Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

Psalm 63. This psalm opens as if it were a lament, seeking God in a time of trouble; and yet the overall flow of the song is one of confident expectation. Hence it is best to see the psalm as enabling each of God's people to develop confidence during their times of trouble. In particular, the psalm inculcates the confidence that the worshiper will indeed be able to return to the sanctuary to worship God. Biblically, the highest privilege a mortal can enjoy is to be a welcome member of the worshiping congregation; and the psalm, in instilling such confidence, also enables its singers to treasure this worship as the gift that it is. The several references to "my soul" (vv. 1, 5, 8) point to the intensely personal devotion to God that infuses the whole song. The title links the psalm to David's days as a refugee, but it is not immediately clear whether the reference is to fleeing from Saul (1 Sam. 23:14-15; 24:1) or from Absalom (2 Sam. 15:23, 28). The latter may seem more likely, since the author calls himself a king (Ps. 63:11); cf. also 2 Sam. 16:14 for the term "weary" found in Ps. 63:1. On the other hand, the land through which David fled is not normally counted as part of the wilderness of Judah, and David could have thought of himself as a king even when he was fleeing Saul, since Samuel had already anointed him.

63:1-2 Remembering Past Worship. The song opens with passionate expressions of longing for God: earnestly I seek, my soul thirsts, my flesh faints. (No doubt the arid conditions of the wilderness of Judah provided the image of a dry and weary land where there is no water.) Clearly the singer misses God; but in particular, he misses his experience of God in public worship: the sanctuary is the place of corporate worship, and God's glory is his special presence with his people, which is given and enjoyed in the sanctuary (see note on 26:4-8). People are said to see (or look upon or behold) this glory (e.g., Ex. 16:7; 33:18; Num. 14:10; Deut. 5:24).