Remembering... Psalm 63
My study journal of the Psalms.
In the Psalms, those who knew Him wrote of Him and His ways… that we might know Him more.
David writes this Psalm from the wilderness of Judah. A place of isolation, barren of basic needs, and full of unknown enemies. This was a place no one would choose, and yet, this is where he says: “Early will I seek You.”
Early in my walk with the Lord, I learned what that meant in a very different setting. I would get up before the house was awake, before the light had fully come in, when it was still quiet, and even a little cold. But it became sacred to me.
It was sacred not because I was giving up sleep… but because nothing had yet made its way into my mind or heart. No pressure, no demands, and no voices.
I made it a discipline, but not for discipline’s sake. I did it so I could stand my ground and not let anything push its way in before I met with Him.
At first, I was just trying to find Him, away from people who seemed to have already found Him. Then over time, it became like meeting Him on a bench in the park.
And as life changed, it became a place I could return to inside of me… in a difficult meeting, in sickness, or in dealing with hurtful people; I could return to meet Him.
So, when I read David say: “Early will I seek You…” while being in the wilderness, I hear more than a time of day.
I hear a heart that has been formed to go to God first, no matter where he is.
What was once a place he went to… had become a place he carried within him.
Then David says: “So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.” That “So” speaks… he is saying: “I seek You here… because I have known You there.”
The sanctuary was where he had seen God’s power and glory. But now there is no sanctuary. no structure, no visible evidence, and yet he seeks Him as if He was in a sanctuary.
That is what worship has become for me. It is not trying to recreate a moment,
but returning to what I know:
I have seen You.
I know how You are.
You will be the same here.
Then comes the turning place: “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
my lips shall praise You.”
No one walks into a wilderness saying, “I will still praise You,” as a settled reality.
We all want to believe that it will be our resolve… but most of us arrive there the way David did. We begin by rehearsing what we know.
We speak out loud what we can hold onto from memory, from experience, from truth. Verse by verse, David speaks it out:
“I will bless You…”
“My soul shall be satisfied…”
“I will remember You…”
“You have been my help…”
He is bringing his heart back until what he is saying becomes what he knows again.
And when he finds himself, knowing and seeing, the God he knows, in humility he prays… “My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.”
He surrenders everything he feels and sees in the wilderness and backs up into his dependency on who he spoke in verse one: O God, You are my God.
When I have come to this place, something shifts in me. The voices quiet. the pressures step back. They cannot surrender to Him, but they must leave… for a season.
At that point, I understand what David says next.
Those things that seek to destroy, whether spiritually or naturally, will be dealt with.
Not for me to see… but for me to know.
And then the ending… “But the king shall rejoice in God…”
David finds rest, nothing in his circumstances has changed… he has.
David knows his life will continue to hold both wilderness and adversaries, but for today… he rejoices in God.
I have learned something through this Psalm: We do not return to the same rest after a battle… but we return to the same God. And because He does not change, the rest we find in Him is always enough.
So today, in whatever wilderness we find ourselves… we can say with David:
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life… I will still praise You.
—still listening
Psalm 63 (NKJV).
1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land, Where there is no water.
2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
4 Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.
6 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
7 Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They shall fall by the sword;
They shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.