will diligently seek thee,
as merchants precious stones that are of greatest value): my soul thirsteth for thee.
He doth not say my soul thirsteth for water, but my soul thirsteth for thee; nor he
doth say my soul thirsteth for the blood of my enemies, but my soul thirsteth for
thee; nor he doth not say my soul thirsteth for deliverance out of this dry and thirsty
land, where no water is; nor he doth not say my soul thirsteth for a crown, a
kingdom, but my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee. These words are
a notable metaphor, taken from women with child, to note his earnest, ardent, and
strong affections towards God. Thomas Brooks.
Ver. 1. O God. This is a serious word; pity it should ever be used as a byword.
Matthew Henry.
Ver. 1. My God in Hebrew is the same word with which the Lord cried out upon the
cross to the Father about the ninth hour: "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" For in Hebrew, this Psalm begins Elohim, Eli. ow, Elohim is plural,
and Eli is singular, to express the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of the Unity,
the distinct subsistence of the (three) hypostases, and their consubstantiality.
Psalterium Quin. Fabri stapulensis, 1513.
Ver. 1. (first clause). In David we have a notable example of a sensitive, tender, self
analysing soul, living in sustained communion with God, while deeply sensible of the
claims of the civil and religious polity of Israel, and, moreover, while externally
devoted to a large round of exacting public duties. And in this Psalm public
misfortunes do but force him back upon the central strength of the life of his spirit.
For the time his crown, his palace, his honours, the hearts of his people, the love of
his child, whom he loved, as we know, with such passing tenderness, are forfeited.

The psalmist is alone with God. In his hour of desolation he looks up from the desert
to heaven. O God, he cried, thou art my God. In the original language he does not
repeat the word which is translated God. In Elohim, the true idea of the root is that
of awe, while the adjectival form implies permanency. In Eli, the second word
employed, the etymological idea is that of might, strength. We might paraphrase,
"O thou Ever awful One, my Strength, or my Strong God art thou." But the second
word, Eli, is in itself nothing less than a separate revelation of an entire aspect of the
Being of God. It is, indeed, used as a proper and distinct name of God. The
pronomial suffixes for the second and third persons are, as Gesenius has remarked,
never once found with this name El; whereas Eli, the first person, occurs very
frequently in the Psalter alone. We all of us remember it in the words actually
uttered by our Lord upon the cross, and which he took from their Syriacised version
of Psalms 22:1-31. The word unveils a truth unknown beyond the precincts of
revelation. It teaches us that the Almighty and Eternal gives himself in the fulness of
his Being to the soul that seeks him. Heathenism, indeed, in its cultus of domestic
and local deities, of its penates, of its Oeoi epicwrioi, bore witness by these
superstitions to the deep yearning of the human heart for the individualizing love of
a higher power. To know the true God was to know that such a craving was
satisfied. My God. The word represents not a human impression, or desire, or
conceit, but an aspect, a truth, a necessity of the divine nature. Man can, indeed,
give himself by halves; he can bestow a little of his thought, of his heart, of his
endeavour, upon his brother man. In other words, man can be imperfect in his acts
as he is imperfect and finite in his nature. But when God, the Perfect Being, loves
the creature of his hand, he cannot thus divide his love. He must perforce love with
the whole directness, and strength, and intensity of his Being; for he is God, and
therefore incapable of partial and imperfect action. He must give himself to the
single soul with as absolute a completeness as if there were no other being besides it,
and, on his side, man knows that this gift of himself by God is thus entire; and in no
narrow spirit of ambitious egotism, but as grasping and representing the literal fact,
he cries, "My God." Therefore does this word enter so largely into the composition
of Hebrew names. Men loved to dwell upon that wondrous relation of the Creator to
their personal life which is so strikingly manifested. Therefore, when God had "so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
shall not perish, but have everlasting life, "we find St. Paul writing to the Galatians
as if his own single soul had been redeemed by the sacrifice of Calvary: "He loved
me, and gave himself for me." Henry Parry Liddon, in "Some Words for God: being
Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, 1863-1865."
Ver. 1. (first clause). There is a great deal more in it than men of the world are
aware of; to say, O God, thou art my God, in this connection and conjunction: there
is more in it in regard of excellency, and there is more in it in regard of difficulty
likewise. It is not an unfruitful thing to say it, and it is not am easy thing to say it
neither. It confers a great deal of benefit, and requires a great deal of grace, which
belongs unto it, in the truth and reality of it. The benefit of it, first, is very great;
yea, in effect all things else. To say God is ours, is to say the whole world is ours, and
a great deal more; it is to give us title to everything which may be requisite or
convenient for us. Whatever we can desire or stand in need of, it is all wrapped up
in this, Thou art my God. But then, again, it is a matter of difficulty (as those things

which are excellent are). It is a thing which is not so easily said as the world
imagines it and thinks it to be. Indeed, it is easy to the mouth, but it is not easy to the
heart. It is easy to have a fancy to say it, but it is not to have a faith to say it: this
carries some kind of hardship with it, and is not presently attained unto; but the
mind of man withdraws from it. There are two states and conditions in which it is
very difficult to say, O God, thou art my God: the one is the state of nature and
unregeneracy; and the other is the state of desertion, and the hiding of God's face
from the soul. Thomas Horton(--1673).
Ver. 1. (second clause). The relations of God to his people are not bare and empty
titles, but they carry some activity with them, both from him towards them, and
from them also answerably towards him. Those whom God is a God to, he bestows
special favours upon them; and those to whom God is a God, they return special
services to him. And so we shall find it to be all along in Scripture, as this David in
another place: "Thou art my God, and I will praise thee; thou art my Lord, I will
exalt thee." Psalms 118:28. And so here: Thou art my God; early will I seek thee.
While the servants of God have claimed any interest in him, they have also exhibited
duty to him. The text is an expression not only of faith, but likewise of obedience,
and so to be looked upon by us. Thomas Horton.
Ver. 1. Early; in the morning, before all things, God is to be sought, otherwise he is
sought in vain: as the manna, unless collected at early dawn, dissolves. Simon de
Muis.
Ver. 1. My soul thirsteth for thee. Oh that Christ would come near, and stand still,
and give me leave to look upon him! for to look seemeth the poor man's privilege,
since he may, for nothing and without hire, behold the sun. I should have a king's
life, if I had no other thing to do than for evermore to behold and eye my fair Lord
Jesus: nay, suppose I were holden out at heaven's fair entry, I should be happy for
evermore, to look through a hole in the door, and see my dearest and fairest Lord's
face. O great King! why standest thou aloof? Why remainest thou beyond the
mountains? O Well beloved, why dost thou pain a poor soul with delays? A long
time out of thy glorious presence is two deaths and two hells to me. We must meet. I
must see him, I dow (Am not able to do without him.) not want him. Hunger and
longing for Christ hath brought on such a necessity of enjoying Christ that I will
not, I dow not want him; for I cannot master nor command Christ's love. Samuel
Rutherford (1600-1661).
Ver. 1. My flesh, that is, my bodily sensitive appetite, which thirsts, ardently longs
for consolation, which it receives from the abounding of spiritual consolation to the
soul. This meaning greatly pleases me. God giveth the upper and the nether springs.
Rebekah, after drawing water in her pitcher, for Eliezer, Abraham's servant, added,
"I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking, "Genesis
24:19. Jacob dug a well near to Sychar, which was afterwards called Samaria, and
as the woman of Samaria said, "drank thereof himself, and his children, and his
cattle, " John 4:12. When Moses with the rod smote the rock twice, "the water came
out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also, " umbers 20:11.
So God satisfies with this consolation both our higher and lower nature. Thomas Le
Blanc.
Ver. 1. My flesh longeth for thee. The verb hmk is used only in this place, and
therefore signification of it is rather uncertain, but it will receive light from the

Arabic dialect. In Golius's Lexicon it signifies caligavit oculus, alteratus colore, et
mente debilitatus fuit. His eye grew dim, his colour was changed, and his mind was
weakened; and therefore, as used by the psalmist, implies the utmost intenseness of
fervency of desire, as though it almost impaired his sight, altered the very hue of his
body, and even injured his understanding; effects sometimes of eager and
unsatisfied desires. Samuel Chandler.
Ver. 1. In a dry. Here we must read uyrak (Keeretz), instead of nyrak (Beeretz), for
it is, like this, and not, in this (which has no force), even like this dry, wearied, and
waterless region; so am I for seeing thee in the sanctuary, for beholding thy power
and thy glory. Benjamin Weiss, in a " ew Translation of the Book of the Psalms,
with Critical otes, "etc. 1858. Weiss appears to have the authority of several MSS
for this, but he seldom errs in the direction of too little dogmatism. C. H. S.
Ver. 1-2. O God, thou art my God. He embraces him at first word, as we used to do
friends at first meeting. Early will I seek thee, says he: my soul thirsteth for thee, my
flesh (that is, myself) longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.
Surely, David had some extraordinary business now with God to be done for
himself, as it follows (Psalms 63:2): To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen
thee in the sanctuary; where God had met him, and manifested himself to him... The
very sight of a friend rejoiceth a man (Proverbs 27:17): "As iron sharpeneth iron, so
doth a man the face of his friend." It alone whets up joy by a sympathy of spirits;
and in answer hereunto it is characteristically to God's people called the seeking of
God's face, that is, himself, for so his face is taken: "Thou shalt have no other gods
before my face; "that is, thou shalt have myself, or none but myself. Personal
communion with God is the end of our graces; for as reason and the intercourse of it
makes men sociable one with another, so the divine nature makes us sociable with
God himself: and the life we live by is but an engine, a glass to bring God down to
us. Thomas Goodwin.
HI TS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Ver. 1. (first clause). While the Atheist says, " o God, "and the heathen worship
"gods many, "the true believer says, "O God, thou art my God." He is so,
I. By choice.
II. By covenant.
III. By confession.
Ver. 1. (second clause). Seeking God early.
1. Early in respect of life.
2. Early in respect of diligence.
3. Early in respect of (fervour.)
4. Early in respect of times or continuance. Alexander Shanks.
Ver. 1. (second clause). Earnest seeking. That which is longed for will be eagerly
sought.
1. The soul is resolute. I will seek.
2. The soul is reasonable. I will seek.
3. The soul is ready. Early will I.
4. The soul is persevering. Let this be the resolution of both saved and unsaved. G. J.
K.
BE SO , "Psalms 63:1. O God — O thou who art God, and the only living and

true God, the author and end of all things, the Governor and Judge of men and
angels, and the sole object of their worship; thou art my God — Mine by creation,
and therefore my rightful owner and ruler; mine by covenant and my own consent,
and therefore the object of my highest esteem, most fervent desire, and most entire
trust and confidence. Early will I seek thee — Which clause is all expressed in one
word in the Hebrew, ‫,אשׁחרְך‬ ashacherecha, (a most significant term, from ‫,שׁחר‬
shachar, aurora, vel diluculum, the dawn of day, or morning twilight,) a phrase
which no translation can very happily express. Buxtorf interprets it thus, Quasi
aurorare, vel diluculare dicas, words which will not admit of being rendered into
our language. The sense of them, however, is, I will prevent, or be as early as the
first approach of light in seeking thee. Perhaps no version can better express the
precise meaning and force of the original term than that of the Seventy, namely,
προς σε ορθριζω, but it is equally difficult, if not impossible, to be literally
translated into English. We find the same Hebrew phrase Isaiah 26:9, which our
translators interpret in the same manner, namely, “With my spirit within me will I
seek thee early.” The primary meaning of the word early, in both passages, is early
in the morning, or before, or with the dawn of day; which implies the doing it
(namely, seeking God) with the greatest speed and diligence, taking the first and
best time for it. And to seek him, the reader will observe, is to covet his favour as
our chief good, and to consult his glory as our highest end: it is to seek an
acquaintance with him by his word, and mercy from him by prayer: it is to seek
union with him, and a conformity to him by his Spirit. My soul thirsteth for thee —
Eagerly desires to approach thee, to have access to thee, and to enjoy communion
with thee. Thirsting, in all languages, is frequently used for earnestly longing after,
or passionately desiring any thing. My flesh longeth for thee — Or, languisheth, or
pineth away, as ‫,כמה‬ chamah, the word here used, seems properly to signify. R. Sal.
renders it, arescit, it is dried up, withered, or wasted. In some approved lexicons it is
interpreted of the eye growing dim, the colour changing, and the mind being
weakened. As used here by the psalmist, the word implies the utmost intenseness
and fervency of desire; as though it impaired his sight, altered the very hue of his
body, and even injured his understanding; effects oftentimes produced by eager and
unsatisfied desires. In a dry and thirsty land where no water is — Where I have not
the refreshing waters of the sanctuary, and where I thirst not so much for water to
refresh my body, although I also greatly want that, as for thy presence, and the
communications of thy grace to refresh my soul. He experienced the vehemence of
natural thirst in a wilderness, where he could get no supply of water; and by that
sensation he expresses the vehemence of his spiritual thirst, of his desire after God,
and the ordinances of his worship.
TRAPP, "Psalms 63:1 « A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
» 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;
When he was in the wilderness of Judah] That is, of Idumea, saith Genebrard,
which bordered upon the tribe of Judah; but better understand it either of the
forest of Hareth, 1 Samuel 22:5, or of the wilderness of Ziph, 1 Samuel 23:14, where
David was, In deserto desertus exul, et omnis fere consolationis inept, not only

destitute of outward comforts, but in some desertion of soul; Et sic miserrimus, et
calamitosissimus oberravit, saith Beza.
Ver. 1. O God, thou art my God] And that is now mine only comfort; Divini mellis
alvearium, the bee hive of heavenly honey.
Early will I seek thee] ow they who seek God early have a promise that they shall
find him. Aben-Ezra rendereth it, Sicut mercator gemmas, inquiram re, I will
diligently seek thee, as a merchant doth the precious stones ‫סוחד‬ (Mercator).
My soul thirsteth for thee] Thirst is Taclith hattaavah, say the Rabbis, the
perfection of desire. The whole life of a Christian is nothing else but Sanctum
desiderium, saith Austin. How many broken spirits spend and exhale themselves in
continual sallies, as it were, and egressions of affection unto God, thirsting after, not
only a union, but a unity with him?
My flesh longeth for thee] on habet haec vex secium, saith Aben-Ezra; this word is
here only found. It is a notable metaphor, saith another interpreter, taken from
women with child, to express the earnest affection that he had to God-ward. The
Septuagint rendereth it ποσαπλως, Quam multipliciter. His soul, his flesh, all was on
a light fire, as it were, with ardent affection towards God (R. Solomon).
In a dry and thirsty land] Where I am hardly bestead, and at a great fault for
outward accommodations, but much more for sweet and spiritual communion with
thee in holy ordinances; there lieth the pinch of my grief.
COKE, "Psalms 63:1. Early will I seek thee— To seek God, is to address him by
supplication and thanksgiving: and as our safety by night should be acknowledged
by the sacrifice of praise, so should our protection through the day be humbly
sought after by serious prayer every morning. My soul thirsteth for thee, continues
the Psalmist; i.e. eagerly desires to approach thee: Thirsting, in all languages, is
frequently used for earnestly longing after, or passionately wishing for anything. He
goes on, my flesh longeth for thee. The verb ‫כמה‬ kamah, tendered longeth, is used
only in this place; and therefore the signification of it is rather uncertain, but will
receive light from the Arabic dialect. In Golius's Lexicon it signifies, His eye grew
dim—his colour was changed, and his mind weakened; and, therefore, as used by
the Psalmist, implies the utmost intenseness and fervency of desire; as though it
impaired his sight, and altered the very hue of his body; effects oftentimes of eager
and unsatisfied desires. Houbigant and some other critics are for altering the
Hebrew in the next clause, and reading, not in a dry land, but as a dry land; which
is figuratively said to thirst for water, when it wants rain. But David describes his
own eager desire to approach God's sanctuary, by the figurative expression of

thirsting himself, and not by barren land's thirsting for or desiring water; and the
reading of the text is genuine, as he represents his present situation, which was in a
dry and thirsty wilderness. The whole clause, however, should be thus rendered, My
flesh pines away for thee in a dry land, and where I am faint without water. He
experienced the vehemency of thirst in a wilderness, where he could get no supply of
water, and by that sensation expresses the vehemence and impatience of his own
mind to be restored to the worship of God.
WHEDO , "1. My God—The “Our Father” and “Abba Father” of the Old
Testament, expressive of the confidence and submission of all acceptable prayer or
praise.
Early—At daybreak, to be taken literally. See on Psalms 46:5.
Soul—It occurs four times, and “is the characteristic word of the psalm.”—Jebb.
Flesh longeth—The soul thirsted for God, the fountain of living water; the flesh
languished from hunger for the bread of life.
Dry and thirsty land—Dry and weary land. A land which exhausted life and
furnished no supply. To be taken literally of the land, but as an emblem, also, of his
condition in exile, cut off from the ordinances of worship and the fellowship of
saints.
Where no water is— ot absolutely, but where it was frightfully scarce. En-gedi,
now Ain-jiddy, means “fountain of the kid,” from a beautiful fountain that breaks
out of the rocks above the ruins of the ancient city, and about 400 feet above the
plain. But such fountains are very rare in the desert. The city stood far south, near
the shore of the Dead Sea, in the heart of the desert, south by east from Hebron. Its
immediate vicinity was exceedingly fertile and beautiful, but David was in the
adjacent desert mountains, probably el-Mersed, on the north.
COFFMA , "PSALM 63
DAVID'S CRY TO GOD FROM THE DESERT
SUPERSCRIPTIO : A PSALM OF DAVID; WHE HE WAS I THE
WILDER ESS OF JUDAH.
This is a very beautiful psalm of devotion to God. Matthew Henry wrote that, "Just
as the sweetest of Paul's epistles were those sent out from a Roman prison, so some
of the sweetest of David's Psalms are those that were penned, as this one was, in the
wild desolation of the Dead Sea desert."[1]
All but the timid scholars agree with Rawlinson who wrote: "All the indications
agree exactly with the superscription that this psalm was composed by David as he
fled through the wilderness of Judea toward the Jordan during the revolt of

Absalom."[2]
The authorship and occasion of this psalm are made certain by the fact that the
author was a king (Psalms 63:11), who was temporarily denied access to the
tabernacle in Jerusalem, and who cried out to God from a parched desert. These
conditions point unerringly to King David during his flight through the wilderness
of Judea from the enmity of Absalom.
Delitzsch more particularly identified David's location with that arid strip of desert
just west of the Dead Sea.[3]
There are five divisions in the psalm, the first four with two verses each, and the
fifth taking in the last three verses.
Psalms 63:1-2
"O God, thou art my God; earnestly will I seek thee:
My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee,
In a dry and weary land where no water is.
So have I looked on thee in the sanctuary,
To see thy power and thy glory."
"O God, thou art my God" (Psalms 63:1). "In the Hebrew, these words are:
[~'Elohiym], [~'Eli]. [~'Elohiym] is plural and [~'Eli] is singular."[4] Spurgeon
commented on this as, "Expressing the Mystery of the Trinity and the Mystery of
their Unity, along with that of the Spirit of God."[5]
"Early will I seek thee" (Psalms 63:1). This is the KJV rendition of this clause; and
we have chosen it here because of the long traditions associated with this rendition.
Reginald Heber's immortal hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy," memorializes these words in
the first stanza.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning, our song shall rise to
thee.
Holy, holy, holy, Merciful and Mighty, God over all, and blessed eternally.[6]
Kidner gives a scholarly defense of this rendition.[7]
"Where no water is" (Psalms 63:1). There is no reason for taking these words in
some figurative or mystical sense. The parched desert just west of the Dead Sea
reminded David of how hungry and thirsty his soul was for God.

"So have I looked upon thee in the sanctuary" (Psalms 63:2). "Some have
interpreted this to mean that David was here granted a vision of God just as clear
and distinct as he had seen in the sanctuary."[8] Such a theophany is not
unreasonable, for God surely did grant such a vision to Joshua in the conquest of
Canaan. The threat to the Davidic dynasty, David's kingdom being a type of the
Messianic kingdom, and the heavenly necessity that David's heart should have been
comforted and strengthened in this situation - all these things might very well
indeed have led to such a theophany.
Then, there is the mystery of that little word, "So," standing at the head of Psalms
63:2, which will surely bear this interpretation. It is no embarrassment to us that
many scholars reject it.
Such a vision of God, as McCaw admitted, "Would explain the sudden transition
from sadness to great joy."[9] It would also explain the confidence and prophetic
certainty of the entire psalm, which among other things, accurately announced the
end of Absalom's rebellion as being accomplished by the wholesale death (literally)
of the whole rebellious army, leaders and all (Psalms 63:9-10).
ELLICOTT, "(1) Early will I seek thee.—LXX. and Vulgate, “to thee I wake early,”
i.e., my waking thoughts are toward thee, and this was certainly in the Hebrew,
since the verb here used has for its cognate noun the dawn. The expectancy which
even in inanimate nature seems to await the first streak of morning is itself enough
to show the connection of thought. (Comp. the use of the same verb in Song of
Solomon 7:12; and comp. Luke 21:28, ew Testament Commentary.)
Soul . . . flesh.—Or, as we say, body and soul. (Comp. Psalms 84:2, “my heart and
my flesh.”)
Longeth.—Heb., khâmah, a word only occurring here, but explained as cognate
with an Arabic root meaning to be black as with hunger and faintness.
In.—Rather, as. (Comp. Psalms 143:6.) This is the rendering of one of the Greek
versions quoted by Origen, and Symmachus has “as in,” &c
Thirsty.—See margin. Fainting is perhaps more exactly the meaning. (See Genesis
25:29-30, where it describes Esau’s condition when returning from his hunt.) Here
the land is imagined to be faint for want of water. The LXX. and Vulgate have
“pathless.” The parched land thirsting for rain was a natural image, especially to an
Oriental, for a devout religious soul eager for communion with heaven.
EXPOSITORS DICTIO ARY OF TEXTS, "The Cry of the Heart for God
Psalm 63:1
When I saw his hands wandering over the counterpane, and he picked at the
threads, and his features were drawn as sharp as a needle, I knew there was only

one way for him; and then he cried out suddenly: "God! God! God!" ow I, to
comfort the gentleman, told him I hoped there was no need to think of God just
then; and so he died.
Probably many of you recognize these words. They are put into the mouth of a bad
woman by Shakespeare—a bad woman who saw a bad man die. Mistress Quickly
describes the death of Falstaff. I suppose what gives Shakespeare his place in the
estimation of men is this—that outside the pages of the Bible, which is truer to man
than any other book, probably he comes next. His characters are undying. Why?
Because they are true to nature. He has taken in this particular instance the most
unlikely man of all the men that he has drawn, and he has shown us that there is
something in that man. He refers—we should not expect it—to God; and we feel it is
true. We get at this—that to Prayer of Manasseh , to every Prayer of Manasseh , to
every member of the human race who can think, God is the inevitable, God is the
ultimate thought.
I. Wherever man is found he builds two things—he builds a hearth, the centre of his
social and individual life, and he builds an altar, the symbol of that tendency in him
which directs his thoughts and his heart towards God. Wherever you touch the
history of mankind in any age you find that man is social and he is religious. He has
a home and he has a temple. He advanced much in the cultivation of his social life;
in the cultivation of his spiritual and moral life, he advanced but little until Jesus
Christ came. Until God gave a revelation to the world more than half the world was
enslaved, and hopelessly enslaved, and the ultimate appeal was always either to pure
force or to pure passion. But in his spiritual things, in religion, he could get no
further than this—the altar he builds must be dedicated "to the Unknown God".
And with the Unknown God how many pretended known ones? He must worship,
and he must find an object of worship, and yet he feels in his quest he is never
satisfied, because he has never reached the truth.
II. ow there is one religion that stands alone in the world. There is one religion
that differs from every system that has come from Prayer of Manasseh , and it
claims for the cause of that difference that it is not from man at all—that its origin is
with God.
And this religion, that differs from all other religions, pronounces as the first thing
the foundation upon which all else must rest—that God is the Creator of all that is
not God, and that His creation is separate from Himself. There is only one other
creed in the world, all the religions that ever have been you can sum up in one
term—they are all alike in essence, they are the same, of the same origin, they are
what is called pantheism. They are idolatrous; the man who worships money, the
man who worships himself (a vast portion of the whole race have no other worship
than that), they are all pantheistic—that Isaiah , they make a creature of some sort
into God.
ow here, at the very first page of our religion and our religious book, in the very
first utterance of that religious body which hass lated now2000 years, and has, with

all that can be said against it, blessed the world as it was never blessed before, the
first utterance of our creed is this—God is on one side, and all else is at the other;
and the relation between the two is this—He brought out of nothingness all else that
is. ow apply that to yourself. I am God"s creature. He found a prompting which
bade Him call to the abyss of nothingness, and He produced me. I was called out of
nothingness by God. That means that I belong to Him in a sense in which nothing
can ever belong to me. I can manufacture. Given a certain amount of education, of
skill, and given the material, I can fashion it for my purpose; but creation is not
that. Creation is calling out of nothingness into being. Are we not justified in putting
that at the very beginning? Is it not right that this should be written in the first
sentence of our Bibles? Is not the Church"s instinct true when summing up the
things that belong to our peace, that we must accept if we will be saved, she puts
creation first? "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth."
III. But there is something more. If God has called me out of nothingness into being,
He also sustains me from passing altogether into the nothingness from which He
called me. This creative act of God, if I may so express it, is continuous. He sustains
us. "In Him," says St. Paul, "we live, and move, and have our being." ow what He
does He does for a purpose. He called me into being and gave me liberty; He gave
me this head of mine and this heart of mine in order that I might do three things—
that I might know Him, love Him, and fulfil His Will; and I am sinning against the
primary truth that is written in my nature when at any time in my life I give myself
up to other things than those for which I was created—to know Him, to love Him,
and to do His Will.
References.—LXIII:1.—J. M. eale, Sermons on Passages from the Psalm , p154. R.
Allen, The Words of Christ, p162. H. P. Liddon, University Sermons, p1.
The Spirit of Worship
Psalm 63:1-2
This passage expresses the pleasure which one who is piously disposed has in the
ordinances of public Christian worship.
I. (a) Though the Lord is nigh unto all such as call upon him, yet is He nigh to those
especially who call upon Him faithfully—that Isaiah , in the spirit which He
approves, and after the manner which He has prescribed, and in the place which He
has chosen to set His name.
(b) Your aim should be to feel that you are daily approaching nearer to Him and He
to you.
II. The source of that sacred delight which we should have in public worship would
be:—(a) The joy of spiritual repose.
(b) Its bringing more distinctly before us the realities of the happiness of the life to

come.
—E. J. Brewster, The Sword of the Spirit, p43.
References.—LXIII:1 , 2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv. o1427. D. Moore, Penny
Pulpit, o3166.
The Soul"s Thirst and Satisfaction
Psalm 63:1; Psalm 63:5; Psalm 63:8
The experiences of a soul in communion with God.
I. The soul thirsting for God. The Psalmist is a poet, and has a poet"s sensitiveness
to the external aspects of nature. He feels the pangs of bodily weariness and thirst,
and these seem to him to be but feeble symbols of the deeper-seated pains of desire
which touch his soul. The unrest, the deep yearnings, the longing and desires of our
natures—what are they all except cries for the living God, tendrils which are put
forth, seeking after the great prop which alone is fit to lift us from the mud of this
lower world? But the misery is that we do not know what we want, that we
misinterpret the meaning of our own desires, that we go to the wrong sources for
our need. Shipwrecked sailors drink salt water in their wild thirst, and it makes
them mad. Let us see to it, too, that since we believe, or say we believe, that God is
our chiefest good, the intensity of the longing bear some proportion to the worth of
the thing desired. Can there be anything more preposterous, anything in the
strictest sense of the word more utterly irrational than tepid wishes for the greatest
good? What would you think of a man that had some feeble wish after health or
life? Cold wishes for God are as flagrant an absurdity as cold sunshine. Religion is
nothing if it is not fervour.
II. The seeking soul satisfied. The lips that were parted to say, "My soul thirsteth"
had scarcely uttered it when again they opened to say "My soul is satisfied". It is no
wonder. God"s gifts are never delayed in the highest of all regions. ot only does
this second text of ours give us that thought of the simultaneousness, in regard to the
highest of all gifts, of wish and enjoyment, but it also tells us that the soul thus
answered will be satisfied. If it be true, as we have been trying to say, that God is the
real object of all human desire, then the contact of the seeking soul with that perfect
aim of all its seeking will bring rest to every appetite, its desired food to every wish,
strength for every weakness, fullness for all emptiness.
III. The satisfied soul presses closer to God. The soul that is satisfied will and ought
to adhere with tenacity to the source that satisfies it. We, if we have made
experience, as we may, of God and His sweet sufficiency, and sufficient sweetness,
should be delivered from temptation to go further and fare worse. And then this
clinging, resulting from satisfaction, is accompanied with earnest seeking after still
more of the infinite God. When we turn ourselves to God and seek for all that we
need there, there can be no satiety in us. So the two opposing blessed-nesses, the

blessedness of search that is sure of finding, and the blessedness of finding which is
calm repose, are united in the Christian experience.
—A. Maclaren, Christ"s Musts, p98.
References.—LXIII:3.—J. M. eale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalm , pp162 ,
170. H. J. Bevis, Sermons, p144. LXIII:6.—J. Martineau, Endeavour after the
Christian Life, p84. LXIII:7.—J. Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p76.
EBC, "IF the psalmist is allowed to speak, he gives many details of his
circumstances in his song. He is in a waterless and weary land, excluded from the
sanctuary, followed by enemies seeking his life. He expects a fight, in which they are
to fall by the sword, and apparently their defeat is to lead to his restoration to his
kingdom.
These characteristics converge on David. Cheyne has endeavoured to show that they
fit the faithful Jews in the Maccabean period, and that the "king" in Psalms 63:2 is
"Jonathan or [better] Simon" ("Orig. of Psalt.," 99, and "Aids to Dev. Study of
Crit.," 308 seqq.). But unless we are prepared to accept the dictum that "Pre-
Jeremian such highly spiritual hymns obviously cannot be" (u.s.), the balance of
probability will be heavily in favour of the Davidic origin.
The recurrence of the expression "My soul" in Psalms 63:1, Psalms 63:5, Psalms
63:8, suggests the divisions into which the psalm falls. Following that clue, we
recognise three parts, in each of which a separate phase of the experience of the soul
in its communion with God is presented as realised in sequence by the psalmist. The
soul longs and thirsts for God (Psalms 63:1-4). The longing soul is satisfied in God
(Psalms 63:5-7). The satisfied soul cleaves to and presses after God (Psalms 63:8-11).
These stages melt into each other in the psalm as in experience, but are still
discernible.
In the first strophe the psalmist gives expression in immortal words to his longing
after God. Like many a sad singer before and after him, he finds in the dreary scene
around an image of yet drearier experiences within. He sees his own mood reflected
in the grey monotony of the sterile desert, stretching waterless on every side, and
seamed with cracks, like mouths gaping for the rain that does not come. He is weary
and thirsty; but a more agonising craving is in his spirit, and wastes his flesh. As in
the kindred Psalms 42:1-11 and Psalms 43:1-5, his separation from the sanctuary
has dimmed his sight of God. He longs for the return of that vision in its former
clearness. But even while he thirsts, he in some measure possesses, since his resolve
to "seek earnestly" is based on the assurance that God is his God. In the region of
the devout life the paradox is true that we long precisely because we have. Every
soul is athirst for God; but unless a man can say, "Thou art my God," he knows not
how to interpret nor where to slake his thirst, and seeks, not after the living
Fountain of waters, but after muddy pools and broken cisterns.
MACLARE , "THIRST A D SATISFACTIO

Psalms 63:1, Psalms 63:5, Psalms 63:8.
It is a wise advice which bids us regard rather what is said than who says it, and
there are few regions in which the counsel is more salutary than at present in the
study of the Old Testament, and especially the Psalms. This authorship has become
a burning question which is only too apt to shut out far more important things.
Whoever poured out this sweet meditation in the psalm before us, his tender
longings for, and his jubilant possession of, God remain the same. It is either the
work of a king in exile, or is written by some one who tries to cast himself into the
mental attitude of such a person, and to reproduce his longing and his trust. It may
be a question of literary interest, but it is of no sort of spiritual or religious
importance whether the author is David or a singer of later date endeavouring to
reproduce his emotions under certain circumstances.
The three clauses which I have read, and which are so strikingly identical in form,
constitute the three pivots on which the psalm revolves, the three bends in the
stream of its thought and emotion. ‘My soul thirsts; my soul is satisfied; my soul
follows hard after Thee.’ The three phases of emotion follow one another so swiftly
that they are all wrapped up in the brief compass of this little song. Unless they in
some degree express our experiences and emotions, there is little likelihood that our
lives will be blessed or noble, and we have little right to call ourselves Christians.
Let us follow the windings of the stream, and ask ourselves if we can see our own
faces in its shining surface.
I. The soul that knows its own needs will thirst after God.
The Psalmist draws the picture of himself as a thirsty man in a waterless land. That
may be a literally true reproduction of his condition, if indeed the old idea is correct,
that this is a work of David’s; for there is no more appalling desert than that in
which he wandered as an exile. It is a land of arid mountains without a blade of
verdure, blazing in their ghastly whiteness under the fierce sunshine, and with
gaunt ravines in which there are no pools or streams, and therefore no sweet sound
of running waters, no shadow, no songs of birds, but all is hot, dusty, glaring,
pitiless; and men and beasts faint, and loll out their tongues, and die for want of
water. And, says the Psalmist, such is life, if due regard be had to the deepest wants
of a soul, notwithstanding all the abundant supplies which are spread in such rich
and loving luxuriance around us-we are thirsty men in a waterless land. I need not
remind you how true it is that a man is but a bundle of appetites, desires, often
tyrannous, often painful, always active. But the misery of it is-the reason why man’s
misery is great upon him is-mainly, I suppose, that he does not know what it is that
he wants; that he thirsts, but does not understand what the thirst means, nor what it
is that will slake it. His animal appetites make no mistakes; he and the beasts know
that when they are thirsty they have to drink, and when they are hungry they have
to eat, and when they are drowsy they have to sleep. But the poor instinct of the
animal that teaches it what to choose and what to avoid fails us in the higher
reaches; and we are conscious of a craving, and do not find that the craving reveals
to us the source from whence its satisfaction can be derived. Therefore ‘broken
cisterns that can hold no water’ are at a premium, and ‘the fountain of living
waters’ is turned away from, though it could slake so many thirsts. Like ignorant
explorers in an enemy’s country, we see a stream, and we do not stop to ask whether

there is poison in it or not before we glue our thirsty lips to it. There is a great old
promise in one of the prophets which puts this notion of the misinterpretation of our
thirsts, and the mistakes as to the sources from which they can be slaked, into one
beautiful metaphor which is obscured in our English version. The prophet Isaiah
says, according to our reading, ‘the parched land shall become a pool.’ The word
which he uses is that almost technical one which describes the phenomenon known
only in Eastern lands, or at least known in them only in its superlative degree; the
mirage, where the dancing currents of ascending air simulate the likeness of a cool
lake, with palm-trees around it. And, says he, ‘the mirage shall become a pool,’ the
romance shall turn into a reality, the mistakes shall be rectified, and men shall know
what it is that they want, and shall get it when they know. Brethren! unless we have
listened to the teaching from above, unless we have consulted far more wisely and
far more profoundly than many of us have ever done the meaning of our own hearts
when they cry out, we too shall only be able to take for ours the plaintive cry of the
half of this first utterance of the Psalmist, and say despairingly, ‘My soul thirsteth.’
Blessed are they who know where the fountain is, who know the meaning of the
highest unrests in their own souls, and can go on to say with clear and true self-
revelation, ‘My soul thirsteth for God!’ That is religion. There is a great deal more
in Christianity than longing, but there is no Christianity worth the name without it.
There is moral stimulus to activity, a pattern for conduct, and so on, in our religion,
and if our religion is only this longing-well then, it is worth very little; and I fancy it
is worth a good deal less if there is none of this felt need for God, and for more of
God, in us.
And so I come to two classes of my hearers; and to the first of them I say, Dear
friends! do not mistake what it is that you ‘need,’ and see to it that you turn the
current of your longings from earth to God; and to the second of them I say, Dear
friends! if you have found out that God is your supreme good, see to it that you live
in the good, see to it that you live in the constant attitude of longing for more of that
good which alone will slake your appetite.
‘The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine,’ and unless we
know what it is to be drawn outwards and upwards, in strong aspirations after
something-’afar from the sphere of our sorrow,’ I know not why we should call
ourselves Christians at all.
But, dear friends! let us not forget that these higher aspirations after the uncreated
and personal good which is God have to be cultivated very sedulously and with
great persistence, throughout all our changing lives, or they will soon die out, and
leave us. There has to be the clear recognition, habitual to us, of what is our good.
There has to be a continual meditation, if I may so say, upon the all-sufficiency of
that divine Lord and Lover of our souls, and there has to be a vigilant and a
continual suppression, and often excision and ejection, of other desires after
transient and partial satisfactions. A man who lets all his longings go unchecked and
untamed after earthly good has none left towards heaven. If you break up a river
into a multitude of channels, and lead off much of it to irrigate many little gardens,
there will be no force in its current, its bed will become dry, and it will never reach
the great ocean where it loses its individuality and becomes part of a mightier whole.
So, if we fritter away and divide up our desires among all the clamant and partial
blessings of earth, then we shall but feebly long, and feebly longing, shall but faintly

enjoy, the cool, clear, exhaustless gush from the fountain of life-’My soul thirsteth
for God!’-in the measure in which that is true of us, and not one hairsbreadth
beyond it, in spite of orthodoxy, and professions, and activities, are we Christian
people.
II. The soul that thirsts after God is satisfied.
The Psalmist, by the magic might of his desire, changes, as in a sudden
transformation scene in a theatre, all the dreariness about him. One moment it is a
‘dry and barren land where no water is’; the next moment a flash of verdure has
come over the yellow sand, and the ghastly silence is broken by the song of merry
birds. The one moment he is hungering there in the desert; the next, he sees spread
before him a table in the wilderness, and his soul is ‘satisfied as with marrow and
with fatness,’ and his mouth praises God, whom he possesses, who has come unto
him swift, immediate, in full response to his cry. ow, all that is but a picturesque
way of putting a very plain truth, which we should all be the happier and better if
we believed and lived by, that we can have as much of God as we desire, and that
what we have of Him will be enough.
We can have as much of God as we desire. There is a quest which finds its object
with absolute certainty, and which finds its object simultaneously with the quest.
And these two things, the certainty and the immediateness with which the thirst of
the soul after God passes into a satisfied fruition of the soul in God, are what are
taught us here in our text; and what you and I, if we comply with the conditions,
may have as our own blessed experience. There is one search about which it is true
that it never fails to find. The certainty that the soul thirsting after God shall be
satisfied with God results at once from His nearness to us, and His infinite
willingness to give Himself, which He is only prevented from carrying into act by
our obstinate refusal to open our hearts by desire. It takes all a man’s indifference
to keep God out of his heart, ‘for in Him we live, and move, and have our being,’
and that divine love, which Christianity teaches us to see on the throne of the
universe, is but infinite longing for self-communication. That is the definition of true
love always, and they fearfully mistake its essence, and take the lower and spurious
forms of it for the higher and nobler, who think of love as being what, alas! it often
is, in our imperfect lives, a fierce desire to have for our very own the thing or person
beloved. But that is a second-rate kind of love. God’s love is an infinite desire to give
Himself. If only we open our hearts-and nothing opens them so wide as longing-He
will pour in, as surely as the atmosphere streams in through every chink and
cranny, as surely as if some great black rock that stands on the margin of the sea is
blasted away, the waters will flood over the sands behind it. So unless we keep God
out, by not wishing Him in, in He will come.
The certitude that we possess Him when we desire Him is as absolute. As swift as
Marconi’s wireless message across the Atlantic and its answer; so immediate is the
response from Heaven to the desire from earth. What a contrast that is to all our
experiences! Is there anything else about which we can say ‘I am quite sure that if I
want it I shall have it. I am quite sure that when I want it I have it’? othing! There
may be wells to which a man has to go, as the Bedouin in the desert has to go, with
empty water-skins, many a day’s journey, and it comes to be a fight between the
physical endurance of the man and the weary distance between him and the spring.
Many a man’s bones, and many a camel’s, lie on the track to the wells, who lay

down gasping and black-lipped, and died before they reached them. We all know
what it is to have longing desires which have cost us many an effort, and efforts and
desires have both been in vain. Is it not blessed to be sure that there is One whom to
long for is immediately to possess?
Then there is the other thought here, too, that when we have God we have enough.
That is not true about anything else. God forbid that one should depreciate the wise
adaptation of earthly goods to human needs which runs all through every life! but
all that recognised, still we come back to this, that there is nothing here, nothing
except God Himself, that will fill all the corners of a human heart. There is always
something lacking in all other satisfactions. They address themselves to sides, and
angles, and facets of our complex nature; they leave all the others unsatisfied. The
table that is spread in the world, at which, if I might use so violent a figure, our
various longings and capacities seat themselves as guests, always fails to provide for
some of them, and whilst some, and those especially of the lower type, are feasting
full, there sits by their side another guest, who finds nothing on the table to satisfy
his hunger. But if my soul thirsts for God, my soul will be satisfied when I get Him.
The prophet Isaiah modifies this figure in the great word of invitation which pealed
out from him, where he says, ‘Ho! everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.’
But that figure is not enough for him, that metaphor, blessed as it is, does not
exhaust the facts; and so he goes on, ‘yea, come, buy wine’-and that is not enough
for him, that does not exhaust the facts, therefore he adds, ‘and milk.’ Water, wine,
and milk; all forms of the draughts that slake the thirsts of humanity, are found in
God Himself, and he who has Him needs seek nowhere besides.
Lastly-
III. The soul that is satisfied with God immediately renews its quest.
‘My soul followeth hard after Thee.’ The two things come together, longing and
fruition, as I have said. Fruition begets longing, and there is swift and blessed
alternation, or rather co-existence of the two. Joyful consciousness of possession and
eager anticipation of larger bestowments are blended still more closely, if we adhere
to the original meaning of the words of this last clause, than they are in our
translation, for the psalm really reads, ‘My soul cleaveth after Thee.’ In the one
word ‘cleaveth,’ is expressed adhesion, like that of the limpet to the rock, conscious
union, blessed possession; and in the other word ‘after Thee’ is expressed the
pressing onwards for more and yet more. But now contrast that with the issue of all
other methods of satisfying human appetites, be they lower or be they higher. They
result either in satiety or in a tyrannical, diseased appetite which increases faster
than the power of satisfying it increases. The man who follows after other good than
God, has at the end to say, ‘I am sick, tired of it, and it has lost all power to draw
me,’ or he has to say, ‘I ravenously long for more of it, and I cannot get any more.’
‘He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance
with increase.’ You have to increase the dose of the narcotic, and as you increase the
dose, it loses its power, and the less you can do without it the less it does for you. But
to drink into the one God slakes all thirsts, and because He is infinite, and our
capacity for receiving Him may be indefinitely expanded; therefore, ‘Age cannot
wither, nor custom stale His infinite variety’; but the more we have of God, the
more we long for Him, and the more we long for Him the more we possess Him.
Brethren! these are the possibilities of the Christian life; being its possibilities they

are our obligations. The Psalmist’s words may well be turned by us into self-
examining interrogations and we may-God grant that we do!-all ask ourselves; ‘Do I
thus thirst after God?’ ‘Have I learned that, notwithstanding all supplies, this world
without Him is a waterless desert? Have I experienced that whilst I call He answers,
and that the water flows in as soon as I open my heart? And do I know the happy
birth of fresh longings out of every fruition, and how to go further and further into
the blessed land, and into my elastic heart receive more and more of the ever blessed
God?’ These texts of mine not only set forth the ideal for the Christian life here, but
they carry in themselves the foreshadowing of the life hereafter. For surely such a
merely physical accident as death cannot be supposed to break this golden sequence
which runs through life. Surely this partial and progressive possession of an infinite
good, by a nature capable of indefinitely increasing appropriation of, and
approximation to it is the prophecy of its own eternal continuance. So long as the
fountain springs, the thirsty lips will drink. God’s servants will live till God dies.
The Christian life will go on, here and hereafter, till it has reached the limits of its
own capacity of expansion, and has exhausted God. ‘The water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.’
ISBET, "MA ’S RELATIO TO GOD
‘O God, Thou art my God.’
Psalms 63:1
Wherever man is found he builds two things—he builds a hearth, the centre of his
social and individual life, and he builds an altar, the symbol of that tendency in him
which directs his thoughts and his heart towards God. Wherever you touch the
history of mankind in any age you find that man is social and he is religious. He has
a home and he has a temple. He advanced much in the cultivation of his social life;
in the cultivation of his spiritual and moral life, he advanced but little until Jesus
Christ came. Until God gave a revelation to the world more than half the world was
enslaved, and hopelessly enslaved, and the ultimate appeal was always either to pure
force or to pure passion. But in his spiritual things, in religion, he could get no
further than this—the altar he builds must be dedicated ‘to the Unknown God.’
And with the Unknown God how many pretended known ones? He must worship,
and he must find an object of worship, and yet he feels in his quest he is never
satisfied, because he has never reached the truth.
I. There is one religion that stands alone in the world.—There is one religion that
differs from every system that has come from man, and it claims for the cause of
that difference that it is not from man at all—that its origin is with God. And this
religion, that differs from all other religions, pronounces as the first thing the
foundation upon which all else must rest—that God is the Creator of all that is not
God, and that His creation is separate from Himself. There is only one creed in the
world; all the religions that ever have been you can sum up in one term—they are
all alike in essence, they are the same, of the same origin, they are what is called
Pantheism. They are idolatrous; the man who worships money, the man who
worships himself (a vast portion of the whole race have no other worship than that),
they are all pantheistic—that is, they make a creature of some sort into God. ow
here, at the very first page of our religion and our religious book, in the very first

utterance of that religious body which has lasted now 2000 years, and has, with all
that can be said against it, blessed the world as it was never blessed before, the first
utterance of our creed is this—God is on one side, and all else is at the other; and
the relation between the two is this—He brought out of nothingness all else that is.
ow apply that to yourself. I am God’s creature. He found a prompting which bade
Him call to the abyss of nothingness, and He produced me. I was called out of
nothingness by God. That means that I belong to Him in a sense in which nothing
can ever belong to me.
II. If God has called me out of nothingness into being, He also sustains me from
passing altogether into the nothingness from which he called me.—This creative act
of God, if I may so express it, is continuous. He sustains us. ‘In Him,’ says St. Paul,
‘we live, and move, and have our being.’ ow what He does He does for a purpose.
He called me into being and gave me liberty; He gave me this head of mine and this
heart of mine in order that I might do three things—that I might know Him, love
Him, and fulfil His Will; and I am sinning against the primary truth that is written
in my nature when at any time in my life I give myself up to other things than those
for which I was created—to know Him, to love Him, and to do His Will. And then I
know this from experience in two ways—I know that other things do not satisfy me;
and I know when I see a man or woman who is spending his or her life in learning to
know God better, I see a saint—a man or woman who is really performing the end
for which they were designed. I know that all else disappoints; I know it must end in
confusion.
III. God shows us His truth in order that it may bless us.—You have an infinite
capacity of blessedness in your own bosom. You can have the very happiness of God
and none can take it from you. You can possess it for ever. It is that you recognise
Him as your Creator Who has called you out of nothingness, Who in His love
sustains you, and in His love (for He is love, and never can be anything but love)
endowed you with your freedom in order that you might merit it by learning to
know, to love, and to serve Him in this life.
—Rev. W. Black.
Illustration
‘“When I saw his hands wandering over the counterpane, and he picked at the
threads, and his features were drawn as sharp as a needle, I knew there was only
one way for him; and then he cried out suddenly: ‘God! God! God!’ ow I, to
comfort the gentleman, told him I hoped there was no need to think of God just
then; and so he died.”
Probably many of you recognise these words. They are put into the mouth of a bad
woman by Shakespeare—a bad woman who saw a bad man die. Mistress Quickly
describes the death of Falstaff. I suppose what gives Shakespeare his place in the
estimation of men is this—that outside the pages of the Bible, which is truer to man
than any other book, probably he comes next. His characters are undying. Why?
Because they are true to nature. He has taken in this particular instance the most

unlikely man of all the men that he has drawn, and he has shown us that there is
something in that man. He refers—we should not expect it—to God; and we feel it is
true. We get at this—that to man, to every man, to every member of the human race
who can think, God is the inevitable, God is the ultimate thought.’
SIMEO , "THE BELIEVER’S DISPOSITIO S TOWARDS GOD
Psalms 63:1-7. 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; to see thy
power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Became thy loving-
kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I
live; I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow
and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee
upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches. Because thou hast been my
help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
IT is justly said of God, that “he giveth songs in the night:” and never was there a
more striking evidence of it than in the palm before us. David is supposed to have
written it when he was in the wilderness of Ziph, fleeing from Saul who was seeking
to destroy him [ ote: 1 Samuel 23:15.]. But we can scarcely conceive that he would
call himself “the king,” as he does in the 11th verse, in the life-time of Saul: for
though he believed that God would ultimately raise him to the throne, it would have
been treason against his legitimate prince to arrogate to himself the title of “king;”
nor can we conceive that under his perilous circumstances he would have given Saul
so just a ground of accusation against him. For these reasons we are inclined to
think it was written at the time that he fled into the wilderness from Absalom, when
he, and the people that were with him, were in the greatest distress for every
necessary of life [ ote: 2 Samuel 17:28-29.]. But what are the contents of this psalm?
othing but joy and triumph: the things of time and sense were as nothing in his
eyes; but God was “all in all.”
From that portion of the psalm which we have read, we shall take occasion to shew
you the desires, the purposes, and the expectations of a renewed soul.
I. The desires—
As soon as the soul has obtained an interest in Christ, and reconciliation with God
through him, it is privileged to claim God as its own peculiar portion: it is entitled to
say of Christ, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his:” “He has loved me, and given
himself for me.” And to the Father himself also, as now reconciled to him, he can
say, “O God, thou art my God.” It is no wonder then, that from henceforth God
becomes the one object of his desire.
The soul now finds no satisfaction in earthly things—
[The whole world appears to it as “a land where no water is.” The whole creation
seems to be but “a broken cistern,” which, whilst it promises refreshment to the

weary and heavy-laden, is never able to impart it.
If it be objected, that, though David, under his peculiar trials, found the world so
barren of all good, we may find it a source of comfort to us; we answer, That there is
nothing in this world that is suited to satisfy the desires of an immortal soul; and
that, the more we have of this world, the more fully shall we be convinced, that it is
altogether an empty bubble, a cheat, a lie; and that “vanity and vexation of spirit” is
written by the finger of God himself upon all that it contains. The carnal mind
cannot credit this: but the renewed soul needs no argument to convince it of this
truth.]
Its desire therefore is after God alone—
[“Early will I seek thee,” is the language of every one that is born of God. In the
secret chamber his first waking thoughts will be, “Where is God my Maker?” where
is Jesus my Redeemer? where is the blessed Spirit my Sanctifier and my Comforter?
In the public ordinances also especially will his soul desire communion with its God.
It has beheld somewhat of God’s power and glory in the manifestations of his love,
and in the communications of his grace; and it bears those seasons in remembrance,
and longs to have them renewed from time to time. The bare ordinances will not
satisfy the believer, if God be not in them: it is not to perform a duty that he comes
up to the sanctuary, but to meet his God, and enjoy sweet converse with him: and if
he meet not God there, he is like a man who, with much ardent expectation, has
gone to a distant city to meet his friend, and has been disappointed of his hope: or
rather he is like those of whom the prophet Jeremiah speaks, who in a season of
extreme drought “came to the pits and found no water: and returning with their
vessels empty, were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads [ ote:
Jeremiah 14:3.].” They know by sad experience that “there is no water” elsewhere:
and if they find not access to “God, the living fountain,” their very “flesh”
sympathizes with their “souls,” and fainteth by reason of the painful
disappointment, This is beautifully described in another psalm [ ote: Psalms 42:1-
3.]: and it is realized in the experience of every believer, in proportion to the
integrity of his soul before God, and to the measure of grace with which he is
endued — — —]
In perfect correspondence with the desires of a renewed soul, are,
II. Its purposes—
The Believer determines to praise and glorify his God—
[The language of his heart is, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will
sing and give praise.” He knows what God hath said, “Whoso offereth me praise,
glorifieth me:” and he determines to offer unto God the tribute that is so justly due.
or will he do this in a cold and formal manner: no; as a man of warm feelings
expresses with his body the emotions of his soul, so will he, together with his heart,
lift up his hands also in the name of his God. or will he pour forth these effusions

only on some particular occasions, or during any one particular season: he will do it
continually; he will do it to the latest hour of his life. He considers “praise as comely
for the upright;” and he wishes it to be the constant language of his lips.]
To this determination he is led by the consideration of the loving-kindness of his
God—
[O how wonderful does that love appear to him, which gave no less a person than
God’s co-equal co-eternal Son to die for him! which gave him too the knowledge of
that Saviour, together with all spiritual and eternal blessings in him, whilst
thousands and millions of the human race are dying in ignorance and perishing in
their sins! This loving-kindness so free, so rich, so full, appears to him “better than
even life itself;” and all that he can do to testify his gratitude seems nothing, yea
“less than nothing,” in comparison of it. The language of his heart is, “If I should
hold my peace, the very stones would cry out against me.” O that I had powers
equal to the occasion! how would I praise him! how would I glorify him! verily I
would praise him on earth, even as they do in heaven.]
In these purposes the believing soul is yet further confirmed by,
III. Its expectations—
The service of God is not without its reward even in this life: and hence the Believer,
whilst engaged in his favourite employment, expects,
1. The richest consolation—
[The carnal mind can see no pleasure in this holy exercise; but the spiritual mind is
refreshed by it, more than the most luxurious epicure ever was by the richest
dainties. His very meditations are unspeakably sweet: yea, while contemplating his
God upon his bed, and during the silent watches of the night, “his soul is satisfied as
with marrow and fatness:” it has a foretaste even of heaven itself — — — From its
own experience of this heavenly joy, the soul expects this glorious harvest, when it
has sown in tears, and laboured to glorify its God in songs of praise.]
2. The most assured safety—
[Thus engaged, the soul looks down upon all its enemies with disdain: it feels itself
in an impregnable fortress: it is conscious that it owes all its past preservation to the
help of its Almighty Friend; and it rejoices in the thought that under the shadow of
the Redeemer’s wings it must still be safe; and that “none shall ever pluck it out of
the Father’s hands.” The state of Hezekiah, when surrounded by a vast army that
was bent on his destruction, exactly shows what is the state of a believing soul in the
midst of all its enemies: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and
laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.”
Such was the language of Zion to all the Assyrian hosts: and such is the blessed
anticipation of victory which every Believer is privileged to enjoy [ ote: e Romans

8:33-39.].]
Improvement—
1. How greatly do the generality of religious professors live below their
privileges!
[It was not peculiar to David thus to delight in God: it en common, and is yet
common, to all the saints. Can it be thought that we, who live under so much better
a dispensation than he, and have so much brighter discoveries of God’s power and
glory than ever he had, should yet not be privileged to delight in God as he did?
Were this the case, we should be losers by that religion which the Son of God cam.
down from heaven to establish. But it is not so: we may partake of all spiritual
blessing? in as rich abundance as he, or any other of the saints of old, did. And we
have reason to be ashamed that our desires after God are so faint, our purposes
respecting him so weak, and our expectations from him so contracted. Let us, each
for himself, look at our experience from day to day, and compare it with his; and let
us not rest, till we have attained somewhat at least of that delight in God, which so
eminently distinguished that blessed man.]
2. What encouragement have all to seek after God!
[It was not only after David had so grievously transgressed, but at the very moment
that God was chastening him for his transgressions, that he was thus favoured of his
God [ ote: Absalom’s incestuous commerce with David’s wives was foretold by
athan, as a part of David’s punishment for his sin in taking to him the wife of his
friend Uriah.]. Can we then with propriety say, This mercy is not for me? it is not
possible for such a sinner as I ever to be thus highly favoured? Know ye, that there
is no limit, either to the sovereign exercise of God’s grace, or to its influence on the
souls of men. His grace often most abounds, where sin has most abounded: and the
vilest of us all may yet become the richest monument of God’s love and mercy, if
only, like David, he will humble himself for his iniquities, and sprinkle on his
conscience the blood of our great sacrifice. O beloved! know, if you come to God by
Christ, you shall never be cast out; and if you commit yourself in faith entirely to
Christ, you shall rejoice in him with joy unspeakable, and receive in due time the
great end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.]
PETT, "Verses 1-3
Heading.
‘A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.’
It is noticeable that there is here no dedication to the Chief Musician, and no
mention of the tune to which it was to be sung. We can only surmise why this is so.
Perhaps the aim was to indicate the close connection between this Psalm and the
previous one.
Psalms 63:11 of the Psalm refers in a positive way to the king, so that, unless we see

that verse as added later, this time ‘in the wilderness of Judah’ must have in mind
David’s flight from Absalom’s rebellion. If it was written as an almost immediate
consequence of David sending the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem (2 Samuel
15:24-26) it brings special meaning to some of the phrases used. There must have
been an emptiness within him when he saw the Ark moving back towards
Jerusalem, but an emptiness met by recognising that the closeness of God was not
affected by the absence of ritual symbols. He knew that God was as much with him
in his camp and in his bed, as He was in the Tent in Jerusalem.
The Psalm may be divided into four parts:
1) David’s Flight Through The Parched Wilderness Thirsting For Water Brings
Home To Him How Much His Own Inner Life Thirsts After God, In The Same Way
As Being In The Sanctuary Had Once Brought Home To Him God’s Glory (Psalms
63:1-3).
2) His Refreshed Vision Of God Has Restored His Heartfelt Spiritual
Satisfaction, Has Enhanced His Praise Towards God And Has Reminded Him That
It Is God Who Is His Refuge (Psalms 63:4-7).
3) Because, From Deep Within Him, He Follows Hard After God, God’s Right
Hand Upholds Him, So That Those Who Are Seeking To Destroy Him Will
Themselves Be Destroyed (Psalms 63:8-10).
4) The Consequence Of God’s Judgment On Those Who Rebel Against The
King Will Be That The King Will Rejoice In God, And Those Who Are Faithful To
Their Oaths Of Loyalty Sworn In God’s ame Will Glory (Psalms 63:11).
There is an interesting pattern in that the first part has ten lines, the second part has
eight lines, the third part has six lines, and the last part has four lines.
David’s Flight Through The Parched Wilderness Thirsting For Water Brings Home
To Him How Much His Own Inner Life Thirsts After God, In The Same Way As
Being In The Sanctuary Had Once Brought Home To Him God’s Glory (Psalms
63:1-3).
In his flight David compares his awareness of God as the One Who will satisfy his
spiritual thirst in the wilderness, with his awareness of the glory of God in the
Sanctuary. Both circumstance bring home to him God’s covenant love, and both fill
him with praise.
Psalms 63:1
‘O God, you are my God,
Earnestly will I seek you.’
My soul thirsts for you,
My flesh longs for you,
In a dry and weary land,
Where no water is.’
As David and his men fled from Absalom through the wilderness of Judah (2
Samuel 15:23), having watched the Ark return to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:24-26) as

they travelled on towards the Jordan, they thirsted, and it was then that David’s
thirst reminded him of the God Whom he loved and Whom his soul craved, the God
Whom of late he had been treating too casually. Looking around at the wilderness,
which was in such contrast to the palace that he had left, and seeing what a dry and
wearisome land it was, it brought home to him his own situation of forsakenness,
and in turn this brought home to him his hunger for God. There is nothing like
being in the wilderness to make us think of God. So, in danger of his life, he cried
out to Him, longing after Him with the same thirst that he had for water.
‘O God, you are my God.’ He knew that the fact that his circumstances had changed
did not alter the fact that God was still his God. Indeed he realised that it was God’s
concern for him that had brought him up sharp because he had grown slack in his
rulership and in his religious life. And now his reverses had brought home to him
his need to know God afresh. He had become once more athirst for God. And he
longed after Him more than he longed after water in a waterless land.
It is often necessary for God to allow problems to happen in order to shake us out of
complacency. For it is so easy for us, when all is going well, to proceed onwards and
let God slip into the background. And God thus has to bring us up with a jolt, as He
did David here.
K&D 1-3, "If the words in Psa_63:2 were ַ‫ך‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֲ‫ֽח‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ ‫ה‬ ָ ፍ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ּה‬‫ל‬ ֱ‫,א‬ then we would render it,
with Böttcher, after Gen_49:8 : Elohim, Thee do I seek, even Thee! But ‫י‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֵ‫א‬ forbids this
construction; and the assertion that otherwise it ought to be, “Jahve, my God art Thou”
(Psa_140:7), rests upon a non-recognition of the Elohimic style. Elohim alone by itself is
a vocative, and accordingly has Mehupach legarme. The verb ‫ר‬ ַ‫ח‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ signifies earnest,
importunate seeking and inquiring (e.g., Psa_78:34), and in itself has nothing to do with
‫ר‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ‫,שׁ‬ the dawn; but since Psa_63:7 looks back upon the night, it appears to be chosen
with reference to the dawning morning, just as in Isa_26:9 also, ‫ר‬ ַ‫ח‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ stands by the side of
‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ְ‫ֽי‬ ַ ַ‫ב‬ ‫ה‬ָ‫וּ‬ ִ‫.א‬ The lxx is therefore not incorrect when it renders it: πρᆵς δᆯ ᆆρθρίζω (cf. ᆇ λαᆵς
ᆡρθριζεν πρᆵς αᆒτᆵν, Luk_21:38); and Apollinaris strikes the right note when he begins
his paraphrase,
Νύκτα µετ ʆ ᅊµφιλύκην σᆯ µάκαρ µάκαρ
ᅊµφιχορεύσω -
At night when the morning dawns will I exult around Thee,
most blessed One.
The supposition that ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫א‬ ְ is equivalent to ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫א‬ ְ ‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ ַⅴ, or even that the Beth is Beth
essentiae (“as a,” etc.), are views that have no ground whatever, except as setting the
inscription at defiance. What is meant is the parched thirsty desert of sand in which
David finds himself. We do not render it: in a dry and languishing land, for ‫ה‬ָ ִ‫צ‬ is not an

Psalm 63 commentary

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Psalm 63 commentary