Psalms 63:1

O God, thou [art] my God,.... Not by nature only, or by birth; not merely as an Israelite and son of Abraham; but by grace through Christ, and in virtue of an everlasting covenant, the blessings and

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; Psalms 63:1-11.-Two divisions; each begins with his

Psalms 63 Where he hid himself from Saul, 23:14,15 26:1,2 David in the wilderness, complaining bitterly of his banishment from God’ s house, thirsteth and longeth for it, . His manner of blessing God. His experience, hope, and delight in God, . Comforteth himself that his enemies shall be destroyed, and that he shall be in safety, . My God; in covenant with me. Early, Heb. in the morning; which implies the doing it with greatest diligence and speed, taking the first and the best time for it, as . Thirsteth for thee, i.e. for the presence and enjoyment of thee in thy house and ordinances, as the next verse declareth it. Longeth; or, languisheth, or pineth away. The desire of my soul after thee is so vehement and insatiable, that my very body feels the effects of it, as it commonly doth of all great passions. A dry and thirsty land, where no water is; so called, either, 1. Metaphorically; in a land where I want the refreshing waters of the sanctuary. Or, 2. Properly; I thirst not so much for water (which yet I greatly want) as for thee.

Psalms 63:1 « A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. » O God, thou [art] my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;When he was in the wilderness of Judah] That is, of Idumea, saith Genebrard, which bordered upon the tribe of Judah; but better understand it either of the forest of Hareth, 1 Samuel 22:5, or of the wilderness of Ziph, 1 Samuel 23:14, where David was, In deserto desertus exul, et omnis fere consolationis inept, not only destitute of outward comforts, but in some desertion of soul; Et sic miserrimus, et calamitosissimus oberravit, saith Beza. Ver. 1. O God, thou art my God] And that is now mine only comfort; Divini mellis alvearium, the bee hive of heavenly honey. Early will I seek thee] Now they who seek God early have a promise that they shall find him. Aben-Ezra rendereth it, Sicut mercator gemmas, inquiram re, I will diligently seek thee, as a merchant doth the precious stones ρεηγ (Mercator). My soul thirsteth for thee] Thirst is Taclith hattaavah, say the Rabbis, the perfection of desire. The whole life of a Christian is nothing else but Sanctum desiderium, saith Austin. How many broken spirits spend and exhale themselves in continual sallies, as it were, and egressions of affection unto God, thirsting after, not only a union, but a unity with him? My flesh longeth for thee] Non habet haec vex secium, saith Aben-Ezra; this word is here only found. It is a notable metaphor, saith another interpreter, taken from women with child, to express the earnest affection that he had to God-ward. The Septuagint rendereth it ποσαπλως, Quam multipliciter. His soul, his flesh, all was on a light fire, as it were, with ardent affection towards God (R. Solomon). In a dry and thirsty land] Where I am hardly bestead, and at a great fault for outward accommodations, but much more for sweet and spiritual communion with thee in holy ordinances; there lieth the pinch of my grief.

(1) Early will I seek thee.—LXX. and Vulgate, “to thee I wake early,” i.e., my waking thoughts are toward thee, and this was certainly in the Hebrew, since the verb here used has for its cognate noun the dawn. The expectancy which even in inanimate nature seems to await the first streak of morning is itself enough to show the connection of thought. (Comp. the use of the same verb in Son 7:12; and comp. Luke 21:28, New Testament Commentary.) Soul . . . flesh.—Or, as we say, body and soul. (Comp. Psalms 84:2, “my heart and my flesh.”) Longeth.—Heb., khâmah, a word only occurring here, but explained as cognate with an Arabic root meaning to be black as with hunger and faintness.In.—Rather, as. (Comp. Psalms 143:6.) This is the rendering of one of the Greek versions quoted by Origen, and Symmachus has “as in,” &c Thirsty.—See margin. Fainting is perhaps more exactly the meaning. (See Genesis 25:29-30, where it describes Esau’s condition when returning from his hunt.) Here the land is imagined to be faint for want of water. The LXX. and Vulgate have “pathless.” The parched land thirsting for rain was a natural image, especially to an Oriental, for a devout religious soul eager for communion with heaven.

PSALM LXIII David's soul thirsts after God, while absent from the sanctuary, and longs to be restored to the Divine ordinances, 1, 2. He expresses strong confidence in the Most High, and praises him for his goodness, 3-8; shows the misery of those who do not seek God, 9, 10; and his own safety as king of the people, 11. NOTES ON PSALM LXIII The title of this Psalm is, A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judea; but instead of Judea, the Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, Arabic, several of the ancient Latin Psalters, and several of the Latin fathers, read Idumea, or Edom; still there is no evidence that David had ever taken refuge in the deserts of Idumea. The Hebrew text is that which should be preferred; and all the MSS. are in its favour. The Syriac has, "Of David, when he said to the king of Moab, My father and mother fled to thee from the face of Saul; and I also take refuge with thee." It is most probable that the Psalm was written when David took refuge in the forest of Hareth, in the wilderness of Ziph, when he fled from the court of Achish. But Calmet understands it as a prayer by the captives in Babylon. Verse 1. O God, thou art my God] He who can say so, and feels what he says, need not fear the face of any adversary. He has God, and all sufficiency in him. Early will I seek thee] From the dawn of day. De luce, from the light, Vulgate; as soon as day breaks; and often before this, for his eyes prevented the night-watches; and he longed and watched for God more than they who watched for the morning. The old Psalter says, God my God, til the fram light I wake; and paraphrases thus: God of all, thurgh myght; thu is my God, thurgh lufe and devocion; speciali till the I wak. Fra light, that is, fra thy tym that the light of thi grace be in me, that excites fra night of sine. And makes me wak till the in delite of luf, and swetnes in saul. Thai wak till God, that setes all thar thoght on God, and for getns the werld. Thai slep till God, that settis thair hert on ani creatur.-I wak till the, and that gars me thirst in saule and body. What first lays hold of the heart in the morning is likely to occupy the place all the day. First impressions are the most durable, because there is not a multitude of ideas to drive them out, or prevent them from being deeply fixed in the moral feeling. In a dry and thirsty land] בארץ beerets, IN a land: but several MSS. have כארץ keerets, AS a dry and thirsty land, &c.

1, 2. Recalling the glorious visions of God which he has enjoyed in the sanctuary, the Psalmist thirsts for a renewed sense of His Presence.

O God, thou art my God - The words here rendered God are not the same in the original.

1. My God—The “Our Father” and “Abba Father” of the Old Testament, expressive of the confidence and submission of all acceptable prayer or praise. Early—At daybreak, to be taken literally. See on Psalms 46:5.