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Scott's Reference Library
Psalm 63:1 through Psalm 63:8 (NIV)
1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-2
Early will I seek thee. The true Christian devotes to God the morning hour. He
opens the eyes of his understanding with those of his body, and awakes each
morning to righteousness. He arises with a thirst after those comforts which the
world cannot give, and has immediate recourse by prayer to the Fountain of the
water of life. The true believer is convinced, that nothing in this sinful world
can satisfy the wants and desires of his immortal soul; he expects his happiness
from God, as his portion. When faith and hope are most in exercise, the world
appears a weary desert, and the believer longs for the joys of heaven, of which
he has some foretastes in the ordinances of God upon earth.
VERSES 3-6
Even in affliction we need not want matter for praise. When this is the regular
frame of a believer’s mind, he values the loving-kindness of God more than life.
God’s loving-kindness is our spiritual life, and that is better than temporal
life. We must praise God with joyful lips; we must address ourselves to the
duties of religion with cheerfulness, and speak forth the praises of God from a
principle of holy joy. Praising lips must be joyful lips. David was in continual
danger; care and fear held his eyes waking, and gave him wearisome nights; but
he comforted himself with thoughts of God. The mercies of God, when called to
mind in the night watches, support the soul, making darkness cheerful. How happy
will be that last morning, when the believer, awaking up after the Divine
likeness, shall be satisfied with all the fulness of God, and praise him with
joyful lips, where there is no night, and where sorrow and sighing flee away!
VERSES 7-11
True Christians can, in some measure, and at some times, make use of the strong
language of David, but too commonly our souls cleave to the dust. Having
committed ourselves to God, we must be easy and pleased, and quiet from the fear
of evil. Those that follow hard after God, would soon fail, if God’s right hand
did not uphold them. It is he that strengthens us and comforts us. The psalmist
doubts not but that though now sowing in tears, he should reap in joy. Messiah
the Prince shall rejoice in God; he is already entered into the joy set before
him, and his glory will be completed at his second coming. Blessed Lord, let our
desire towards thee increase every hour; let our love be always upon thee; let
all our enjoyment be in thee, and all our satisfaction from thee. Be thou all in
all to us while we remain in the present wilderness state, and bring us home to
the everlasting enjoyment of thee for ever.