Psalms 63:1

PSALM 63

DAVID'S CRY TO GOD FROM THE DESERT

SUPERSCRIPTION: A PSALM OF DAVID; WHEN HE WAS IN THE WILDERNESS OF JUDAH.

This is a very beautiful psalm of devotion to God. Matthew Henry wrote that, "Just as the sweetest of Paul's epistles were those sent out from a Roman prison, so some of the sweetest of David's Psalms are those that were penned, as this one was, in the wild desolation of the Dead Sea desert."[1]

All but the timid scholars agree with Rawlinson who wrote: "All the indications agree exactly with the superscription that this psalm was composed by David as he fled through the wilderness of Judea toward the Jordan during the revolt of Absalom."[2]

The authorship and occasion of this psalm are made certain by the fact that the author was a king (Psalms 63:11), who was temporarily denied access to the tabernacle in Jerusalem, and who cried out to God from a parched desert. These conditions point unerringly to King David during his flight through the wilderness of Judea from the enmity of Absalom.

Delitzsch more particularly identified David's location with that arid strip of desert just west of the Dead Sea.[3]

There are five divisions in the psalm, the first four with two verses each, and the fifth taking in the last three verses.

Psalms 63:1-2

"O God, thou art my God; earnestly will I seek thee:

My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee,

In a dry and weary land where no water is.

So have I looked on thee in the sanctuary,

To see thy power and thy glory."

"O God, thou art my God" (Psalms 63:1). "In the Hebrew, these words are: [~'Elohiym], [~'Eli]. [~'Elohiym] is plural and [~'Eli] is singular."[4] Spurgeon commented on this as, "Expressing the Mystery of the Trinity and the Mystery of their Unity, along with that of the Spirit of God."[5]

"Early will I seek thee" (Psalms 63:1). This is the KJV rendition of this clause; and we have chosen it here because of the long traditions associated with this rendition. Reginald Heber's immortal hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy," memorializes these words in the first stanza.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning, our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, holy, holy, Merciful and Mighty, God over all, and blessed eternally.[6]

Kidner gives a scholarly defense of this rendition.[7]

"Where no water is" (Psalms 63:1). There is no reason for taking these words in some figurative or mystical sense. The parched desert just west of the Dead Sea reminded David of how hungry and thirsty his soul was for God.

"So have I looked upon thee in the sanctuary" (Psalms 63:2). "Some have interpreted this to mean that David was here granted a vision of God just as clear and distinct as he had seen in the sanctuary."[8] Such a theophany is not unreasonable, for God surely did grant such a vision to Joshua in the conquest of Canaan. The threat to the Davidic dynasty, David's kingdom being a type of the Messianic kingdom, and the heavenly necessity that David's heart should have been comforted and strengthened in this situation - all these things might very well indeed have led to such a theophany.

Then, there is the mystery of that little word, "So," standing at the head of Psalms 63:2, which will surely bear this interpretation. It is no embarrassment to us that many scholars reject it.

Such a vision of God, as McCaw admitted, "Would explain the sudden transition from sadness to great joy."[9] It would also explain the confidence and prophetic certainty of the entire psalm, which among other things, accurately announced the end of Absalom's rebellion as being accomplished by the wholesale death (literally) of the whole rebellious army, leaders and all (Psalms 63:9-10).