My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

Psalm 63:1-4

1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.

David was in the Judean wilderness during three periods of his life. His first time in the wilderness was as a young man, a shepherd taking care of his father’s flock. David was thrust out into the wilderness again, under the pressure of Saul’s murderous threats. A final time David found refuge for his life was when his own son Absalom turned traitor, and David had to flee his own city.

I offer to my reader that it is during this third time that this psalm was written, when he was on the run for his life due to his son’s uprising against him.

Depending on the time of year, the Judean wilderness provides a brutal environment to exist in. The dry air around him sucked the moisture from his body during the dry months. Even as he perspired, the water actually evaporated off his skin.

You see, when you are in a condition as David may have been, your sweat doesn’t provide any cooling effect for the body. It is a situation of your precious body fluids simply leaving your body with no beneficial effect for yourself. For a fellow who lives in Houston Texas, where it feels like you enter a shower when you go outside in August, I find this hard to imagine.

Nevertheless, the dryness of the desert pulled liquids from his body, draining moisture from his flesh. Much like the world we live in, that constantly sucks the life out of us, seeking to take our peace, deprive us of joy, and strip us of love. We are a needy people also!

At this point, his flesh and soul were drained. He may have been experiencing early dehydration, heat stroke, headaches, dizziness, weakness etc. As an elderly man, he was surely susceptible to all the physical malady’s extreme heat and dryness inflict on a man.

His experience was physical – he can feel the pain and exhaustion, yet he refers to his outer suffering, his physical thirst, his need for moisture as the basis to describe the greater longing of his seeking God. As his body was in a cruel environment, so his heart and spirit were being crushed by the circumstances, and in this condition, he yearns for God.

In each of our trials, we seek God with focused hearts. In our tribulations, we seek the important Person in our life. In our suffering, God actually appears more desirable, for there are no distractions that compete with our trials while we are in them. (He is always desirable, but the suffering brings the truth home, making the fact of who He is appear much greater!)

Imagine a man in the desert, cracked lips, dry burnt skin, raspy voice due to dryness, and his first thought is to be with God, to recall his time with God in the sanctuary.

It is so very interesting that David speaks of seeing and beholding God in the sanctuary. Obviously, he is not speaking of seeing the full manifestation of God, (or even the Shekinah glory above the mercy seat). but as the tabernacle spoke of the divine nature, David must have spent many hours meditating on the tabernacle. Remember that the temple had not been built yet and the tabernacle was replete with symbology that would provide much to meditate on.

Remember the condition he finds himself in, and that he is recounting his experience in the tabernacle. Truly this was a man who had invested his time is cultivating a meditative stance before the Lord. Out of his time considering the God of Israel, he became awestruck with the Creator of all.

Motivation

Also, take notice of David’s motivation for his writings. He doesn’t look to God and express his thoughts as such

Because your steadfast rules are perfect, I am obligated to praise you.

No – though God’s rules are perfect, David speaks of a free will praise, not a forced submission and obedience but a longing for beyond this physical existence to a true life. He is not asking for anything in this psalm, but simply letting his heart sing out to the One who not only gave us life, but is actually greater than the life He gave us. But surely this makes sense, for the builder is greater that the building. The Creator is greater than the creation.

Yes David has much to teach us the goodness of God, the greatness of God and the graciousness of God, even in the most troubling of times.

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