Day 133

Psalm 63: Read here – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2063&version=NASB

This psalm belongs to David’s wilderness years. It is built around three statements: v1 ‘My soul thirsts for you,’ v5 ‘My soul is satisfied…’ v8 ‘My soul clings to you.

David begins; ‘O God, You are my God:’ This may seem like senseless repetition. It is not; David declared to Elohim that He was David’s El, David’s God in the most fundamental sense. In a day when pagans thought there were many gods and each nation had their own gods, David sweeps such ideas aside and proclaimed his allegiance to Elohim. We too, in the 21^st century are surrounded by a plethora of false gods and ideas. The simplicity and boldness of ‘You are my God’ is the secret of all that follows, since this relationship is the heart of the covenant, from the patriarchs to the present day. Appreciating God as God, it is entirely reasonable to ‘seek’ Him and to seek Him as a priority of the day. The thirst of David’s soul demanded to be satisfied early in the day. (The NASB has ‘earnestly,’ early is the marginal reference.)

What first lays hold of the heart in the morning is likely to occupy the place all day. Most people do not even know that it is God their souls truly desire. They are seeking satisfaction in other things.

David sought God at the tabernacle (v2) as earnestly as a thirsty man looks for water ‘in a dry and thirsty land.’ The Wilderness of Judah is largely desert, so this was a picture of longing that came easily to David’s mind. He sought God at the tabernacle to connect in some way with His power and glory. Significantly, David was not at the tabernacle when he sang this song; he was in the Wilderness of Judah. (c.f. Covid19 keeping us from ‘the place of worship). Yet he knew that God’s sanctuary was not only a place but also a spiritual concept that could be entered by faith no matter where a person was. Our misery is that we thirst so little for these sublime things, and so much for the mocking trifles of time and place.