SATISFIED (Psalm 63)

Where I live is considered "high desert" but we're blessed by 

life-sustaining rivers. What David would have done for this!

Part of an ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended for "down times" by counselor/pastor David Seamands (author of Healing of Damaged Emotions).

When I’m feeling down, I tend to go to certain psalms for comfort and instruction.  This is one.  In my Bible, it’s full of circles, connecting lines, and notes as I’ve thought about it, prayed through it, and feasted on it, as verse 5 suggests:

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; 

With singing lips my mouth will praise you.

However, in returning with study aids to this psalm, I realized what I thought was “feasting” was just nibbling at the corners. I’d ignored the “plate” on which its truths were served, described in the inscription:

A psalm of David. When he was in the desert of Judah.

This time he wasn’t fleeing mad King Saul, but his own son, Absalom, usurping his father’s crown.  Now David was in the most obscure place he could find.  He’d gone from the palace to the pits—the hot, scruffy, dirty, dry desert. No wonder the psalm opens with images of thirst:

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;

My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,

In a dry and dreary land where there is no water.

Both his body and soul cried out in desperation. But more than real water, he wanted spiritual refreshment.

THROUGH THE NIGHT

I find that incredible.  Here he hides—filthy, physically spent, emotionally on edge.  The night comes and the darkness disguises his whereabouts.  But instead of the enemy, he thinks about his God. Verse 6 says that while on his bed (likely little more than a heavy cloak) he thinks about God through the “watches of the night.” In Jewish culture, those were the hours of sunset to 10 p.m., then 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., and then 2 a.m. to sunrise. The implication is that whenever he woke—whatever “watch”—he used that dark, lonely time to think about God as his helper and upholder.

I “get” that.  As much as I crave a good night’s sleep, there have been many nights when I’m awakened at what would be the second or third watch. My first thoughts are of an individual who has caused me much grief.  Rather than toss and turn, I get up and go to my rocker where I keep my Bible and devotional materials.  Often a verse cited in a devotional will take me to scriptures that speak encouragement to me.  Or, God will give me a nudge to read a certain psalm or chapter of Proverbs.  Then, in the darkness, I pray for this troubled person.

This psalm also challenges me to go beyond petitioning God on behalf of this person. David also simply worships God for who He is.

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you,

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. (vv. 3-5)

At times I reach down for the hymnal I keep by that chair and read through some lyrics.  Singing aloud would wake my spouse, so I sing in my soul, imagining myself as singing “in the shadow of [God’s] wings” (v. 7).

The psalm ends on a harsh note of retribution against David’s enemies.  I understand that in the historical context of a royal revolt.  But my heart goes back to the first verse and its declaration, “You are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you.”  Those words help me invite into my heart the One who declared Himself to be the Living water (John 4:13-14), ready to refresh and encourage me.