Bibelkommentare

This psalm has in it as much of warmth and lively devotion as any of David's psalms in so little a compass. As the sweetest of Paul's epistles were those that bore date out of a prison, so some of the sweetest of David's psalms were those that were penned, as this was, in a wilderness. That which grieved him most in his banishment was the want of public ordinances; these he here longs to be restored to the enjoyment of; and the present want did but whet his appetite. Yet it is not the ordinances, but the God of the ordinances, that his heart is upon. And here we have, I. His desire towards God, Ps 63:1,2. II. His esteem of God, Ps 63:3,4. III. His satisfaction in God, Ps 63:5. IV. His secret communion with God, Ps 63:6. V. His joyful dependence upon God, Ps 63:7-8. IV. His holy triumph in God over his enemies and in the assurance of his own safety, Ps 63:9-11. A devout and pious soul has little need of direction how to sing this psalm, so naturally does it speak its own genuine language; and an unsanctified soul, that is unacquainted and unaffected with divine things, is scarcely capable of singing it with understanding.

This psalm purports to be a "psalm of David," and there can be no just ground of doubt in regard to the correctness of the title in this respect. DeWette indeed supposes that the way in which mention is made of the "king" in Psalm 63:11, seems to indicate that the psalm was not composed by David himself, but that it was written by some friend of his, who was his companion in the troubles which he experienced; but it is not necessary to resort to this supposition, for it is not very uncommon for an author to refer to himself in the third person, as Caesar does everywhere. The psalm further purports to have been composed by David "when he was in the wilderness of Judah." The "wilderness of Judah" was that wild and uncultivated tract of country lying on the east side of the territory of the tribe of Judah, commonly called "the wilderness of Judea" (Matthew 3:1; compare the notes at Matthew 4:1), lying along the Jordan. David was repeatedly driven into that wilderness in the time of Saul; and the general structure of the psalm would accord well with any one of those occasions; but the mention of the "king" in Psalm 63:11, as undoubtedly meaning David, makes it necessary to refer the composition of the psalm to a later period in his life, since the title "king" was not given to him in the time of Saul. The psalm, therefore, was doubtless composed in the time of Absalom - the period when David was driven away by the rebellion, and compelled to seek a refuge in that wilderness. It belongs, if this view is correct, to the same period in the life of David as Psalm 42:1-11; Psalm 43:1-5; Psalm 61:1-8; and probably some others.

The psalm consists of the following parts:

I. An expression of earnest desire to see the power and glory of God again, as he had formerly done in the sanctuary, Psalm 63:1-2.

II. His sense of the goodness of God, and of the value of the divine favor, as being greater than that of life; and his purpose to find his happiness in God, and to praise and bless him in all situations, especially in those moments of solemn meditation when he was alone upon his bed, Psalm 63:3-6.

III. His remembrance of former mercies, and his conviction that God still upheld him by his right hand, Psalm 63:7-8.

IV. His firm belief that all his enemies would be destroyed, Psalm 63:9-11.

David's soul thirsts after God, while absent from the sanctuary, and longs to be restored to the Divine ordinances, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 63:2. He expresses strong confidence in the Most High, and praises him for his goodness, Psalm 63:3-8; shows the misery of those who do not seek God, Psalm 63:9, Psalm 63:10; and his own safety as king of the people, Psalm 63:11.

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, Ethiopic, 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 favor. 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.

INTRODUCTION TO Psalm 63

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. This psalm was composed by David, either when he was persecuted by Saul, and obliged to hide himself in desert places, as in the forest of Hareth, the wildernesses of Ziph, Maon, and Engedi, 1 Samuel 22:5; all which were in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:55; or when his son Absalom rebelled against him, which obliged him to flee from Jerusalem, and go the way of the wilderness, where Ziba and Barzillai sent him food, lest his young men that were with him should faint there, 2 Samuel 15:23. The Septuagint version, and those that follow that, call it the wilderness of Idumea, or Edom, as the Arabic version; and so the Chaldee paraphrase,

"in the wilderness which was on the border of the tribe of Judah;''

as Edom was, Joshua 15:21; so the Messiah, David's son, was in a wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil, and where he was hungry and thirsty in a literal sense, as David was here in a spiritual sense, as the psalm shows, Matthew 4:1; and the church of God, whom David sometimes represents, is said to be in a wilderness, where she is fed for a time, and times, and half a time, even during the whole reign of the antichristian beast, Revelation 12:14; and, indeed, all the saints are, at one time or another, in a desert condition, and while they are here are in the wilderness of the people, Hosea 2:14.

LXIII.

The figure of the first verse misunderstood (see Note) led to the inscription referring this psalm to the wandering period of David’s life, a reference entirely out of keeping with the contents of the poem, even if it were Davidic. The conjecture is far more probable which makes it the sigh of an exile for restoration to the sacred scenes and institutions of his country, now cherished in memory; and so truly does it express the sentiments which would be common to all the pious community of Israel, that we need not vex ourselves with an enquiry, for which the data are so insufficient, into the precise individual or even the precise time to which it first refers. The last verse seems to carry us back to the troubled times immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem, when the existence of monarchy was trembling in the balance, and when some of those already in exile might be supposed to be watching its fortunes with feelings in which hope contended with misgiving, and faith with fear. The poetical form is irregular.

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 (Psalm 63:1-2). In lifelong thanksgiving for God’s love he will find his highest joy and satisfaction (Psalm 63:3-5), spending whole nights in meditation upon Him as he recalls the greatness of His past mercies (Psalm 63:6-7). While he draws closer and closer to God, his enemies will be banished into the nether darkness (Psalm 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 (Psalm 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 Psalm 63:11, it is difficult to understand the relation of the king’s rejoicing to the destruction of the Psalmist’s enemies (Psalm 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. Psalm 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 Psalm 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 Psalm 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.

Ps 63:1-11.

The historical occasion referred to by the title was probably during Absalom's rebellion (compare

2Sa 15:23, 28; 16:2).

David expresses an earnest desire for God's favor, and a confident expectation of realizing it in his deliverance and the ruin of his enemies.

1. early . . . seek thee--earnestly

(Isa 26:9).

The figurative terms--

dry and thirsty--literally, "weary," denoting moral destitution, suited his outward circumstances.

soul--and--flesh--the whole man

(Ps 16:9, 10).

O God, thou art my God - The words here rendered God are not the same in the original. The first one - אלהים 'Elohiym - is in the plural number, and is the word which is usually employed to designate God Genesis 1:1; the second - אל 'Êl - is a word which is very often applied to God with the idea of strength - a strong, a mighty One; and there is probably this underlying idea here, that God was the source of his strength, or that in speaking of God as his God, he was conscious of referring to him as Almighty. It was the divine attribute of power on which his mind mainly rested when he spoke of him as his God. He did not appeal to him merely as God, with no reference to a particular attribute; but he had particularly in his eye his power or his ability to deliver and save him. In Psalm 22:1, where, in our version, we have the same expression, "My God, my God," the two words in the original are identical, and are the same which is used here - אל 'Êl - as expressive of strength or power. The idea suggested here is, that in appealing to God, while we address him as our God, and refer to his general character as God, it is not improper to have in our minds some particular attribute of his character - power, mercy, love, truth, faithfulness, etc. - as the special ground of our appeal.

Early will I seek thee - The word used here has reference to the early dawn, or the morning; and the noun which is derived from the verb, means the aurora, the dawn, the morning. The proper idea, therefore, would be that of seeking God in the morning, or the early dawn; that is, as the first thing in the day. Compare the notes at Isaiah 26:9. The meaning here is, that he would seek God as the first thing in the day; first in his plans and purposes; first in all things. He would seek God before other things came in to distract and divert his attention; he would seek God when he formed his plans for the day, and before other influences came in, to control and direct him. The favor of God was the supreme desire of his heart, and that desire would be indicated by his making him the earliest - the first - object of his search. His first thoughts - his best thoughts - therefore, he resolved should be given to God. A desire to seek God as the first object in life - in youth - in each returning day - at the beginning of each year, season, month, week - in all our plans and enterprises - is one of the most certain evidences of true piety; and religion flourishes most in the soul, and flourishes only in the soul, when we make God the first object of our affections and desires.

My soul thirsteth for thee - See the notes at Psalm 42:2.

My flesh longeth for thee - All my passions and desires - my whole nature. The two words - "soul" and "flesh," are designed to embrace the entire man, and to express the idea that he longed supremely for God; that all his desires, whether springing directly from the soul, or the needs of the body, rose to God as the only source from which they could be gratified.

In a dry and thirsty land - That is, As one longs for water in a parched desert, so my soul longs for God. The word thirsty is in the margin, as in Hebrew, weary. The idea is that of a land where, from its parched nature - its barrenness - its rocks - its heat - its desolation - one would be faint and weary on a journey.

Where no water is - No running streams; no gushing fountains; nothing to allay the thirst.