Psalm 63: A Psalm for ‘Early-Seekers’ Psalm 63:1

Text: “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.”

Psalm 63:1.

Good morning, ‘Early-seeking Christian!  As one who regrets not having sought Christ Jesus until the age of 32 – at which time complete ruin of my life was obvious to all – I give thanks to know that there are many who have sought Salvation in Christ Jesus at an early age, and succeeded, by His grace, to not only have soul’s Eternal redemption, but redemption of an entire life spent in sweet fellowship with our gracious and generous Lord God.  Praise His Name!

Brother Spurgeon, in his great literary volume, ‘The Treasury of David’, notes the following: “Title: ‘A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah’. This was probably written while David was fleeing from Absalom; certainly, at the time he wrote it he was king (verse 11), and hard pressed by those who sought his life.  The distinguishing word of this Psalm is ‘Early’.  When the bed is softest, we are most tempted to rise at lazy hours, but when comfort is gone, and the couch is hard, if we rise the earlier to seek the Lord, we have much for which to thank the wilderness.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 274)

Throughout the years of our Christian lives, we shall have many ‘wilderness experiences’ – times when we feel isolated, marginalised, or fighting an uphill Spiritual battle against the increased apostasy of ‘the church’ worldwide and international; against increased blatant Sodomy and loose living; against doctrinal ignorance within the professing church, and doctrinal ridicule from without.  We, like king David, will endure the ‘wilderness experience’.

Elijah the prophet of God experienced such barren times of ‘wilderness experience’, so much so that, sheltering under a juniper tree, he cried out unto the Lord God: “…I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”  (1 Kings 19:10)

At times of such ‘wilderness experiences’, we are utterly compelled to become ‘early seekers’ after the Lord God’s Presence – for there is no other one that can sustain and strengthen us with Spiritual might within, and make us strong to persevere in ‘…the faith once delivered unto the saints…’ (Jude 3)

“There are Psalms proper for a wilderness; and we have reason to thank God it is the wilderness of Judah we are in, not the wilderness of sin.”  (Matthew Henry 1662-1714)

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”  (2 Timothy 3:12-15)

When David was comfortable upon the roof top of his house in Jerusalem, he gazed down upon the beautiful Bathsheba, lusted after her, committed adultery, then, when Bathsheba got pregnant with his child, conspired with Joab, the captain of Israel’s host, to set up Bathsheba’s husband, the faithful Uriah the Hittite, for to be killed in battle.  David’s comfort led to David’s lust, adultery, deception, conspiracy to murder Uriah, and down and down into a wilderness of gross sin against God and against a faithful servant of Jehovah. 

What price will the stagnant comfort of the professing Christian church cost today? Please, Lord God, send Thy true church a discomfiting – a ‘wilderness experience’, that it might seek Thee once again!  Turn our hearts, oh Lord, that we might repent and draw close to Thee!

“Hagar saw God in the wilderness and called it by the name derived from that vision Beer-lahai-roi (i.e., “the well of him that liveth and seeth me,") (Genesis 16:13-14) Moses saw God in the wilderness (Exodus 3:1-4); Elijah saw God in the wilderness (1 Kings 19:4-18).  David saw God in the wilderness.  The Christian church will see God in the wilderness (Revelation 12:6-14).  Every devout soul which has loved to see God in His house will be refreshed by visions of God in the wilderness of solitude, sorrow, sickness, and death.” (Christopher Wordsworth,1807-1885)

You and I, dear genuine Bible-believing Christian, also need to have ‘wilderness experiences’, for it is in such circumstances, brought about, or permitted by the Lord God, that we learn to draw close to Christ and the Cross afresh, and seek His Divine help.

Verse 1. “O God, Thou art my God; or, O God, Thou art my Mighty One. The last Psalm left the echo of power wringing in the ear, and it is here remembered.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 274)

Verse 1. “O God. This is a serious word; pity it should ever be used as a by-word.”  (Matthew Henry 1662-1714)

I believe there will be special punishments in Hell for those that have taken God’s Holy Name in vain, and taught their children, by the continual hearing, to likewise blaspheme that precious and sacred Name.  Those that disregard the very Name of Christ Jesus, shall die without pity and spend a Christ-rejecter’s Eternity in Hell suffering the consequences.

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow…”  (Philippians 2:9)

“Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him/her guiltless that taketh His Name in vain.”  (Exodus 20:7)

Verse 1. “Early will I seek Thee. Possession breeds desire. Full assurance is no hindrance to diligence but is the mainspring of it. How can I seek another man’s God? But it is with ardent desire that I seek after Him Whom I know to be my own.  Observe the eagerness implied in the time mentioned; he will not wait for noon or the cool eventide; he is up at cockcrowing to meet his God.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 274)

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Verse 1. “My soul thirsteth for Thee.  Thirst is an insatiable longing after that which is one of the most essential supports of life; there is no reasoning with it, no forgetting it, no despising it, no overcoming it by stoical indifference.  Thirst will be heard; the whole man must yield to its power; even thus it is with that Divine desire which the grace of God creates in regenerate (born again) men/women.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 274)

Thought: So much Spiritual nourishment contained in one verse of God’s Word!  Now, let us ask our own hearts/minds – do I have the Divinely created thirst to seek it early?