Psalms 63:3 - Meaning and Application

How quickly David’s complaints and prayers turn into praise and thanks! In the first two verses, he longed for God. Here, he speaks with joy and satisfaction because he has found him. Honest prayer can soon become joyful praise if we do not spoil it ourselves. Let those who seek the Lord rejoice (Psalm 105:3), and let them praise him for stirring up those desires and giving them confidence that he will satisfy them.

David was in the wilderness, yet his heart was still full of praise for God. Even in trouble, we need not lack reasons to praise if our hearts are willing. He praises God because his lovingkindness is better than life, better than life itself and all its comforts, whether life in its best state, long life, or prosperity. God’s lovingkindness is better than life in itself, and all the saints know it to be so. It is our spiritual life, and that is better than this present life (Psalm 30:5). It is far better to die in God’s favor than to live under his anger.

David finds this by real experience, even in the wilderness. So he says, “My lips shall praise you.” Those whose hearts are refreshed by signs of God’s favor should let their mouths be full of praise. We have great reason to bless God that he gives us better gifts and better treasure than this world can offer. In God’s service and fellowship, we have better work and better joy than the world can give.

David also tells us how long and how fully he will praise God. He means to live a life of thankfulness and trust in him. “Thus will I bless you,” he says, meaning, “as I have begun now.” His present devotion will not fade like a morning cloud, but will grow brighter, like the rising sun. Or he means, “I will bless you with the same earnestness and warmth with which I have prayed to you.”

He also says, “I will bless you while I live.” Praising God must be the work of our whole lives. We should keep a thankful memory of his past kindness and repeat our thanks for them. Every day we receive fresh gifts, so every day we should give fresh thanks. In everything we should give thanks, and no trouble in this life should knock us out of that duty. Whatever days we live to see, however dark they may be, even when life grows weary and joy is gone, every day should still be a day of thanks, right up to our last day. We spend our lives in this work because we hope to spend eternity in it too.

Along with praise, David keeps God in view in everything: “I will lift up my hands in your name.” We must look to God’s name, all that he has made known about himself, in every prayer and praise. That is how we are taught to begin, “Hallowed be your name,” and to end, “Yours is the glory.” We must also look to him in our work and in our struggles. We lift our hands to duty and against our special enemies in God’s name, meaning in the strength of his Spirit and grace (Psalm 71:16; Zechariah 10:12). We make our vows in his name, binding ourselves to him while relying on his grace. And when we lift up our hands in comfort and joy, it must still be in his name, because our comfort comes from him and is to be used for him.

David also says, “In you do we boast all the day long.” He would praise God with deep joy inside his heart. “My soul will be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.” He means more than ordinary food that sustains us. He means rich and delicious food, like marrow and fatness (Isaiah 25:6). David hoped to return to the public worship of God, and then his soul would be filled in that way, even more because he had been kept from it for a time. Or, if that did not happen, he would still find the same satisfaction in God’s lovingkindness and in quiet fellowship with him. There is enough in a gracious God, and in close fellowship with him, to satisfy a gracious soul (Psalm 36:8; Psalm 65:4). And there is also something in a gracious soul that finds its deepest satisfaction in God. Believers are content with God. They want no more than his favor to make them blessed. Compared with this, the pleasures of the senses are plain and dull, like muddy water beside the wine of this comfort.

This inward satisfaction will also show itself outwardly in joyful lips. David will praise God openly. His mouth and lips will speak his praise. When the heart truly believes and gives thanks, the mouth must confess it too, to God’s glory. This does not mean that words alone please God without the heart (Matthew 15:8). It means that what fills the heart must also come out of the mouth, so that we may stir up our own devotion and help others (Psalm 45:1). He will praise God cheerfully too. We should come to worship and every other duty of religion with gladness, speaking God’s praise from a heart full of holy joy. Praising lips should be joyful lips.

David says he will praise God when he remembers him on his bed. We should praise God whenever we think of him. Since David was shut out from public worship, he made the most of private fellowship with God and partly made up for what he had lost. God was in all his thoughts, which is the opposite of the wicked man’s life (Psalm 10:4). God came readily to his mind: “I remember you.” When he set his mind to think, God was there first. God should be the first thing our thoughts turn to, because we should not forget or overlook him. These thoughts were also settled in him: “I meditate on you.” Thoughts of God should not be passing thoughts that come and go. They should stay with us and dwell in our minds.

David thought this way both on his bed and during the night watches. He was wandering and unsettled, but wherever he went, he brought his religion with him. Some read, “upon my beds.” Saul was hunting him, so he rarely slept two nights in the same bed. But wherever he lay, even on cold ground with only a stone for a pillow, good thoughts of God lay down with him too. David was so busy all day, trying to stay safe, that he had little time for formal devotion. So, rather than lose time for it, he sometimes gave up needed sleep.

He was then in constant danger of his life, so we can imagine that worry and fear often kept him awake and gave him many restless nights. Even so, he comforted himself with thoughts of God. At times we find David weeping on his bed (Psa 6:6), but here he dries his tears with faith. When sleep leaves our eyes, whether because of pain, sickness, or trouble of mind, our souls can still be at rest if we remember God.

A single hour spent in holy reflection may do us more good than an hour of sleep. See (Psa 16:7; Psa 17:3; Psa 4:4; Psa 119:62). There were also night watches in the tabernacle, the sacred tent where God was worshiped, for praising God (Psa 134:1). David, when he was able, probably joined the Levites, the tribe set apart for temple service, in those watches. Now that he could not be with them in person, he kept pace with them in spirit and longed to be among them.