Psalms 63

The faith which inspires the two preceding Psalms reaches its climax here. At a distance from the sanctuary and in peril of his life, the Psalmist throws himself upon God. What he longs for above all things is the sense of God’s presence, as he realised it in the worship of the sanctuary (Psalms 63:1-2). In lifelong thanksgiving for God’s love he will find his highest joy and satisfaction (Psalms 63:3-5), spending whole nights in meditation upon Him as he recalls the greatness of His past mercies (Psalms 63:6-7). While he draws closer and closer to God, his enemies will be banished into the nether darkness (Psalms 63:8-9). While their corpses lie ignominiously exposed on the field of battle where they fell, he and those who are loyal to God and to him rejoice in God, and all factious opposition is silenced (Psalms 63:10-11). The Psalm does not admit of clear division into stanzas. Thought follows thought out of the fulness of a loving heart, and the precise connexion of the clauses is often obscure. Such a Psalm teaches, more effectually than any formal definition, what is meant by a Personal God—a God with Whom the soul can hold converse with the whole force and fervour of a loving devotion. Its lofty spirituality is such as few can reach. But the concluding verses of the Psalm seem to be on a lower level. “We pass all at once into a different atmosphere. We have come down, as it were, from the mount of holy aspirations, into the common everyday world, where human enemies are struggling, and human passions are strong. Yet this very transition, harsh as it is, gives us a wonderful sense of reality. In some respects, it brings the Psalm nearer to our own level.

The man who has been pouring out the fervent affection of his heart towards God is no mystic or recluse, lost in ecstatic contemplation, but one who is fighting a battle with foes of flesh and blood, and who hopes to see their malice defeated, their power crushed, and their carcases left to be the prey of jackals in the wilderness” (Bp Perowne). It must be remembered too that the Psalmist felt strongly that his enemies were God’s enemies, and looked for their discomfiture, not only as a visible proof of God’s favour to himself, but as a manifest token that God had not withdrawn from the government of the world, and was surely, if slowly, establishing His Kingdom among men. The author of this Psalm was a king, for unless it is of himself as king that he speaks in Psalms 63:11, it is difficult to understand the relation of the king’s rejoicing to the destruction of the Psalmist’s enemies (Psalms 63:9-10). He was apparently at a distance from the sanctuary, and was in danger from malicious enemies, whose destruction he looks for on the field of battle. The title ascribes it to David, “when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” Since he is already king, it is not to his earlier wanderings (1 Samuel 23:14 ff), but to his flight from Absalom, that this title must be intended to refer. The road to Jericho by which David left Jerusalem led through the northern part of the desert of Judah, and he halted at “the fords of the wilderness” before crossing the Jordan (2 Samuel 15:23; 2 Samuel 15:28). The graphic narrative in 2 Sam. refers more than once to the privations which the king had to suffer in his hasty flight (2 Samuel 16:2; 2 Samuel 16:14; 2 Samuel 17:29; cp. Psalms 17:2).

The king and his followers were ‘weary’ in the ‘weary land,’ which supplied so apt a figure of his spiritual privations. The germ of the Psalm is to be found in the faith and resignation of David’s words to Zadok, “Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of Jehovah, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation: but if he say thus, I have no delight in thee; behold here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him” (2 Samuel 15:25 f). To part with the visible symbol of God’s power and presence argued no common faith: it shewed that he was no slave to the common superstition, which regarded God’s favour as tied to the Ark. Much of the Psalm can certainly be explained from David’s situation, and if the reference of the Psalm to David is abandoned, it is idle to speculate as to the author and his circumstances. But whoever he was, the spiritual power and beauty of Psa 63:1-8 remain the same. It is no wonder that the Psalm was adopted by the early Church as its morning Psalm (primarily on the ground of the LXX rendering of Psa 63:1), as Psalms 141 was chosen for the evening Psalm. “The Fathers of the Church,” says St Chrysostom, “appointed it to be said every morning, as a spiritual song and a medicine to blot out our sins; to kindle in us a desire of God; to raise our souls, and inflame them with a mighty fire of devotion; to make us overflow with goodness and love, and send us with such preparation to approach and appear before God.” See Bingham’s Antiquities, B. xiii. 10. Comp. (beside Psalms 61, 62) Psalms 42-43, the companion piece in the Korahite collection.

Psalms 63:1-2

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.

Psalms 63:2

2. The A.V. transposes the clauses of this verse in a way which cannot be justified. Render: In such wise have I gazed upon thee in the sanctuary, To see thy strength and thy glory. In such wise (‘so’) is explained to refer to Psalms 63:1 meaning ‘as my God,’ or ‘so fervently’; but this verse seems rather to give the ground and reason for the preceding verse:—I pine for communion with Thee, because I have had such glorious visions of Thy presence in the sanctuary. There he has ‘gazed’ upon God—the word is used of an intent and discerning contemplation, specially of things divine (Psalms 27:4; Psalms 11:7; Psalms 17:15), and of prophetic ‘vision’ (Isaiah 1:1)—in order to realise His Majesty as it is revealed to man. The Ark was the symbol of God’s Presence, of His strength and glory (1 Samuel 4:21; Psalms 24:7, note; Psalms 78:61; Psalms 132:8); and all the ordinances of the sanctuary possessed for him a sacramental meaning. It was thus that Isaiah ‘saw the Lord.’

Psalms 63:3-5

3–5. The joy of grateful praise.

Psalms 63:4

4. Thus] So, as in Psalms 63:2 : cp. Psalms 61:8 : so fervently; in such a spirit of loving gratitude. while I live] Cp. Psalms 104:33; Psalms 146:2. I will lift up my hands] The attitude of prayer (Psalms 28:2; Psalms 141:2; 1 Timothy 2:8), the outward symbol of an uplifted heart (Psalms 25:1). in thy name] Relying upon all that Thou hast revealed Thyself to be. Cp. Psalms 44:5; John 14:13, &c.

Psalms 63:5

5. God feeds the hungry soul with rich and bountiful food (Deuteronomy 32:14; Psalms 22:26; Psalms 23:5; Psalms 36:8; Isaiah 25:6; Isaiah 55:2; Jeremiah 31:14). Though the language may be derived from the sacrificial feasts, it is indifferent to strict ritual precision, for the fat (A.V. here marrow) was never to be eaten, but was to be burnt on the altar as God’s portion (Leviticus 3:16-17).

Psalms 63:6-7

6, 7. Thankful recollection of past mercies.

Psalms 63:8-9

8, 9. While he draws ever closer to God, his enemies will be destroyed.

Psalms 63:9

9. But those &c.] They, his enemies, who are seeking his life, are emphatically contrasted with himself (Psalms 59:15; Psalms 56:6). While his path is upward to God, theirs is downward to the depths of Sheol. It is possible to render (cp. R.V. marg.) But they shall be destroyed that seek my life, They shall go &c. into the lower parts of the earth] Into Sheol, swallowed up like Korah and his company of rebels. Cp. for the phrase, Isaiah 44:23; Ezekiel 26:20; Psalms 86:13; Ephesians 4:9; Deuteronomy 32:22 : and for the thought, Psalms 9:15; Psalms 9:17; Psalms 55:15; Psalms 55:23.

Psalms 63:10-11

10, 11. While his enemies come to an ignominious end, the king emerges from the struggle, triumphant over all opposition.

Psalms 63:11

11. But the king] The connexion is unintelligible unless the king is identified with the Psalmist, whose enemies are destroyed. Cp. Psalms 61:6 ff. that sweareth by him] Grammatically ‘him’ may refer to the king or to God, but usage decides that God is meant. Cp. Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20; Isaiah 65:16. Those who invoke His Name as the attestation of their oaths are His loyal worshippers; they share the triumph of the king who is His representative. but the mouth &c.] For the mouth &c. Those who ‘speak lies’ are those who rebel against God and His king, deluding men by false promises to join an undertaking which is false in its principle and aim. See Psalms 4:2, note; Psalms 62:4. They are all completely silenced. Cp. the similar ending of Psalms 64. St Paul may have had the phrase in mind in Romans 3:19. The context shews how familiar the Psalms were to him.