Psalm 63
Psalms • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 1 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. 2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 6 when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. 9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; 10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
Before I was saved I was a false believer
I had knowledge of Jesus and our need for forgiveness of sins by his blood
And I claimed him for the sake of escaping God’s wrath
But it was not because my greatest desire was to be near to God
But it was because my greatest desire was the things of this creation
My greatest pursuit and desire in life was to enjoy the things of this world
And to use God in pursuit of my greatest desire
And now looking back at the time of my life when I was a false believer
I can see those desires for the world and using God to get those desires
And conclude that desire is bad
Passion is bad
The longing of the heart is bad
But that would be an erroneous reaction to my prior error
Like we have learned about sadness, anger, and grief
The desire of the Christian needs to be
Not to deny these God given emotions in their proper place
But rather to see how each emotion can be use for the sake of our worship of God
Desire, passion, the longing of the heart
Is a God given gift to make worship enjoyable and fulfilling
But the difference of the Christian versus the nonChristian
The nonChristian uses desires above all things the things of this world and will use anything and everything to get it, including God
the Christian desires God above all things and will use the things of this world to get him
And we see this here with David in this Psalm
We see the context of this Psalm is
A psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah
That could be two occasions
1. When Saul caused David to have to flee from his court
5 Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.
2. Or when David had to flee Jerusalem when his son Absalom tried to take the throne
13 And a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.” 14 Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
It seems the former is the likely scenario for this Psalm
So David goes from the court of royalty to a wilderness
The center of riches to a center of destitution
The wilderness he is in reminds him of hunger and thirst
But it draws his mind to a deeper desire than hunger and thirst:
1 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.
When we go without the things of this world, the easiest reaction is for us to complain
Thus showing in that moment our greatest desire is the things of this world
David, showing where his greatest desire is uses that time to consider his
pursuit and desire of God
Driven by a circumstance of destitution when it comes to being near to God
David says:
I seek earnestly
Because I desire greatly
Because I am left without
Or to say it backwards
Because of specific circumstances of destitution
I desire
And so I seek
If you spent a few hours outside shoveling snow
When you came in you would desire warmth
So you would seek a fire and a hot drink
If you spent a few hours mowing the lawn
When you came in you would desire to cool off
So you would seek a cool room and a cold drink
Circumstances drive desire
Desire drives your seeking
David says his circumstances are such that he is void of God
So he desires God
And seeks God
Why is David in a circumstance void of God?
What’s the nature of that wilderness that he likens to being without water?
To explain that we must understand the nature of humanity
We were created in Adam in a garden in which God’s nearness was in abundance
But Adam sinned and was kicked out and so we are born being very far from God
We are literally born in a wilderness as compared to our original state before Adam’s fall
Our sinful flesh, and the cursed world create an environment like the wilderness of Judah where there is no water
All people are born spiritually dead and so are in a dry and weary land
The unbeliever tries to make it not so using the physical world God has given them
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Your dog, your cat, can find all its desires met in the world since it is not created in the image of God with eternity stamped on its soul
But you are made in the image of God, with eternity on our soul, and so are created to search beyond the world for fulfilled desires
Or, the physical world is meant to be used as a means to a spiritual end....the physical world is not an end of itself
Where the world says
O wealth, you are my God
O comfort, you are my God
O fame, you are my God
O ease, you are my God
O entertainment you are my God
The Christian says with David
O God, you are my God
The dry and weary land of the cursed world and our left over cursed flesh
Causes us to:
Desire after God
And so we search after God
God has created man to find his ultimate desire met in worship to him
Then to enjoy all things in the world in light of that
The number one desire in your heart needs to be how can I use that part of creation to worship God
The curse God gave because of sin was a separation between heaven and earth
And so humanity is left with a thirst that causes us to seek
And the pagan tries to quench it by seeking after the things of this world like an animal
But for those who know the true God, the wilderness causes us to desire God and seek him
I want you to get the significance of this in regards to the Psalms directing your worship
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
That means God has a purpose for the curse he has placed on man and creation
That it would create a desert like condition
Which would causes his people to desire him further
And so seek him eagerly
How much have you complained this year of the things of this world
School shootings
Bank shootings
Lies spewing from politician’s mouths
Family members that disappoint
Friends that turn their backs on you
Church members that display hypocrisy in the way they treat you
But did you ever consider it to be ordained by God to create a thirst in you to facilitate a deep rooted search for him?
How much have you complained this year of the things of weakness of your flesh
Besetting sins that will not relent
Depression and sadness taking root in your heart
Tears in abundance but joy strangely allusive
Your spirit is tired before the day even begins
But did you ever consider that the dry and weary land in your soul is ordained by God to create a thirst in you to facilitate a deep rooted search for him?
We all are confronted with the dry and weary land of the cursed world around and our cursed flesh
If it is not driving you to desire God it will drive you to desire the world
And if you are desiring the world you will eagerly seek the things of the world
But it must drive a desire for God in you so you will eagerly seek God
David experienced a period of being in the wilderness
And the lack of physical provisions reminded him of his lack of spiritual provisions because of the fall
And such a lack causes him a greater thirst for God, and thus a greater search for God
What does it look like to eagerly seek God?
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
(There is so much blessed doctrine in that one sentence)
David’s search for God because of his thirst driven by being in a dry and weary land caused him to
Psalm 63:2 “…look upon God in the sanctuary, beholding his power and glory.”
If God is your God, the dry and weariness of your own soul and the world around you
Is meant to lead you to look upon God in the sanctuary, to behold his power and glory
What does that mean?
Sanctuary: Is a place where God dwells in a special way
God is everywhere, he cannot not be somewhere
But sanctuary is where God dwells in a way that promotes unity between God and man: loving relationship
And remember, that is man’s greatest desire
And God gave us the physical world for us to enjoy him in
Thus, God dwelling with man in the physical world is key for man to enjoy physical world
Before the fall, the garden was the sanctuary where Adam and Eve enjoyed the special presence of God which promoted a loving relationship between Adam and Eve, and God
After the fall, because of sin, they no longer enjoyed that special presence being kicked out, and in its stead was guilt and shame
Man has, ever since, tried to answer this problem with the things of this world
So instead of the world becoming a means to enjoy the presence of God, it becomes an end itself and is called spiritual death
But thankfully, since the fall, it has been God’s goal to bring the sanctuary back to earth through the work of Jesus
In David’s day it was seen in the sanctuary where the tabernacle was and the sacrifices
God called out Israel as a nation, brought them to the land of Canaan, and said I will make my dwelling among you
And this will be enjoyed through the sanctuary of the tabernacle/temple enabled by proper sacrifices to forgive sins
So when David says
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
The power is God overcoming sin to make his presence specially known again
The glory is the power revealed in having a relationship with man despite their sin
David says my searching is complete and my desires fulfilled in looking at the way you put an end to the dry and weary land of godlessness in this world through the forgiveness of sins and being specially present in your temple
David’s desire is met in seeing God end the drought with his covenantal love in forgiving sins and being near
The sanctuary provides God’s special presence again through forgiveness of sins
And so the thirst David has for God drives a search for him that ends in looking at the sanctuary
Today, we do the same thing just in a completed or fulfilled way
John 1:14 “14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled (dwelled) among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
God’s plan was always to dwell with man again and fulfill their most basic longing of the heart
And Jesus is the completion of that plan as he, the God man, dwelled among us
John 1:16 “16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”
Grace is God dwelling among us again through the forgiveness of sins found in his Son Jesus Christ
So the times you destitute, empty, broken
It is a thirst, a desire, that drives you to seek
And that seeking is meant to drive you to God dwelling with us again
We look to the powerful manifestation of forgiveness of sins and God’s presence
We look to Jesus
Significant thirst, significant hunger is not a good feeling at all
Especially when there is no sign of the desires being met
Especially when the attempts to fulfill such desires prove to be empty and vain
There is perhaps, no greater feeling than when your hunger and thirst is extreme, and the drink and food is laid out before you for the taking
In fact, the greater the hunger and thirst the greater it feels to meet the demands of the desire
God has given us this creation as a means to enjoy him in
Because of sin we are constantly wanting to use the world as an end in itself
And so God allows hunger and thirst that follows from that vain pursuit to fester
So that you will find relief in pursuing and receiving Jesus
But it goes even beyond this
Jesus did not stay on earth, but went back to be with the Father
But it is not as if we are void of God’s special presence now
There is still a sanctuary to behold the power and glory of God dwelling with man through forgiveness of sins
17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
The glory of God revealed in his power to create a sanctuary here on earth despite our sin
Is seen today in those who have true faith in Jesus
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The power of God is revealed in the gospel which enables those who believe to near to God in local gatherings
Those who have believed upon Jesus through the gospel display the power of God to forgive sinners
And make up the sanctuary of God on earth
This is the apex of his power and glory revealed
We live in a cursed world, with flesh left over that is corrupted in sin
It creates a dry and weary environment
It creates a thirst in us for God
Meant to drive a search within our very souls
And this search is complete in looking at God’s powerful working of salvation in Jesus and in his church
So if the answer to our thirst is seeking God as he is found in his sanctuary
And if his sanctuary is the church of Christ
How can we find our thirst quenched and behold his power and glory there?
The Outcome?
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
God’s faithfulness to save—steadfast love despite our sin
Better than life (physical)
It doesn’t mean physical life does not matter, it just means relationship with God is the greater pursuit
And living in reality of such a relationship with God is better than all the riches life can offer
So he will have a life of praise
4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.
My life in the flesh will result in blessing God
