Psalms 63

God, you are my God. I look for you early and eagerly. My whole self is thirsty for you. My body aches for you, here in a dry, worn-out land where there is no water.

1O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

Note"Early will I seek thee" translates a Hebrew verb built on the word for dawn; it carries both the sense of rising early to look for someone and of searching hard. The King James pairs "soul" and "flesh," but the Hebrew words behind them mean roughly "my whole living self" and "my body", not a spiritual part set against a physical one. The "dry and thirsty land" is real desert: the psalm's ancient heading places David in the wilderness of Judah, a rocky, waterless region south and east of Jerusalem.

2I want to see your power and your greatness, the way I have seen you in the sanctuary, the holy place where you are worshiped.

2To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

NoteThe sanctuary was the building set apart for the worship of Israel's God, the tent-shrine of earlier times, later the temple in Jerusalem. To "see" God there meant taking part in worship at the place where he was understood to be present, not seeing him with the eyes.

3Your faithful love is better than life itself, so my lips will praise you.

3Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

Note"Lovingkindness" is the King James word for Hebrew *hesed*: the loyal, committed care that someone owes within a binding relationship. It is closer to "faithful devotion" than to warm feeling, and it is the word most often used for God's steady commitment to Israel.

4So I will bless you as long as I live. I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

4Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

NoteLifting the hands, palms open and raised, was the ordinary bodily posture for prayer in the ancient Near East, the way kneeling or folding hands is in some cultures today. To do something "in your name" means to do it while calling on that person and appealing to their authority.

5I will be satisfied deep inside, as if I had eaten the richest food there is, and my mouth will praise you with happy lips.

5My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

Note"Marrow and fatness" names the richest parts of an animal, the fat and the marrow inside the bones. In a society where meat was rare and fat was prized, this was the image of the best food imaginable, and it carries an echo of the shared meals eaten at the sanctuary after a sacrifice.

6I think of you when I lie on my bed, and I keep thinking about you through the watches of the night.

6When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

NoteThe night was divided into "watches," fixed shifts during which sentries kept guard. Ancient Israel counted three watches between sunset and sunrise; the phrase means the long stretches of the night, hour after hour.

7You have been the one who helps me, so I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.

7Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

Note"The shadow of thy wings" draws on the image of a bird sheltering its young under its outstretched wings. It may also evoke the winged figures whose wings overshadowed the chest holding the covenant in the sanctuary. Either way, the point is shelter and protection, not flight.

8I hold on to you and stay close behind you. Your right hand holds me up.

8My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

NoteThe verb behind "followeth hard after" means to cling or stick fast, the same word used of a man holding fast to his wife. "Right hand" was the standard way of speaking of a person's strong hand, so God's right hand stands for his active strength.

9But those who hunt me down, wanting to kill me, will go down into the depths of the earth.

9But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

Note"The lower parts of the earth" refers to Sheol, the underworld where the Hebrew Bible pictures all the dead as going. To be sent down there is to die and be cut off from the land of the living.

10They will be killed by the sword. Their bodies will be left as food for foxes.

10They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

NoteThe Hebrew word covers both foxes and jackals, scavengers that fed on corpses left in the open. For a body to go unburied and be eaten by animals was among the worst disgraces imaginable in that culture, the fate of an enemy defeated and abandoned on the battlefield.

11But the king will be glad because of God. Everyone who makes promises in God's name will be proud and happy, but the mouths of people who tell lies will be shut.

11But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

Note"The king" appears suddenly in the third person; the speaker may be the king referring to himself, or the community praying for their king. To "swear by him" means to take an oath calling on God as witness, which was a public declaration of loyalty to him, the opposite of the liars whose mouths are stopped.