We don’t really know the occasion for Psalm 63. It could have been written when David was running from Saul, or from his son, Absalom. This psalm is really about who you turn to when it seems like there is nothing in your environment that brings comfort or rest.
1 – 2
David was in the wilderness of Judah with no physical comfort, but also no emotional or spiritual comfort—except from God. David says, “I will eagerly seek You.” The Hebrew word is “at the dawn” and so that’s why the King James says “Early will I seek You.” It’s like the saying “The early bird catches the worm.” The idea is that you put God as first priority. There are many ways for us to have a sense of security and satisfaction in this age, but none more important than that which we get through a relationship with God that has primary importance.
David says he is near fainting from a lack of God’s presence and from what is said later in the psalm makes me think that David is alone at night and for comfort pictures himself in God’s presence in the Tabernacle and there he sees God’s strength and glory. We can go to the real Tabernacle, which is Jesus Christ, anytime to meditate on God’s glory and strength in one Man.
3 – 5
David will once again declare public praise of the Lord because the covenant He has in love is better than life. Do we really believe that? Our age wants us to be satisfied with the things it has to offer in this life, but David would rather die in the wilderness but have a relationship with God than try to get his satisfaction anywhere else.
So he will lift up hands, lift up praise—knowing that God satisfies him with “rich food” which is a Hebrew word that means “fatness.” There is an incredible “fatness” in a relationship with God that is unparalleled. The word suggests satisfaction beyond your needs.
John 10:10A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
6 – 8
So we see that David is on his bed and it’s night—often the time when our troubles come to mind without our ability to control them—the so-called “night brain.” David instead “thinks” and “meditates” on the Lord. “Think” is the Hebrew word “to mark.” “Meditate” is “to murmur or ponder.” So he focuses his mind of his loving Lord, marking the attributes of God, then ponders those things. Why? Because the Lord is his helper. Real satisfaction, real help. So David will “follow close.”
With “in the shadow of Your wings” perhaps He is again thinking of the mercy seat covered by the wings of the cherubim. God’s mercy is protection. It also of course suggests a mother hovering over her babies like Rose-Tu’s little elephant calf Water Lily at the Oregon Zoo.
Now David turns to the source of his trouble.
9 – 11
David is acknowledging here that God will take care of him—and those who want to kill him, God will kill—their bodies left on the battlefield for the jackals.
But instead of focusing on that—David will rejoice in God and boast in Him!
So when you are in a dry and thirsty land in your life count on these things:
Gaze on the Lord’s glory
Know that life in God is better than life here
Lift up praise and joy
Know that He has you in the shadow of His wings
Seek Him eagerly, stay close to Him
Psalm 64
In Psalm 64, David is once again in trouble—this time from a large group of people who want to kill him and think they have the perfect plan to do so. Even when the enemy thinks he has your number, God is stronger than your weaknesses.
1 – 6
David is terrified (vs 1). Notice that this is a war of words. This mob is using “bitter words like arrows” (vs 3). How often are the gossiping and lying tongues of others like people hiding, lying in wait, ready to shoot a discouragement or a complaint or a cut as an attempt to hurt you? People who have perfected the art of hurting others with words seem to have no fear—and I see this all the time, even among Christians, and it grieves me to no end. I have experienced this myself—people who have no consideration for others, but only want to satisfy their anger or hurt pride.
Matt. 5:11 “You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me. 12Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
5 – 6
Those that strike out with words will often band together to receive encouragement. I find it interesting what David says in verse 6: “The inner man and the heart are mysterious.”
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
NKJV
The suggestion here is that the heart hides many evils. People mostly want to put on a good front, but without the redemption of the blood of Jesus, it covers a heart owned and governed by sin.
7 – 10
Even as the arrows fly to hurt David, God’s Word will also fly like arrows. He says “Their own tongues work against them.” God listens to everything we say and we must answer for it. But we can rejoice—not in our battle won, but in the fact that we take refuge in God and offer not words of poison in response, but words of praise to God.
So the next time someone wounds you with words, trust that God’s Word will speak to their hearts and blunt their arrows. You lift up praise to Him!
