Daily Devotional • September 7
Psalm 63
1 O God, you are my God; I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
6 when I think of you on my bed
and meditate on you in the watches of the night,
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be prey for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
Meditation
Reading, meditating on—praying—the Psalms can be a frustrating spiritual endeavor. The Psalmist connects with the full range of human experience and feeling, but the fact that the breadth of this range can be covered in a single Psalm, without a chance for the reader to come up for air before the moods shifts, is unnerving. It throws one off balance.
The first eight of Psalm 63’s eleven verses are sublime, even mystical, employing powerfully evocative poetic imagery. All of us have been thirsty from time to time, and probably even suffered from mild dehydration. But it’s likely that most of us have never been in a situation where our health was immediately imperiled by lack of water. Perhaps this was more common in the Psalmist’s milieu, and it becomes a metaphor for the human soul’s yearning for God: “My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.”
Only once have I ever ordered bone marrow from a restaurant menu, but marrow seems to have been a more regular part of the Psalmist’s culinary experience, and appears to represent satiety—deep satisfaction. “My soul is content, as with marrow and fatness. Divine assistance is likened to being under the shadow of [God’s] wings,” an arresting image of which the internet is full of beautiful examples. Verse 8 sums it all up: “My soul clings to you; your right hand holds me fast.”
If only we could just stop right there! But the same human heart that seeks God with such purity, eagerly, also petitions God for the settling of scores of a much more mundane nature: “Let them fall on the edge of the sword, and let them be food for jackals.” Such impulses flow from the brokenness that pervades our experience in this world. We are works in progress as we allow God to conform us to his own perfection.
The Rt. Rev. Daniel Martins is retired Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in the Episcopal Church.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa
Trinity Episcopal Church, Red Bank, New Jersey
The Rt. Rev. Daniel Martins is retired Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in the Episcopal Church.
