Today, Saturday June 03
“Early Will I Seek You”
Psalm 63:1-11
O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.”
The title of Psalm 63 tells us that David wrote this psalm and that he was in the wilderness of Judah. He was king of Israel, but he was fleeing for his life from his son Absolom. He was “knocked down but he was not knocked out”. As you read through this psalm you will notice the progressive experiences David had as he sought for the Lord’s guidance and help at a difficult time in his life.
You first find David seeking and desiring God in verses 1-2! He acknowledges his relationship to God. He proclaims, “O God, You are my God”. To be able to say "my God" by faith transformed David's wilderness experience into a worship experience. There in the desert, he was hungry and thirsty, but his deepest desires were spiritual, not physical. With his whole being, body and soul, he yearned for God's satisfying presence (v. 5; 42:1-2).
“Early will I seek You”. When is the time to seek the Lord? David and other Scripture teach us to seek Him early. This could mean several things. We should seek Him early in a “knocked down” experience. Don’t run to everyone and everything else, and when nothing else works finally turn to the Lord. Go to Him first! Seek the Lord early in life. Solomon instructs us in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, "I have no pleasure in them".
We should seek the Lord early in the day. Jesus set us an example for doing this. “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35). Before the day begins, we should seek the Lord. We should seek the Lord early in the week by going to worship with His people in church on Sunday. In verse 2, David tells us that he “looked for the Lord in the sanctuary”.
When David was in Jerusalem you would find him worshiping God at the sanctuary (v. 2; see Psalms 27:4; 84:1-2). He had erected the tent on Mt. Zion and returned the ark to its rightful place, and he had found great delight in going there and contemplating God (Psalms 36:8-9; 46:4). Because he didn't belong to the tribe of Levi, David couldn't enter the sanctuary proper, but from his study of the Books of Moses, he knew the design and the assigned rituals, and he understood their deeper meaning. It is our regular worship that prepares us for the crisis experiences of life.
Just as we have physical senses that are satisfied by God's creation, so we have spiritual senses (Heb. 5:14) that can be satisfied only by Christ. He is the bread of life (John 6), and He gives us the water of life by His Spirit (John 4:1-14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:17). Those who hunger and thirst for spiritual food and drink shall be filled (Matt. 5:6). David could say with Jesus, "I have food to eat of which you do not know" (John 4:32).
How did David acquire this wonderful spiritual appetite? What life does to us depends on what life finds in us, and David had in him a deep love for the Lord and a desire to please Him. Because David had seen God's power and glory in His house, he was able to see it in the wilderness as well!
We should also seek the Lord with our whole heart! Jeremiah 29:13 tells us: “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” We should seek the Lord in the same way we would seek to find hidden treasure. Proverbs 2:1-5 teaches us: “My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God.”
And finally, remember the promise of Psalm 9:10: “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.” May we have the desire every day to seek the Lord early in His Word, in prayer, in worship, and in every situation in life!
God bless!