Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 63 | Date: September 22, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Take your Bibles, if you will, and turn to Psalm 63. The theme of this psalm we might call Singing in the Wilderness. Psalm 63: “A psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Oh 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. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night. For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.”

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, as always, when we come to your Word, we are struck with the sense of the privilege of it—to have this book, that it is your Word to us, a revelation of yourself, a revelation of your purposes in history, a revelation of your dealings with us. We pray that you will help us as we look through this psalm, as we learn those things. We pray that you would direct our minds and hearts to, as the psalmist expresses here, the blessedness of living under your care, and also the blessedness of the great hope that we have in the Lord Jesus. Pray that you’ll guide our minds and our hearts. Shape us by your word, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This psalm, Psalm 63, has been called the morning psalm of the early church. That’s because it was sung on Sunday mornings. When the psalm singing first would come each week, this was the psalm that was sung first. It was the morning psalm of the early church. And that because of the superscript and the theme of the psalm, the superscript tells us this was a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

And singing in the wilderness was for the church there that reflected their daily experience. Up until the time of Constantine, at least, the experience of the early church was that of continual threat, often persecution, danger of various kinds, and so they, in a sense, saw themselves in the wilderness. Now, with the rise of Constantine and the development of the state church, the church and the state became intermingled in such a way that that lost its significance here in Psalm 63, and so that practice of singing this psalm first on the Sunday mornings fell out of use. But the early church saw this as their song as they sang in the wilderness.

The superscript is one of 14 Psalms that give us a historical setting. It tells us that David was in the wilderness of Judah. Now that leaves us with two choices. It was either when he was in the wilderness of Judah in his flight from King Saul, or when he was in the wilderness of Judah in his flight from his son Absalom with the attempted coup when Absalom had taken over and David had to flee for his life into the wilderness. We saw that in context of Psalm 3 as well.

There are two details here. The superscript doesn’t give us anything more than that. But there are two details in the psalm that tell us more specifically what the setting is. In verse 2, he indicates that he is separated from the sanctuary. So this is when he is king. And also in verse 11, he refers to himself as king. So this is not during his flight from Saul. This is during his flight from Absalom. He’s chased into the wilderness. He’s there running for his life and hiding and wondering how to come back against Absalom and his army in order to regain his throne. And while he’s in the wilderness here in Psalm 63, he expresses primarily two desires.

One, in verses 1 to 5, he expresses his desire, and this is his primary one, to enjoy God’s presence again, and that is in the sanctuary. “My soul thirsts for you.” David longs to be back into the presence of God in the sanctuary. And then verses 6 to 11, he expresses the corresponding desire that his enemies would be destroyed. And that, of course, is the means of returning to Jerusalem and to the sanctuary and to the presence of God.

So we have these two desires that he expresses in the Psalms: his desire to return to the sanctuary in the presence of God, and two, verses 6 to 11, in order to do that, he desires that his enemies will be destroyed. The motive and the aim of both we find at the end of both of those stanzas, verse 5, and then again in verse 11—verses 3 to 5, actually—and that is his motive is to praise, and we will see that. So this is a psalm of trusting praise. He’s resolutely devoted to God, even while he’s in the wilderness, and he is determined, even in the wilderness, to give God praise. Now we’ll see how that works through.

David’s Desire

First of all, then, verses 1 to 5, David’s desire. He expresses his desire for God’s presence. That is, his presence in the sanctuary. Verses 1 to 5 again: “Oh 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. My soul will be satisfied. As with fat and rich food, my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.”

Now you’ll notice how the stanza, first of all, notice how it’s framed. In verse one, he expresses his desire: “my soul thirsts for you.” And then verse five, he anticipates the fulfillment of that longing: “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food.” Now the imagery here in verse 1 is drawn from the setting that he gives us in the superscription above it. He’s thirsty. His flesh is fainting. He’s in a dry and weary land where there is no water. That’s the setting. He’s in the wilderness of Judah. That’s an uninhabited land. The word used that’s translated wilderness can mean either a woodsy area or a desolate land of some kind. But he’s out there in the wilderness of Judah, a desolate place.

And he has no food and he has no water. He’s on the run. He’s tired. He’s thirsty. He’s hungry. And there’s no place to rest. And there’s no water to drink. And no food to eat. But what he desires most of all is not water. And it’s not food. What he desires most of all, verse 1: “my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Verse 2, what he wants to look on is the Lord again in his sanctuary with its symbols of power and glory. He wants to return to God’s presence at the sanctuary and be refreshed there in his presence.

So in other words, then, in these opening verses, David portrays his physical thirst and his physical weariness as representing his spiritual thirst and spiritual weariness. He wants water. His lips are parched. He’s out where he can’t find sufficient nourishment. But what he wants most of all is to return to the presence of God. That physical thirst reflects his deeper spiritual thirst. So when he says he’ll be satisfied finally, not when he gets water—he’ll be satisfied finally, verse 5, when he’s in the presence of God, and then he’ll be satisfied as when he has fat and rich food.

All right, so that’s the setting, but this is not a lament psalm, and we need to keep that in mind. This is not a lament. It’s a psalm of trust. One of the marks of a lament psalm is not only the lament, which is prominent in a lament psalm, but also the petition. This psalm does not have a petition, and even the lament is in the background. It’s not forward in the psalm. It’s in the background, but it’s not dwelled upon.

Verse one: “Oh God, you are my God.” There is no sense of distance here, only devotion to God. And in verses three through five—by the way, this psalm of trust then always has those marks that the lament is in the background, but what’s prominent is the note of trust and confidence in God and his intent to praise. And we have that in verses 3 to 5. “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” Verse four: “So I will praise you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands.” Verse five: “my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.”

Now he says this because of God’s steadfast love. That’s that word that we find over and over and over again in the Psalms. God’s steadfast love. It’s his covenant love, his devoted love, loyal love. It’s translated in various ways in the English versions. I’ve mentioned it to you before. It has the connotations of God’s affection—He loves—but also it connotes God’s loyalty, his faithfulness. And so we translate this word with the expression “steadfast love,” or his “loyal love,” or his “covenant love.” He’s pledged his loyalty to his people, but it’s not just a loyalty out of duty. It’s a loyalty of affection as well.

I think I’ve mentioned it before several times that this word is used in the Old Testament with the connotations of a person in a superior position of devoted loyalty to a person in an inferior position. And when the person in the inferior position is in need, this person who is his superior, not because he has to and not because of some external obligation, but because of his steadfast love, he comes to his help. And David is saying, because of God’s steadfast love, I know he’ll never let me go. He’ll never let me down. He’ll never disappoint me. And he says, verse three, his steadfast love then is better than life. It’s more highly to be prized and valued. If I have to choose the one over the other, there’s no contest. God’s love, his steadfast love, is better than life. If I have to die out here in the wilderness, I’ll die singing of God’s steadfast love. The church, of course, has a long history of martyrs who’ve shared the same conviction.

So in his wilderness exile, David is contemplating God’s loving devotedness to him, and in turn, then, David devotes himself to God’s praise. Verse three: “because of your steadfast love, my lips will praise you.” Verse four: “I will bless you. I’ll lift up my hands.” Verse five: “my mouth will praise you.” Because of your steadfast love, your loyal, loving devotion to me that you’ve pledged in covenant, I will praise you always.

So that’s verses one to five. David is in exile. It’s only hinted at; we see that in the background. He doesn’t dwell on it and lament it at length. He mentions it as the background to his praise to God, that because God has been so loyal to him, he is trusting that God will be loyal and affectionate toward him continually, and so he praises him for it. That’s verses one to five.

God Will Silence His Enemies

Now we come to verses six through 11. And here David expresses his desire and his trust that God will silence his enemies. God will silence his enemies, and in which case, David will be allowed to return to Jerusalem and to the house of the Lord. In verses six to eight, he begins with a reflection on life under God’s care. Verse six: “when I lie in bed at night, I recall your steadfast love.” I go to bed at night. Well, it’s hardly a bed out there in the wilderness when he’s on the run. But whatever it is, he lies down to sleep. And rather than being filled with anxiety—what’s going to happen?—rather than complaining, I remind myself of God’s steadfast love. And because of that, I can sleep.

Verse 7, he pictures himself as safe under the “shadow of your wings.” Figurative language, of course. God doesn’t have wings. He doesn’t have feathers. But the picture is that of a mother bird hovering over her young with protective care. You’ve all seen those kind of videos. Maybe you’ve seen it firsthand yourself. A mother hen or something, or a mother bird, an eagle. You’ve seen some of those videos. Hovering over her young, protecting them against any predator that would come. I remember one time when I was a very little boy, our parents took us to some friends that had a farm, and we were out in the barn with them, and there was a hen with her little chicks, and I thought they were pretty cute, and I reached down to pick up one of the chicks, and I found out that Mama Hen didn’t like that. She was pecking all over my hand, and my arm scared me to death, and it hurt. And that’s the imagery here. David says it’s like that, living under God’s care. He’ll protect me, he’ll keep me. And in fact, he says, verse seven, while protected from his enemies in God’s care and under his wings, David says, “I’ll sing for joy.”

Verse eight changes the imagery, and now we have a mutual holding on. Verse 8: “my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.” My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me. So David is trusting God; he clings to God with the assurance that God will hold on to him. David is, on his part, just clinging on in this desperate situation, but he’s clinging on with the assurance that God will hold him up with his right hand. So again, the imagery, it’s changed a bit, but it’s the same idea. Here it’s more like a father with his little boy. They’re out walking, say, at night, and it’s dark. And that’s kind of spooky enough anyway. And the little boy is afraid, and then he hears something out in the bushes, and that scares him all the more. And all dad has to do is reach down with his right hand, and hold him by his hand, and everything’s fine. And David says that’s what it’s like living under God’s care. In other words, that is to say, my enemies can’t win. He takes confidence in God.

Well, that brings us then to verses 9 to 11, and here we have a concluding expression of trust, coupled with an anticipation of future praise. Verse 9: “those who seek to destroy my life shall go down to the depths of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God, and all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.”

So here David encourages himself in the anticipation of an eventual victory that will come and God will give it. Verses 9 and 10 emphasize that this injustice that he’s enduring now, being chased into the wilderness, will not last forever. At last the tables will be turned and these people who are seeking my life, seeking to kill me, will themselves be killed in the battlefield under God’s protective care and they’ll become the food for jackals.

And then verse 11. At that point, the king shall rejoice in God when he returns from the wilderness to Jerusalem. And so he closes with his expression of confidence. He lays claim to God’s promise of a kingdom. For now, the coup is underway. His kingdom is under assault. His kingship is being contested. But he trusts God’s promise and so he anticipates a day when he will rejoice because God has given him what he has promised. That is to say then, he says as it were to his enemies, your revolt against me is a revolt against God’s appointed king. It cannot succeed because God has made a promise. There’s coming a day in which I will rejoice.

And in fact, verse 11 tells us that this rejoicing will not be on the part of the king only. Verse 11: “all who swear by him,” that is those who glory and will exult in him, they will exult and glory. They’ve remained loyal to the king and they will at last be vindicated. And so the king rejoices finally, his people will rejoice finally with him, and then at last, he says in verse 11, the mouths of liars will be stopped. That is to say there’ll be no more attempted coups, no more revolts; the king will be vindicated, he’ll be reestablished on his throne, and he and his loyal people will rejoice together.

Well, that’s the psalm. Stanza 1, verses 1 to 5, concludes with David’s mouth singing praises. Singing praises, he says, with my mouth, with joyful lips. Stanza 2, verses 6 to 11 concludes, verse 11, with the mouth of his lying enemies being silenced in death. And so he tells us that throughout his exile in the wilderness, he’ll continue to sing. He’ll sing in trusting anticipation that God will intervene and he will bring about all that he has promised.

Well, again, there’s the psalm. What does Psalm 63 then teach us? And I’ll give just two broad areas of application from it.

We Can Sing Even When We Live In The Wilderness

Number one, this psalm teaches us that like David, we can sing even when we live in the wilderness. This application just lies on the surface of the psalm. David is us. He’s in the wilderness. We’re in the wilderness. He sang, we’ll sing. It’s a wonderful letter that is preserved from Athanasius, who was a fourth-century theologian. He was a deacon in the church; he eventually became a bishop in the church. He himself was exiled for his faith for a time. In one of his letters, he writes to another man who was being persecuted. He says, “If when persecuted you go out into the desert, do not be afraid as though alone, but having God there and rising before dawn, sing Psalm 63.” He understood it well, just like the early church. This was the morning song of the early church.

And again, this application just lies on the surface of the psalm, especially when you view it in its larger biblical setting. David is not the first person to be exiled into the wilderness. Israel herself spent 40 years in the wilderness, in exile, being tested. And despite her faithful leader Moses, Israel didn’t do very well. Continually, she’s back into her unbelief and her mistrust of God’s promise. And in this sense, David stands in Psalm 63 as an example of faithfulness under trying circumstances. He’s the model of faithfulness under trying circumstances. For all of David’s faults that he has—and the big ones that we have seen lie behind this and are some ways to explain the problems that he has in his home, in this coup itself—but despite all of the spectacular faults that David has, he’s faithful and he learns to trust. He’s thirsty, his lips are parched, he’s tired, he’s worn out, he’s on the run, but what he wants more than anything else is to return to the presence of God.

It’s often been observed in studies on the life of David that the worst brings out the best in David. This is one of those occasions. It was in the wilderness, verse three, that David was reminded that God’s steadfast love is better than life. It was in the wilderness, verse four, that David learned to say, “I will bless you as long as I live.” And also, verse 11, it was in the wilderness that he learned to live in a joyful hope of God’s fulfilled promise. “The king shall rejoice in God.”

So the early church got it right when they recognized Psalm 63 as a psalm for the church in the wilderness. In those early centuries, they lived under the gun, so to speak, at the pointy end of the sword, and they were threatened and often in danger. And in their culture, much like ours, they had a culture that was very pluralistic. You can believe anything you want to believe. You can bring in any God you want to have. Worship them all. Have at it. You’re free to do it. But nothing exclusive. You must worship Caesar still.

The Christians said in response, “We’ll be loyal citizens. We’ll keep all your laws. We’ll do what we’re told. We’ll never revolt. But our worship belongs to Jesus alone.” And for that, they found themselves at the pointy end of a sword, and often under threat. And they found in Psalm 63 a wilderness song.

The Apostle John picks up this imagery in Revelation chapters 12 and following. You remember that dramatic scene? It’s an awful, awful imagery. In Revelation chapter 12, there’s this woman who’s about to give birth to a child. And she’s there, and she’s in labor, and she’s ready to give birth, and right in front of her is standing this dragon, slobbering and waiting, and can’t wait for this child to be born so he can devour him. The child is born and caught up into heaven, to God’s throne. The dragon is angered and of course the woman and her children run off into the wilderness where they’re chased by the dragon and he makes war against the woman and against her children. The beast and the false prophet are brought in and they increasingly take control of the world and they demand worship. They impose their mark. The people of God won’t take the mark. And so what they find as a result is they can’t do business. They’re not welcome in that society. They live in anticipation of a returning king. And so Revelation chapter 12 verse 11 tells us they didn’t love their lives unto death. But rather what we find is that with their whole souls, they believed Psalm 63 in verse three, that God’s steadfast love is better than life.

All of that, of course, points to our own experience increasingly in our culture. We live in an age of inaugurated tribulation. You hear me talk a lot about the inaugurated phase of God’s kingdom. There’s an inaugurated tribulation as well. That’s the mark of this age. Yes, there’ll be an outbreak of evil, according to 2 Thessalonians 2. In the book of Revelation, there’ll be an outbreak of evil at the end. But this whole age is marked by that. His tribulation is inaugurated, and the beast has come, and he’s imposed his mark.

Now, we’ve been spoiled in Christendom over the last few centuries, but we’ve enjoyed somehow the majority. But we’ve lost that now in our culture, and it has been reversed. And now we find ourselves in the despised minority. What? You don’t believe that a boy can be a girl? You don’t believe that a girl can be a boy? You don’t believe that—you don’t approve of homosexual behavior? You don’t believe that communist rule is better for us? We find ourselves on the minority side, and not just the minority side, but the despised minority side, and the beast imposes his mark. And the more God’s people refuse to take that mark, the more they find they can’t do business here; they’re not welcome in this society. Isn’t that what we’re seeing?

We are a people who can sing even when we live in the wilderness. And when we find ourselves, even as culture’s despised minority, we can sing verse one: “Oh God, I’m thirsty, I’m tired, I’m exhausted, I’m exiled. I live in this cursed world and fallen world, but you are my God, earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you.” We can sing verse three: “Your steadfast love is better than life.” And in fact, verse five, though thirsty and hungry in the wilderness, we can bask in the knowledge of God. Verses six and seven: though during the day we might get caught up in all kinds of other distractions, when we lie down at night, verse six, I remember him who has been our help. We bring to mind gospel truth. We bring to mind what God has done for us and the safety that we have in Christ, the freedom that we have in Christ, the great hope that we have in Christ, the knowledge that God will keep his promise.

And so verse nine, we remember the opposition of the world will not last forever. The king’s enemies will be silenced. And we remember verse 11, there’s coming a day when we will exalt in glory in our king. Psalm 63 then is as contemporary as today or tomorrow’s Christian experience. It teaches us that like David, we can sing even though we live in the wilderness.

David’s Greater Son

But second, and I’ve already alluded to this, Psalm 63 reminds us of another king, David’s greater son. We’ve learned to read the Psalms in the fuller light of Christ. We’ve seen that over and again, and one fascinating aspect in the life and experience of David is that we find parallels that repeat again in the life and experience of Jesus. We’ve seen this reflected in the Psalms many times over already. Psalm 22, David’s forsakenness becomes Jesus’ forsakenness. In Psalm 34, David’s forsakenness is Jesus’ forsakenness, and if David can say not a bone was broken, Jesus can say not a bone was broken. In Psalm 41, we can see David betrayed by his friends. Sign that reflected in Jesus, betrayed by one of his disciples. Psalm 41 is brought to bear on that experience. We’ll see it later in Psalm 69, that David found himself, even in a sense at times, exiled from his family. They were ashamed of him. And that of course became Jesus’ experience in the Gospels as well.

And one of the fascinating aspects of the study of David is not only in the Psalms do we find those Psalms picked up and repeated in the New Testament with reference to Jesus, but we find these kinds of parallels in David’s life as recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel. And one fascinating example is very close to this here, is in 2 Samuel chapter 19. Following Absalom’s rebellion—that’s the setting here in Psalm 63—David returns from the wilderness across the Jordan at Jericho, and then makes his way up to Jerusalem. The very same route that Jesus will take on his last return to Jerusalem. It’s like David is this grand extended dress rehearsal for what his greater son will experience later on.

Well, here in Psalm 63, David is in the wilderness of Judah. Following our Lord’s baptism, he also was led of the Spirit into the wilderness of Judah. We find it in Matthew chapter four. And there, like his father David, he was famished. He was thirsty. So famished that the thought of bread would be a temptation. And for 40 days, the Lord Jesus, like David, faced the question of verse 3: Is God’s steadfast love better than life? That’s exactly the question that Satan pressed. “Make this bread. Jump. Bow down. I’ll give you the kingdom now. You don’t have to wait. What’s the point of all this humiliation? You don’t have to suffer. You can have it now.” And all of Jesus’ responses to the devil—all of which, by the way, are from Israel and the wilderness passages in Deuteronomy—and all of his responses to Satan, Jesus affirmed verse three: “God’s steadfast love is better than life.” Jesus affirmed verse five: “God’s steadfast love is more satisfying than rich food.”

And there in that wilderness, Jesus, in effect, said to his father the words of verse eight: “my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.” And there in the wilderness, Jesus, verse 11, encouraged himself with the happy anticipation that one day “the king shall rejoice in God.” And with that—this is also verse 11—with that, Jesus stopped the mouth of the great liar himself.

Well, that confrontation in the wilderness, of course, was just round one. The devil would come against Jesus again and again and again, but never with success. Jesus, as David exemplifies here, Jesus remained faithful throughout. And then one day, it seemed that the devil had won. He led him out of Jerusalem, and there, like David, driven out of the city, taken away from the city—outside, he was put to death. And in that seeming victory of Satan, we find the devil’s own undoing. There Jesus offered himself to God in sacrifice for our sins. There Jesus satisfied all the demands of divine justice against our sin. And there Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. And redeeming us from the law and from its curse, Jesus snatched us from the grasp of the devil and established his own kingdom and brought us safely into it. His kingdom established, and in vindication God raises him from the dead and exalts him to the throne, and his kingdom is established.

Now of course, as with David in Psalm 63, today the kingship of our Lord is under assault. It’s being contested. We learned this at the outset of the Psalter. Psalm 2: the whole world’s in revolt. It’s like when you read Psalm 2 and some of these Psalms, it’s like you’re reading today’s newspaper. The world in revolt against God. “We won’t have him rule over us. We’ll break his bands. We’ll tear him apart. We won’t have his law.” God has sent his warning: “I’ve set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” But the revolt, the impossible revolt, continues. God has promised his son, the king, an inheritance of nations. The whole world will be yours. And he’s announced his intentions to the whole world. But the revolt continues.

But it won’t last. One day, one day, the Lord Jesus will return, and David’s hopeful prayer in verse 11 will finally be realized. In that day, the king shall rejoice in God. In that day, he’ll see his kingship in its full glory. He’ll see his kingdom in its full consummation, and every knee will bow and every last tongue will acknowledge him as the Lord that he is.

And verse 11 tells us that in that day it won’t be the king alone who rejoices. But he tells us, verse 11, all who swear by him—that is, all who trust him—shall exult in glory as they see their king vindicated and as they’re given to share in his reign. He rejoices; they cheer and rejoice with him. And then at last—again, this is verse 11—the mouths of liars will be stopped. No more attempted coups. No one again will ever presume that the Lord Jesus Christ can just be canceled at will. The dragon will not have final say. All the world will see the triumph of the Lord Jesus.

Coming back to Psalm 63 as a wilderness song. It is in our anticipation of that day that the church sings in the wilderness. We sing not only of God’s steadfast love, but we sing, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Make it soon. Bring this world to bow. We want to see you in your glory. We want to be there and sharing it ourselves.” Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, oh, how we long for that day. We’re thankful for these reminders that you give us in your word that as you have cautioned us, this will be a time of opposition, times of troubles. But you’ve given us this great confidence that your every promise will be fulfilled, and the Lord Jesus Christ will reign as king in the earth. Lord, we pray that you will hasten that day. Until then, we pray that you will, in fact, keep us faithful. In his name we ask, amen.