The Thirsting Soul Satisfied in God

The world offers no satisfaction for our bodies or souls. It is only in Christ that we find any relief, direction, and hope for both body and soul. Where does the soul turn in times of spiritual drought, trials, and discouragement? It’s only refreshment and satisfaction is to be found in God and in His lovingkindness.

Introduction.

Where do we go when we experience difficulty? When we undergo painful, fearful, and troubling circumstances where do our souls turn? What do we do in the midst of trials, temptations, and suffering? Where do you find satisfaction in the midst of these things? Where do you go when the wearying wilderness of the world simply overwhelms you?

This is question that Psalm 63 puts before us. And with Gods help we will answer this question as we unpack this wonderful Psalm.

I. The Seeking Soul Satisfied in God vv.1-5

II. Further Seeking leading to peace and confidence vv.6-8

III. The Glory of Gods Justice vv.9-11

Praise: “One of the most beautiful and touching Psalms”

“Comprises the entirety of the heart of the Psalter”

“one of those few Psalms to be labeled imperial”

“In the early church not a day was to go by when this Psalm was not sung publicly. “

Title: A Psalm of David. When he was in the wilderness of Judah.

This is David fleeing Absolam.

He is not yet king

2 Samuel 17:2 “And I will come upon him while he is weary with his hands falling limp and throw him into utter fright, so that all the people who are with him will flee. Then I will strike down the king alone,

2 Samuel 17:29 “honey, curds, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David and for the people who were with him, to eat; for they said, “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.””

I also think it fits David’s circumstance better. His soul is deeply distressed not only about his fleeing for his life from his son, but for his previous sins that the LORD was now chastening him for.

Verses 1-5 ‘The Seeking Soul Satisfied’

Verse 1 -- “O God”, is Davids first cry, but not just a simple notion of God, but “My God”.

“God”, who is omnipotent ruler and owner of all. “My God”, by way of covenant, by intimate relation.

Not just God as all powerful being, all powerful creator, ruler, and sustainer. But the covenant making covenant keeping God, the one I’m familiar with by intimate communion. O God, You are my God.

The intensity here cannot be missed.

It is an eager seeking “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;” and with his whole being. “My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,” Soul and body each can represent the entirety of ones being, or the sense could be that his so thirsts that it has even taken effect on his body.

He uses the inhabitable desolate land around him as a metaphor for His spiritual condition or the condition of his soul.

“In a dry and weary land without water.”

Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Ps 63:1.

This is not just a simple plea or cry. David is starving for God.

Notice what he doesn’t ask for. David is teaching us something very valuable here. He doesn’t ask or plead that Absolam would stop pursing him for his life. Or that God would frustrate his plans. He doesn’t ask to be taken out of the circumstance. All he seeks for is his God. If he is to be satisfied of this destitution, it will be in God alone. What else can satisfy our souls? Nothing

He shows us here where the first motions of our souls always ought to be in troubled times. We are to seek God in Christ. He is our Bread of Life, we have food that the world does not know about, we have living water welling up to eternal life. We are to seek our Father who loves us in Christ, whose Spirit has brought us into communion with Him. The first movement of the weary soul is to our triune God. Very simply, he’s teaching us to walk by faith in difficulty. God is the only one that can satisfy our temporal but here our spiritual needs and desires. The world would suggest many other paths to us, but the inspired psalmist is our surest counselor here.

Verse 2 -- Where does David go to find God? He goes to the sanctuary. Where God had made known his power and his glory.

The idea is not of a lone contemplation, but with all the faithful. To the types that pointing to the Christ, contemplating these soul ravishing truths together as the people of God that David goes.

Signs and Symbols point to something beyond themselves. Sanctuary points beyond itself, Ceremonies point beyond themselves, sacrifices point to a greater sacrifice.

The sign for MacDonalds 5 mi ahead is not MacDonalds

“As a symbol of the cosmos and a preview of the new heaven and new earth, the tabernacle and later the temple portrayed God’s power in creation and glory in redemption”.11 James M. Hamilton Jr.

“The symbolic display of God’s accomplishments in creation and redemption at the temple prompt David to consider God’s character” 11 James M. Hamilton Jr.,

David understood that everything in the sanctuary was a means to communion with God.

Moves backward to the great deliverances of God, and forward to the promise of the coming redeemer.

Listen to 1 Pet 1:10, 11 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, made careful searches and inquiries,” 1 Pet 1:11 “inquiring to know what time or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He was predicting the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.”

This is what David and the faithful Israelites were pondering as they came together around these things.

What about us? Where has God promised to be? Where has he promised his marked presence? Where his people are gathered for worship. Here today. Do you believe that? Do you believe that about this small humble place as we gather?

We are not just here to perform our duties and go home.

We are here to commune with God! We commune( I mean converse!) with him in his Word, in prayer, in song, in fellowship with each other. We see his glory in the gospel of our Lord.

His power on display in his redemptive works in us, in each other, in answering our prayers!

We are here to go from strength to strength, glory to glory, to further conformity to Jesus.

This is not a social club! The power and wisdom of God are on display whenever his people come together in his name.

That’s what we are to believe as we come here today, but one more question arises at this point; if the Lord so providentially hindered you from gathering, could you bring to mind these wonderful things?

Could you call up the Scriptures and comfort yourself with the understanding of them?

Could you bring up the Psalms and Hymns and sing them?

Could you meditate on your Baptism and see in it your union with Christ in his death and resurrection?

Could you look at the Supper and see the ongoing Spiritual strength and nourishment that Christ gives by His Spirit?

Could you bring to mind the delightful fellowship of the saints and they the Lord had cheered you in their presence?

Excerpt: God meets with David in spite of his circumstance.

Transition

And all of this moves him to consider God’s lovingkindness. God’s unwavering devotion to his promises, to his favor upon David.

Verse 3 — “Because your lovingkindness is better than life(s).”

I could have all the possible lives. Any of the most desirable and imaginable circumstances. But if I had any of those, and not your lovingkindness, I’d rather die.

What’s better than the fact that God has loved you with an unchangeable love? We talked about this last week. His faithfulness towards us is as fixed as our Lord Jesus Christ sits on the right hand of the Father. Can anyone bring Him down? No. That’s how firm and fixed are salvation is in Christ! That’s God’s covenant faithfulness to us. Can you imagine anything better than that? And having the Spirit of God to assure you of that! What an amazing God we have! These glorious truths are truly ineffable! Who can speak of the joy that a believer feels when coming to the realization of these truths.

To have God’s lovingkindness on you is the highest privilege on earth!

Response

And this leads to the most natural response to God’s lovingkindness; Praise, exuberant praise, and a determination to live out the entirety of ones life to God.

FIX What else what fit the circumstance?

Nothing!

We learn from this that the Christian is to be marked by praise. That’s why often times you have times of prayer and praise. We’ll sit around and ask each other what praiseworthy thing God has done in our lives. And then we’ll sing his praises together in light of it. It is fitting for the upright to praise the Lord.

Listen to Charles Simeon on this one:

“O that i had powers equal to the occasion! How would I praise him! How would I glorify him! Verily I would praise him on earth, even as they do in heaven.” ~Charles Simeon

His conclusion to this section is him describing what he’s just experienced as being at a royal feast with the choices of meats and all. His soul is beyond satisfied. We almost get the sense that he’s not even in the wilderness anymore as he has just taken us on this rapturous contemplation of our glorious God.

Verses 6-8 ‘Further seeking leading to peace and confidence’

His seeking is further heightened.

We have a man on fire for God, obsessed with God.

He can’t get enough of God.

He calls him to mind in the night watches. And this is not just a pondering of God as he doses off to sleep. The word meditate implies having your whole being engaged in thoughts. Thoughts about God, his Word, and immediately his past experience of God’s deliverance and protection of him.

But there’s also a shift if you will. David is now at peace. He has confidence that God will protect and uphold him, even in the midst of these terrifying circumstance.

And the theme of joyful praise remains. He rejoices in God’s deliverance in God’s strength. He rejoices in his weakness and dependence. Maybe Paul had this in mind in 2 Corinthians 12:9

And he clings to God!

Verse 8 — “My soul clings to You;”

The thought of leaving off communion and meditating on his God is far removed from his thoughts.

We think of Ruth so clinging to Naomi. We think of the husband cleaving to his wife.

KJV “My soul followeth hard after thee”

The idea is following after the foot steps of someone. And so pursing even if it seems as if He is running away from you.

The example would be trying to keep up with someone on hike through a path in the woulds. They stay within sight but you have to keep pushing to keep up. Every time you come around one corner you just get a glimpse before they go around another corner. It’s a following after that communion with God, that intimacy with him.

But very importantly, His pursuing and keeping with God is not his own.

“Your right hand upholds me”

We need to give careful consideration here to perseverance and preservation.

No one can say there a Christian and say they are not following hard after God.

But no one ever looks back at some deliverance and says, it was because I was following hard after God. No, we look back and say it was because God was upholding me by His power.

Thats the idea here.

If I go out to the van with Owen this afternoon and a viscous dog comes barking at us, whats going to happen? Owen is going to cling to me and I’m going to pick him up and run to safety.

But if you from the window or from the door, how would describe it?

Verses 9-12 ‘The glory of God’s Justice’

Now we come to consider Davids enemies and the justice and judgement of God.

DAVID KNOWS this will be the outcome. We almost get the same vibes as we do with Abraham here. His confidence continues as he considers the outcomes of himself and his enemies. His seeing the power and glory in the sanctuary, and God’s loving kindness towards him as the anointed king convince him that his enemies will be brought to judgement and his kingship restored. And he along with those trusting in God will rejoice again.

Perhaps Psalm 2 came to his mind here.

“2 The kings of the earth take their stand

And the rulers take counsel together

Against Yahweh and against His cAnointed, saying,

3 “Let us tear their fetters apart

And cast away their cords from us!”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs,

The Lord bmocks them.

5 Then He speaks to them in His aanger

And bterrifies them in His fury, saying,

6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King

Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

10 So now, O kings, show insight;

Take warning, O judges of the earth.

11 Serve Yahweh with fear

And rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way,

For His wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Ps 2:2-6,10-12

And as you read on in 2 Samuel you see that David is restored to the throne as described here for us. He and those trusting God, will continue to praise Him.

‘The Greater David’

Now as we conclude we have to ask the question; Is One greater than David here?

Maybe some of you have already turned the following phrase over in your head: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

Title: His whole life was a journey through the wilderness of this world.

Listen to quote by Sam Eyles Pierce

“he must have viewed it all under the curse; he came into it, to remove the curse. Whilst in it, he was holiness itself; he was righteousness in its utmost perfection; he was purity in its highest perfection. His love to God, his faith in God, his seeking God, his worshipping God, his zeal for God, his desires after God, his delight in God, his hungerings and thristings after God, were such as are here expressed and implied.”

Desire for God: His desire for God and His glory is constant as He is always seeking the glory of His Father, always going off to seek Him in prayer.

Sanctuary: What was the Sanctuary to Him. The Sanctuary is full of himself. Everything in it pointed to himself and what He would do in Tabernacling among us, offering himself as our sacrifice, bringing us in to the glorified state. How he percieved and enjoyed these things truly eludes our comprehension. The religious leaders testify to it. Where did this boy get this wisdom and learning?

Lovingkindness: This is central to His mission. The Father gave him a people, a bride to redeem, He would not loose one of them. He knows that all of Gods promises will find their yes and amen in Him. For the joy set before Him he endured the cross. We were even his delight before the world was Proverbs 8

Worshipful prayer, praise, and meditations filled the entirety of His life. And this is all part of his suffering for us, so that we wouldn’t be destitute, thirsting and hungering for all eternity.

And we have the most amazing redemptive reversal here. One that finds its promise as far back as the garden. The idea in these last verses of the Psalm is that the enemies intent to destroy will turn to their own destruction and to the Psalmists exultation. Jesus enemies, sought his life to shut him up. The religious leaders, the devil and the rulers of darkness. He even thought that if he got him into hades that he could shut him up in there.

But what happens. Death can’t hold a righteous man. Jesus death is the death of death. The Seed of the woman has crushed the head of the Serpent. He has conquered death for us. “Death where is your victory, Death where is your sting.” We share in that resurrection victory with him.

“But the mouths of liars be stopped.”

This is a very sobering conclusion to our Psalm. The only other time in the OT the word stopped is used is when the flood waters stop in Genesis. Judgement has been served. While our mouths will praise God into eternity, the mouths of liars will be stopped. There is a coming judgement, and we are those that are to warn others of that.

So as we go, may the Lord challenge us and encourage us , and comfort us with this wonderful Psalm, but may it also be a means of stirring us up to warn others of the coming judgement and to point them toward the God who has shown such wonderful mercies to us in his son.

Let us pray.