Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Psalms Capitolo 63

Psalms 63:0.

David's thirst for God: his manner of blessing God: his confidence of his enemies' destruction, and his own safety.

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

Title. לדוד מזמור mizmor ledavid.— The beginning of this psalm evidently shews, that David was, when he wrote it, in a wilderness or desart country, (1Sa 22:5 probably the forest of Hareth, or Ziph, belonging to Judah,) absent from the sanctuary: for he therein expresses the impatience of his desires to be restored to the solemnity of divine worship, and resolves, that, when God grants him that satisfaction, he will continually employ himself in celebrating his lovingkindness; Psalms 63:3-4. This, he tells us, would be to him a more grateful entertainment than the richest feast, Psalms 63:5.—should employ his waking hours in the watches of the night, Psa 63:6 and confirm his pleasing trust and confidence in the divine protection, Psalms 63:7.—And from his adherence to God, and past experience of his favour, he assures himself of the disappointment and destruction of his enemies; but that himself, and all who feared God, should rejoice in his salvation, Psalms 63:8-11. Chandler.

Psalms 63:1. Early will I seek thee— To seek God, is to address him by supplication and thanksgiving: and as our safety by night should be acknowledged by the sacrifice of praise, so should our protection through the day be humbly sought after by serious prayer every morning. My soul thirsteth for thee, continues the Psalmist; i.e. eagerly desires to approach thee: Thirsting, in all languages, is frequently used for earnestly longing after, or passionately wishing for anything. He goes on, my flesh longeth for thee. The verb כמה kamah, tendered longeth, is used only in this place; and therefore the signification of it is rather uncertain, but will receive light from the Arabic dialect. In Golius's Lexicon it signifies, His eye grew dim—his colour was changed, and his mind weakened; and, therefore, as used by the Psalmist, implies the utmost intenseness and fervency of desire; as though it impaired his sight, and altered the very hue of his body; effects oftentimes of eager and unsatisfied desires. Houbigant and some other critics are for altering the Hebrew in the next clause, and reading, not in a dry land, but as a dry land; which is figuratively said to thirst for water, when it wants rain. But David describes his own eager desire to approach God's sanctuary, by the figurative expression of thirsting himself, and not by barren land's thirsting for or desiring water; and the reading of the text is genuine, as he represents his present situation, which was in a dry and thirsty wilderness. The whole clause, however, should be thus rendered, My flesh pines away for thee in a dry land, and where I am faint without water. He experienced the vehemency of thirst in a wilderness, where he could get no supply of water, and by that sensation expresses the vehemence and impatience of his own mind to be restored to the worship of God.

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Psalms 63:2. To see thy power, &c.— The meaning, says Jarchi, here is, "I have thirsted to see thy power and thy glory, as I have seen thee in the holy tabernacle in Shilo; where my soul was satisfied with the vision of thy power and glory." The Psalmist refers here to the cloud and glory, which he had seen in the tabernacle and above the ark, and which were the peculiar emblems of the divine majesty.

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Psalms 63:4. I will lift up my hands in thy name— i.e. "I will, in the most solemn manner, pay my adorations to thee, and render thee most grateful acknowledgments for thy benefits, as the only living and true God."

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Psalms 63:8. My soul followeth hard after thee— My soul hath kept close,—hath adhered to thee. The Psalmist means that his soul adhered to God with the warmest affection, and longed to offer up his sacrifices of praise in his sanctuary.

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Psalms 63:9. But those that seek my soul, &c.— Our version connects both parts of the verse. I rather think there are two distinct parts in it, as there are in all the other verses; and that the rendering should be, They shall be for destruction, who seek my life: they shall go into the lowest parts of the earth; i.e. That they themselves should be destroyed and brought down to the grave, who sought his destruction. Chandler.

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Psalms 63:10. They shall fall, &c.— Their blood shall gush out by the edge of the sword. The verb properly signifies the boiling of water in a pot; when, through the violence of the heat, it is thrown out of it: and, from hence, it figuratively denotes the bursting or boiling out of the blood from the wound of a sword, or any other deadly instrument. Virgil, in a very lively manner, has expressed it by another almost similar word:

Tum caput ipsi aufert domino, truncumque reliquit Sanguine singultantem. AEn. 9. ver. 332. The gasping head flies off; a purple flood Flows from the trunk that welters in the blood. DRYDEN.

One almost sees the blood sobbing, as it were, and gushing out from the headless body. The expression, as used by the Psalmist, denotes that they should die a violent death, and their blood should be spilled by the edge of the sword; and the next expression, They shall be a portion for foxes, signifies, "They shall be left unburied, and as a prey to ravenous beasts." Bochart has shewn that foxes preyed upon dead bodies. See his Hieroz. pars 1: cap. 13 and Chandler.

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