Psalm 63

Psalms 63:1-2

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, reads A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Henry and the Treasury of David set it in David's flight from Absalom rather than his earlier flight from Saul, since verse 11 already calls him the king; other readers place it in the Ziph wilderness under Saul instead. Either way the opening cry answers the setting: early will I seek thee and my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is turns the desert's own thirst into the shape of his prayer. Verse 2 reaches back to worship he cannot presently have, to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, memory standing in for the temple he has lost.

Psalms 63:3-5

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life sets the psalm's ground: what he seeks in the wilderness outweighs mere survival, so my lips shall praise thee follows as the necessary answer to that comparison. Thus will I bless thee while I live pairs praise with breath itself, and I will lift up my hands in thy name is the plain bodily gesture of blessing that Gill and the older writers took as ordinary temple practice extended into exile. The satisfaction of verse 5, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, borrows the richest part of the peace offering to describe a hunger no bread in the wilderness could answer, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips closes the unit where it began, in speech.

Psalms 63:6-8

The night watches of verse 6 mark a fugitive's broken sleep turned to meditation, remembrance replacing the rest the wilderness will not give him. Because thou hast been my help grounds the present prayer in a settled past, and therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice reaches for the same wing imagery the Psalter uses elsewhere for shelter under the cherubim of the sanctuary he named in verse 2. My soul followeth hard after thee answers the thirst of verse 1 with pursuit rather than mere longing, and thy right hand upholdeth me closes the unit with the plain claim that the chase runs both ways.

Psalms 63:9-10

The psalm turns from his own thirst to those who hunt him, seek my soul answering seek thee from verse 1 with the same verb turned to violence. They shall go into the lower parts of the earth and they shall fall by the sword name an end the older commentators read as either the grave awaiting every enemy of God or, where the title is read against Absalom's revolt, the actual fate of that rebellion's leaders. A portion for foxes is the plainest indignity Scripture names for an unburied body, scavengers finishing what the sword began.

Psalms 63:11

The king shall rejoice in God closes the psalm on the title, whichever occasion holds it, since a fugitive calling himself king only fits a reign already begun. Every one that sweareth by him shall glory extends the same rejoicing to all who take their oaths in the true God rather than the pretender's name, a plain contrast if Absalom's revolt is the setting the older writers give it. The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped ends the psalm where verse 9 left the enemies, silenced rather than merely defeated, and the thirst of verse 1 arrives at its answer in a kingdom set right.