Better Than Life (Psalm 63)

It’s been said that a crisis shows what a man is really made of. If that’s true, David’s situation when he wrote Psalm 63 certainly qualifies. Our Bibles call this a “Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah,” and most likely this refers to the time later in his life when his son Absalom rebelled against him, and David had to flee for his life to the desert. There he sees his bare and parched surroundings as an illustration to him of a life without God; and his heart cries out with longing for God and for the joy of His presence. That’s what David is made of; that’s what this crisis brings out in him; and that’s why David was “a man after God’s own heart.”

In worldly terms, David has lost it all: his family, his throne, his reputation, his security. He’s on the run, far from the tabernacle and the palace; in the dry, barren, dusty desert where he can take no creature comforts for granted. Yet, as Spurgeon put it, “There was no desert in his heart, though there was a desert around him.” Perowne writes about Psalm 63: “It is remarkable that in this Psalm . . . there is no petition. There is gladness, there is praise, there is the most exalted communion with God, there is longing for His presence as the highest of all blessings; but there is not one word of asking for temporal, or even for spiritual good.” David gives us this beautiful expression of a man thoroughly saturated with love and longing for God.

David says in effect: it’s not water I need, not the comfort of my palace, not even the refuge of the tabernacle. I need God!!

DAVID’S GOD

God Most High. David cries out to God in verse 1. “O God,” he says, calling him by His title of majesty and greatness, God Most High (Hebrew Elohim). David knows Him to be a God of holiness, power, and glory. That’s what he had experienced in the tabernacle: in verse 2, “thus” indicates that he had thirsted and yearned for God before, and he had satisfied that need by meeting with God in the tabernacle. “Thus,” (that is, “in the same way,” “with the same kind of longing,”) “I saw You in the sanctuary” (literally, “in the holy place”). He had recognized the holiness of God, that God as Creator was totally separate from His creation and must be approached with reverence and with a sacrificially cleansed life; he had recognized the power of God, the Almighty One; and he had bowed before the glory of God, whom he worshipped in the splendor of His majesty.       

This was the God David called on: the one true God, the God of Israel, the great and glorious God, God Most High.

God Most Near. But he called on him in another way too in verse 1: “O God, my God” (Hebrew Eli). Not only was God high and exalted above the heavens, He was also David’s God (cf. Psalm 23: “the Lord is my shepherd”). He was Most High, but also Most Near. Even before the incarnation God had come near and committed Himself in covenant to a special people he had called forth, the nation of Israel. And David, as the rightful king of that nation, understood that, and understood that God was his God and that he could call upon Him. Kidner says that “the simplicity and boldness of ‘You are my God’ is the secret of all that follows.”

David could not only call upon God in His holiness, power, and glory, but also on the basis of a personal relationship with his God, who is characterized by lovingkindness. 

God’s Hesed. In verse 3 David exclaims, “YOUR LOVINGKINDNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE.” That, we might say, was the motto of David’s entire life, the energizing principle of his existence. “Lovingkindness” is that very special Old Testament word hesed, which speaks of affection but also of faithfulness. It’s a covenant word meaning “loyal love”—God’s love expressed in a commitment to the good and the well-being of His people. That kind of lovingkindness overshadows David’s circumstances, draws his mind and heart to the Giver of that love, and evokes expressions of adoration.

God’s lovingkindness is “better than life,” David says. David is in the desert, where thirst, even survival, are crucial issues: he could easily be focused only on his physical needs. He is also on the run because of his tragic family situation: he could easily focus on a desire to be vindicated and restored to power. Yet he focuses on GOD, desires to be in His presence, yearns to drink deeply of His fullness. He sees that as better than the meeting of his basic needs or his desire for comfort; as better than meeting his need for success and usefulness and self-fulfillment; as better than life itself!

We give so much attention to improving the quality, and extending the duration, of our life. How much attention do we give to resting in Him, searching for Him (as David did in v.1), enjoying his presence, feasting at His table, drinking deeply from the fountain of His grace and lovingkindness?

The Lord’s “lovingkindness is better than life”: David could say that during pleasant times (as in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. . . . Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”). And he could say it during the hardest of times—even when on the run for his life.

DAVID’S WORSHIP

An appetite for God. Knowing and savoring and cherishing the Lord and His lovingkindness: that’s worship. And that’s what David inevitably turns to—that’s his deepest desire and deepest need.

He doesn’t seek to perform a religious activity or a good work or a ceremonial duty—he was in the desert and there was no way he could fulfill ANY of the external requirements of the Old Covenant system: he had no access to the tabernacle. But he understood a truth which transcended the physical and spatial limitations of the Old Testament system: that God, His God, was just as accessible and present as He was through the sacrificial system; He was just as powerful and glorious as David had seen Him to be in the Holy Place. David understood that the Lord’s lovingkindness endures forever and in all places. He seeks God, thirsts for Him, yearns for Him, seeks his satisfaction in Him and Him alone. He looks to God, who is so high, and holy, and powerful, and glorious; and he’s driven to his knees in worship. He tastes of the faithful, tender lovingkindness of the Lord (which is new every morning), and finds rest and satisfaction in that.

And so we see the flower of David’s worship bloom and flourish in the desert. He comes to God, as Eric Alexander has put it, “not to fulfill a duty, but to satisfy an appetite”—a thirsting and yearning which he sees illustrated in the kind of longing which characterizes the person who finds himself in the desert. He compares his longing to physical thirst. Spurgeon put it this way: 

    “Thirst is an insatiable longing after that which is one of the most essential         supports of life; there is no reasoning with it, no forgetting it, no despising it,     no overcoming it by stoical indifference. Thirst will be heard; the whole man      must yield to its power: even thus is it with that divine desire which the grace      of God creates in regenerate men: only God Himself can satisfy the soul really      aroused by the Holy Spirit.” (Treasury of David, Psalm 63)

Indeed, David exclaims, “My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Soul and flesh: the entirety of David’s being cries out for God. That’s the way David was about God: He wanted God, and nothing else would do. He longs and thirsts and yearns for God and for the joy of fellowship with Him. He is not alone among the Psalmists in this; in Psalm 42 we read:

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?   

A response of praise. Along with this kind of appetite for God, David’s worship is characterized by joyful responses of praise. He praises God with His voice (vv. 3,4,5,7), with his hands (v. 4), but most fundamentally with his heart: a satisfied heart (v. 5), a reflective heart (v. 6), a confident heart (v. 7).
David finds comfort and assurance “in the shadow of Your wings.” He finds security and the peace which comes from knowing that “You are MY God” and that “Your lovingkindness is better than life.” 

And with that, as one writer has put it, “David’s heart has become a temple of praise.” There is no desert in his heart. Far from the palace, far from the tabernacle, David has found in his heart the true place of worship and communion with God. The soul of David drinks deeply in the desert; his yearning flesh sings and shouts with joy to His God; his heart bursts with the glorious truth that the lovingkindness of the Lord is better than life.

Better than life. O that we might learn to thirst like David; and drink like David; and worship like David!

Thirst for God and be quenched. Yearn for Him and be satisfied. Feast on Him and find fullness of joy. Because HIS LOVINGKINDNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE.

       

from Worship Notes 2.3 (February 2008) "Thirsting for God"  (www.worr.org)

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