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[1] This was one of Chrysostom’s (c. 347–407) favorite
Psalms. Spurgeon has a note in his
commentary on the Psalms that Chrysostom said that the early church fathers
thought enough of this psalm that they decreed that “no day should pass
without the public singing of this psalm.”
Psalm
63 is highly commended in the Apostolic
Constitutions, a document of the highest historical value revealing
the moral and religious conditions and
the liturgical observances of the 3rd and 4th centuries
AD. They give us a glimpse of the
Psalms in the life and worship of this time period: “The women, the children, and the humblest labourers, could repeat all the Psalms of David; they chanted them at home and abroad: they made them the exercises of their piety and the refreshment of their minds. Thus they had answers ready to oppose temptation, and were always prepared to pray to God, and to praise him, in any circumstance, in a form of his own inditing … If thou stayest at home, read the Book of the Law, with the kings and the prophets, and sing the Hymns of David … If thou desirest something to sing, thou hast the Psalms … But assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing Psalms and praying in the Lord’s House; in the morning saying the 63rd Psalm, and in the evening the 140th Psalm; but principally on the Sabbath day.” |
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[2] One of the most profound statements we can make is claiming God to be “my God.” The phrase, “my God” occurs about 56x in the Psalms. Jonathan Edwards wrote when he was nineteen years old, On January 12, 1723, I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down; giving up myself, and all that I had to God; to be for the future, in no respect, my own; to act as one that had no right to himself, in any respect. And solemnly vowed to take God for my whole portion and felicity; looking on nothing else, as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were; and his law for the constant rule of my obedience: engaging to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, to the end of my life (Personal Narrative). |
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[3] Paronomasia (play on words) is found in vv.1 and 11: šāḥar; šeqer; and sākar (Tate, Psalms 51-100, 125). |
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[4] The Hebrew word for “soul” can also mean “neck”
(cf. Psalm 69:2; 124:4). Therefore
this verse could be translated “my throat/neck is athirst for you.” |
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[5] John Piper explained this verse by saying, “This means that David wanted God more than he wanted life. And if you want God more than you want life, then you want God more than you want all the joys of this life—family, health, food, friendship, sexual relations, job-satisfaction, productivity, books, skateboards, computers, music, homes, sunsets, fall colors. When David says that the love of God is better than life and therefore better than all the beauty that life means, he is not denying that all these good things come from the love of God. He is warning us rather that if our hearts settle (even gratefully!) on the beauty of the gift and do not yearn for the infinitely greater beauty of the Giver, then we are idolaters and not worshippers of God” (“Your Love is Better than Life: Savoring the Vision”). |
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[6] Meditate (hagah) occurs 11x in the Psalms and 15x in the rest of the Old Testament. Mediation was typically not a silent activity in activity (cf. Proverbs 15:28; 24:2; Isaiah 33:18). It could involve reading/recitation aloud, singing or praying aloud (cf. Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 8:7; Isaiah 31:4; 38:14; 59:3,11 [2x],13). For example, And my tongue shall declare (hagah) Your righteousness And Your praise all day long.
(Psalm 35:28) The mouth of the righteous utters (hagah) wisdom, And his tongue speaks justice. (Psalm
37:30) My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You; And my soul, which
You have redeemed. The parallelism of Psalm 63 also suggests that the meditation of the Psalmist consisted of singing, “When I remember You on my bed, I meditate (hagah) on You in the night watches, See Michael LeFebre, “Psalm One and Torah-Meditation: An Invitation to 'Sound Out' Torah” in Interpreting the Psalms: issues and approaches; edited by David Firth and Philip S. Johnston. |
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[7] “Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet” (Lewis Mumford). |
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[8] “[W]ings may derive their idiomatic meaning of protection and closeness to God from Canaanite winged deities, adult birds covering their young, the cherubim on the ark of the covenant, the side-flaps of the tent of meeting, or the sleeping-cloths of potential husbands such as Boaz” (Andy L. Warren-Rothlin, “Body Idioms and the Psalms” in Interpreting the Psalms: Issues and Approaches; edited by David Firth and Philip Johnston, p.210). |
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[9] The contrast is between the wicked being eaten
(v.10b) and the righteous eating (v.5a).
The righteous open their lips (v.5b) while the mouths of the wicked
are stopped (v.11c). |
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[10] “The Hebrew root denotes being glad or joyful with the whole disposition as indicated by its association with the heart (cf. Ex 4:14; Ps 19:8 [H 9]; 104:15; 105:3), the soul (Ps 86:4); and with the lighting up of the eyes (Prov 15:30). “Many occasions and objects cheer a man: wine (Ps 104:15; Judges 9:13; Eccl 10:19), ointment and perfume (Prov 27:9); a wise son (Prov 15:20; 10:1; 27:11); a kind word (Prov 12:25), meeting a loved one (Ex 4:14): God’s law (Ex 19:8), and the increase of the righteous (Prov 29:2), and God’s feasts (Neh 12:43; cf. śimḥâ). But the Lord and his salvation are cited most frequently as the reason for joy (II Chr 20:27; Ps 5:11; 9:2; 16:9; 32:11; 40:16; 63:11; 64:10; 86:4; 90:15; 92:4)” (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 879). |
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[11] Psalm 64 ends similarly with the mouth of the wicked
being stopped and “all the upright in heart will glory.” |
