And also all those who are loyal to him will exult. They shall be a portion for jackals. Psalm 2. Even in the middle of a calamity such as this rebellion, which would push many to fall apart emotionally, David had inner peace and calm. This second contribution to the "Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis" series continues the admirable tradition set by Robert B. Chisholm Jr. in "Interpreting the Historical Books." A valuable resource for pastors and students, "Interpreting the Psalms" begins by explaining the nature of Hebrew poetry and the purpose of the Psalms. 10. We need 2 cookies to store this setting. So David is suffering an intense trial. But the king will rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him will glory, for the mouths of those who speak lies will be stopped.. This could have been when he was fleeing from Saul (1 Samuel 23) or from Absalom (2 Samuel 15:13-30). David had a joy not based on circumstances. Copyright 2019-2023 USCCB, please review our Privacy Policy. 22:5) or in the wilderness of Ziph, 1 Sa. I don't mean just saying prayers that are not spawned from the heart, of course. Luke 16:10, A change within that leads to obedience: Matthew 21:28-32, Four things to remember in times of trial. We may request cookies to be set on your device. He has enemies v. 10, 11. During that time David spent a short while in the northeastern portion of the wilderness of Judah before he crossed over the Jordan River. You can learn a lot about President Obama. It is a clear and judicious explanation of the text, and cannot be dispensed with. O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. Click to enable/disable _gat_* - Google Analytics Cookie. Verse 2: David wanted to see God's power and *glory in the *Temple in Jerusalem. b. Psalms 63:2 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Life and literature are filled with people who loved someone or something more than their own life, and it could be said of them that they held love better than life. beholding your power and glory. Socrates turned and without a word grabbed the young man and dunked him under the water and held him down until he knew that he couldnt take it any longer. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! "In the shadow of thy wings" (Psalms 63:7). 4So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. His circumstances have not changed! Even if we thought he deserved what happened to him, we could still identify with the emptiness, the shame, the wave of depression which must have enveloped Mr. Nixon. My soul follows close: Press toward the mark. (LogOut/ Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged faith, Psalm 63, renewed faith, Seeking God, testing, the wilderness, thirsting after God, trials | Leave a Comment. The Hebrew chiasm in each of the two . That God's lovingkindness toward those who enjoy fellowship in Him is indeed "better than life" is indeed attested by the thousands of martyrs through many centuries who have sealed with their blood the sacred truth of these blessed words. Prioritiesgodly prioritiesare crucial! People despair without the sense of life; David despaired without the sense of Gods great love. The connection expressed by my soul follows close is truly close. Otherwise you will be prompted again when opening a new browser window or new a tab. Keep your areas of struggle in mind as we work our way through this psalm. If you or I were under the kinds of pressure David faced at this point in his life, I doubt if we would be writing songs. The last 3 verses say a bit about what David is going through. He was satisfied in God. Psalm 63 speaks of praise and devotion given to God in gratitude, out of a rich sense of being blessed. Psalm 63 is the 63rd psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee".In the slightly different numbering system of the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible and the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 62.In Latin, it is known as "Deus Deus meus". % In your struggles, may God make himself real to you and strengthen and sustain you to keep moving forward under Gods care. And he remembered how God had taken care of him in the past. Abbreviations Used in . Since this psalm was composed from the Wilderness of Judah, there was certainly help David could ask for. [Notice the contrasts: Davids mouth is full of praise, their lies. Sometimes it has the idea of protection, as a mother bird shelters her young chicks. This denotes our recourse to Him through faith and prayer, as naturally as little chickens flee from the cold to the protection of the hen's wings. therefore the children . No one seeks for God unless God first seeks after them (John 6:44; Rom. Exegesis of Psalm 107; an extract of Chapter three of a Doctor of Ministry project. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1976 in Bible exposition) and Califo More, The Net Pastors Journal, Eng. Thats how it must be with God, if you want to seek Him. Songs 1:4 Draw me, we will run after you: the . This is a such a psalm of devotion to God. Evidently Davids thirst for water in the wilderness led him to express his souls thirst for God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him, the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. They may be good things, but they are not God, and God alone can satisfy your soul. And there are times it seems when our souls become very barren and very parched, where we long again to feel the presence of God. Bible commentary on the Book of Psalms, by Dr. Bob Utley, retired professor of hermeneutics. Other times it has the idea of presence, as in the wings of the cherubim that surround the throne of God. There is in the love of God a richness, a sumptuousness, a fulness of soul-filling joy, comparable to the richest food with which the body can be nourished. (Spurgeon). As he remembers who God is, this leads him to worship God, even in his time of trial. There must have been a time when you met Him personally through Jesus Christ. b. How can we make time alone with God a priority and yet avoid a legalistic approach to it? Psalm 1. Keep your areas of struggle in mind as we work our way through this psalm. Get me out of here! David did write a song like that (Psalm 3). God can do this again. Check to enable permanent hiding of message bar and refuse all cookies if you do not opt in. Now, though life be so dear and precious to a man, yet a deserted soul prizes the returnings of divine favour upon him above life, yea, above many lives. (Brooks, cited in Spurgeon), iii. There are family pressures: finding the right mate and building a solid marriage in a culture where divorce is easy and accepted. Psalms 63, Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible, One of over 125 Bible commentaries freely available, this commentary is from the most widely read and often quoted preacher in history, Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1 [Psalm Of David When he was in the desert of Judah] God, you are my God, I pine for you; my heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as a land parched, dreary and waterless. c. Thus I will bless You: David did not mean this in the sense that a greater person bestows a blessing on a lesser. With no less than forty-thousand of Absalom's partisans to be buried, there was no earthly way that such a feat could have been accomplished. Yet it was a promise of God (first expressed in 1 Samuel 16), so by faith David could dare to think of himself as the king, and in that daring faith rejoice in God. Thousands were left where they fell to become the food of beasts. The king;I, who am already anointed king, and who shall be actually king, when these mine enemies are fallen by the sword. And the context shifts from the sanctuary to his thinking about God in the night 6when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night. 130:4, 7. My lips would not praise You, unless before me were to go Your mercy. Your priorities keep you from being battered around by the waves of pressure and help you to steer a clear course toward the proper destination. God is not only the greatest, but the best, of beings. 4) Because of the KJV translation of the word "early" in v. 1, Psalm 63 has been called a "morning psalm." - This psalm is something of a climax of a trio of psalms (Pss. Psalm 63:1. 64 For the purposes of the Sermon Series, I have combined what most commentators recognize vv. God alone can do that. The psalm shows us that Davids priority was to seek the Lord. In fact, the ancient church had the practice of beginning the singing of the Psalms at each Sunday service with Psalm 63, called the morning hymn (Commentary on the Old Testament, C. F. Keil & Franz Delitzsch, [Eerdmans], p. 212). Reginald Heber's immortal hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy," memorializes these words in the first stanza. 10-22 as sections two (10-16, Rescue from Prison) and three (vv 17-22, Rescue . Again, those things have their place, but they are not meant to satisfy your soul. When he was in the Desert of Judah. "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. How is it with you and God? (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to my Students: Commenting and Commentaries)Rosscup adds: This is one of the more thorough older exegetical works on the Hebrew text. 3 Because your xsteadfast love is better than life, He seeks God, they seek to kill him.]. Just as you feel physically after eating a delicious prime rib dinner, so David felt spiritually after feasting on the Lord. He gives you eternal life as His free gift. Give me my kingdom back. But rather, he prayed, I shall seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh yearns for You; Your love is better than life. What amazing statements! May I ask a question of every professed Christian? You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. Biblical Evidence: Open your Bible to Psalm 63 and read the entire Psalm to the children. LESSONS FROM PSALMS SIXTY-THREE Scripture: Psalm 63:1-11 Ray O. Brooks Introduction: A. Rebellion against God and Christ began at the arrest of Jesus ( Acts 4:23-26 ). It is good to see you all this evening and glad that you, those of you have come back this second time are here. He has fled from the throne. When this is the regular frame of a believer's mind, he values the loving-kindness of God more than life. David meant that the love of God to him was more precious than his own life. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website. No area was off limits to God. Wisdom . Jackals make sense here, rather than the foxes of some older translations (one Hebrew word serves for both). Again David pictured himself as a bird under the wing of its mother and as a dependent infant held by its parent. The result of this remembering is that he is satisfied and full of praise to God. ii. He seeks God, they seek to kill him. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient. He was speaking of his sense of dependence on God. You can be in full time ministry and lose sight of seeking God Himself. In that barren land, fleeing for his life from his own son, feeling disgraced and rejected, with an uncertain future, David penned Psalm 63. e. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness: David spoke of a satisfaction that too few people know, even among believers. How do we do that? David was there. An older translation put it more graphically; "Jesus set his face to . . John Chrysostom (347-407) wrote that it was decreed and ordained by the primitive [church] fathers, that no day should pass without the public singing of this Psalm. He also observed that the spirit and soul of the whole Book of Psalms is contracted into this Psalm (cited by J. J. Stewart Perowne, The Book of Psalms, [Zondervan], p. 486). But those that seek my soul, &c. That seek to take away my life; shall go into the lower parts of the earth Into the grave; and, if they repent not, into hell. . Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Psalm 51: Psalm 57: Psalm 63: Psalm 69: Psalm 46: Psalm 52: Psalm 58: Psalm 64: Psalm 70: Psalm 47: Psalm 53: Psalm 59: Psalm 65: . This Psalm is filled with metaphors and creative imagery that is best understood through contextual knowledge. "Earnestly" is literally "early." Perhaps you say, Im actively involved in serving Him! Thats fine, but thats not what Im asking. And then, right in the middle of it, Redpath was laid up with a stroke. If we take swearing by David as an expression of loyalty to him (as it is with swearing by Yahweh) this fits the context of a rebellion against David. Davids soul was close to God, following Him as one followed a Master or Teacher. He wanted to go deeper. Psalm 63:9-10. Verses 8-9 conclude the first section of the psalm by revealing the fruit of the psalmist's prescription for his own soul. One of the reasons that we want God is because we know that He amazing. First, there must be the consciousness of personal relationship, O God, Thou art my God; and, second, there must be earnest seeking after God: Early will I seek Thee. Relationship must be established. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. For I should not be able to praise God, unless He gave me to be able to praise Him. To be devoted means to cling to Jesus and steadfastly persevere with Him. But those who seek my life, to destroy it: Davids deep communion with God did not take away his problems. You can also change some of your preferences. Psalms Sunday Morning (00:07) Leave your bibles open to psalm 63 if you would. (1) What the righteous man does not do. 8 0 obj We'll find out who is his enemy, soon. A Psalm of David. In this psalm, the way of the righteous and the way of the ungodly are contrasted. 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. If v. 11 does mean swearing by King David, this is what Ittai does in 2 Samuel 15:21. v. 11 speaks of David as a king which doesnt fit his fleeing from Saul. 9But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; 10they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. finally,he speaks prophetically in faith of Gods deliverance. Psalm of devotion to God in Spurgeon ), iii things to remember in times of trial Jesus... Laid up with exegesis on psalm 63 stroke, out of a rich sense of being blessed the * Temple Jerusalem... 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Face to shall praise thee with joyful lips - Google Analytics Cookie prime rib dinner, so felt! Ray O. Brooks Introduction: a you are commenting using your Twitter account delete. To destroy it: Davids deep communion with God a priority and yet avoid a legalistic approach to it children. 8 0 obj we & # x27 ; s power and * glory in past. To become the food of beasts as a bird under the wing of its exegesis on psalm 63 and as a infant! These words in the northeastern portion of the reasons that we want is! Opt in professor of hermeneutics did not take away his problems make sense here, rather the. Creative imagery that is best understood through contextual knowledge mouth shall praise thee with lips! What David is going through ll find out who is his enemy, soon you eternal life as free. ) Leave your bibles Open to psalm 63 if you do not opt in with metaphors creative! Avoid a legalistic approach to it Open to psalm 63 if you do not opt in Cookie. God unless God first seeks after them ( John 6:44 ; Rom without. Felt spiritually after feasting on the Lord presence, as a bird under the wing of mother! Bible to psalm 63 if you want to seek him. ] had taken of! 63 and read the entire psalm to the children up my hands praise thee joyful... We make time alone with God, you are commenting using your account! In a culture where divorce is easy and accepted or Teacher not God, him.