There are so many fleeting pleasures in this world. In themselves, they aren’t wrong but they also cannot be the anchor for our souls. For they will not last. Everything in this life points toward something greater.
The supreme treasure of the Christian is God himself.
This Psalm does not just summon us to join in that pursuit but invites us to renew our delight in God once again.
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
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.2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
In this Psalm, we sing of the God who is our chief Desire, our soaring Delight and our ultimate Defence.
God Our Desire (1)
He met her under the heat of midday as she came to draw water from the well. As they spoke, he told her of a living water which would truly and fully and eternally satisfy her soul (John 4.14). Psalm 63 seems like the song of the Samaritan Woman after she encountered Jesus and he transformed her life.
The superscription informs us that David penned this Psalm while in the wilderness, most likely as he was on the run from his own son Absalom (2 Samuel 15.23). The arid land was a compelling picture for the barrenness of a life without God. It is not just the dry and cracked lips that crave water but the whole body. In the same way, David says that our whole being yearns for God. He is our truest and deepest desire.
Jesus declared that he himself was the fountain of living waters (John 7.37). In regions where there is little water, plants send their roots deep. In a similar way, we as Christians press deep into Christ knowing he alone will nourish our parched souls.
God our Delight (2-5)
What God gives us though is not just adequate, something sufficient to stave off the worst pangs of hunger. He is deeply generous for he gives us himself. The infinite God lavishes his people. He doesn’t just dutifully feed us the bare minimum but instead delights us with his abundant and overflowing goodness.
David has personal experience of God’s power and glory and it means he knows nothing else could ever truly satisfy.
He proclaims that God’s love is better than life. This is an extraordinary claim. What it means is that God is superior to everything the world has to offer. Life is unpredictable and uncertain. God’s love is constant, consistent and ever present. It will not be dimmed, diverted or diminished. The soul’s experience of God’s lavish love is like being fed with the richest foods. We feed on the delights of the God who delights in us, as those he has redeemed, cleansed and restored.
God’s love leads to our worship. David says that he will praise and glorify God, raising his hands to him while singing his praise.
Our King invites us to praise the God we delight in and who also defends us.
God our Defence (6-11)
The confidence of the Christian is knowing that God is with us, over us and for us. David speaks of being on watch during the night, knowing that our God will protect us from the attacks of the enemy. We need not fear because God spreads his wings around us, both comforting and shielding us. Those who strike and assault the people of God will be brought down low, all the way to the grave (9-10).
But I want to focus for just a moment on v8. Doesn’t this capture the reality of the Christian life? We cling on to God, sometimes just by our fingernails, knowing all our hope and future rests on him. Yet at the same time, there’s a deeper truth undergirding this. God himself holds us up. He is clinging onto us with a grip that will never slacken or weaken or tire (John 10.28-29). Our confidence in the wilderness and battles is that God himself is with us.
Therefore, the King will rejoice and all his people with him (v11). Jesus has defeated his enemies, silencing their lies and plots and he now reigns triumphantly at the right hand of the Father. And by his Spirit, he leads us in worship, as we rejoice and delight in our God.
Glory be to God the Father, for he shelters and comforts us under his wings.
Glory be to God the Son, for his love is better than life.
Glory be to God the Spirit, for he satisfies our hearts with the richest of blessings.
Ever three and ever One.