A Psalm for Today...

This Psalm has been on my mind a lot lately and has been particularly encouraging in very personal ways, so I thought I would share it with you today, as well as the footnotes listed in my Bible.

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

Psalm 63

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

{The book of Psalms permits no false spiritualization.  The whole person yearns for God, not merely a non-physical aspect of the person.}

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.  Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

{The psalmist remembers the place of God's appointment, and the vision of God's "power" and "glory" entrusted to him there.  Steadfast love = that is, the unchanging love God shows toward those joined to Him by His covenant.}

So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.  

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help; and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

{Only in praise to God, in intimate communion with Him, will the psalmist feel spiritually content.  The psalmist has confidence in the Lord when he is most vulnerable to fear and attack (watches of the night).  God may be compared to a mother bird who protects her young...}

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.  

{Though far removed from the sanctuary, the place where he has experienced God's presence, the psalmist still enjoys intimate communion with Him.  Clinging to the Lord means finding in Him one's only hope.}

But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.  But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

{This verse is the first indication of distress or danger in the poem of the psalmists's distress...God's justice wins out.  Those who love God will continue to praise Him, while the wicked will be stifled.}

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