“A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.” Ps. 63:1-4
Without going into too much historical detail we look this morning at the title of this Psalm, “A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” David wrote this psalm in the wilderness. That mostly says it all. He is not at home. He is unable to be at home. He is on the run. He is in the wilderness, life is not what it used to be or what it is supposed to be in his mind.
But in the midst of this trouble he cries out, “O God, you are my God…” In the midst of his struggles he calls on the only one that can help. He has been on the run for a while whether to stay out of the reach of King Saul or his own son Absalom. He has been in this “valley” of life seeking refuge, safety and home. So he cries out knowing that he will be heard. He demonstrates that knowledge when he says, “…earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Even in the midst of a dry and weary land…where nothing seems to be going the way he thinks it should he still seeks God “earnestly”- with everything that he has left…everything-“… my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you…” he is “working hard” to maintain his relationship with his God. He is doing as Paul will commend us to “…work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” In other words, live as God has prescribed no matter what may come.
David remembers…as much as he longs for home…he remembers… So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory…he remembers the church…the worship experience…The means of grace God has given all who are His. He remembers how it encouraged and strengthened him at the time of worship and how it is encouraging and strengthening him now because of the truths that were taught there, namely… “the steadfast love of the LORD is better than life.” God’s covenantal love that is eternal and can never be taken away that had led him to write at one point, “The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” It is because of his salvation given to him by God and reinforced in worship that he can say…in the wilderness… “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.”
The question for us today is: How often do we let our circumstances rule our lives? What about today? Another question that I think gets at the heart of our dilemma is: What does this statement mean to us, “O God, you are my God…” My God…our God…is He really the LORD of our lives or is the circumstances of this life at this time? How do you know? Well…how’s the earnestly seeking of Him… going? How is the whole thirsting for Him going? For we are in a “dry and weary land” like West Texas in the summer…no water …no refreshment to be found when seeking for it on our own before we seek the LORD. And then there is this… finding this refreshment in worship among God’s people where we remember the steadfast love of the LORD is better than life. It is in the context of God’s Church that this is affirmed and continuously taught so that when we are in the midst of hardship we can remember God’s goodness.
All of this enables him and us to praise the LORD no matter what our circumstances are…and it is in praising Him this way that we can experience God’s peace in the midst of our circumstance…even if they don’t go away…(remember he is still in the wilderness). All of this enables us to rise above the circumstance…yet not I, but through Christ in me who enables me to say with certainty, “O God, you are my God…”
God Bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
