READING: Psalm 63
If you read the chapters surrounding Psalm 63 today, you’ll see that these chapters remind us recurrently that God is our refuge and our fortress (Psalm 59:1, 16, 17; 61:3, 4; 62:2, 6, 7, 8). He is our rock who protects us from “the threat of the enemy” (Psalm 64:1). So, most of the chapters (59, 61, 62, 64) reflect God as our foundation and our strength.
It’s Psalm 63 that most challenges me, however. This psalm of David, apparently pointing to a time when David was fleeing for his life (perhaps from Saul or Absalom), paints a vivid picture of David’s dependence on, and cry for, God:
- “You, God, are my God; earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
- “I cling to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63:8).
I’m not facing volatile enemies like David was as he fled, but these texts nevertheless require my personal assessment of my Christian walk:
- Do I earnestly seek God, letting nothing else get in the way?
- Do I thirst for Him, driven by a desire for refreshing from Him?
- Does my whole being long for Him?
- And then, do I cling to Him like a groom clings to His bride?
- To summarize, do I seek after, thirst for, and long for God so deeply that I cling to Him?
To be honest, the images of thirsting for, longing for, and clinging to God challenge me. I don’t always live with that kind of passion — and consequently, God has chosen at times to put me in places and positions where all I could do was cling to Him. That’s not an unloving act of God, though; instead, it’s an act that leads us to appreciate better His grace and mercy.
PRAYER: “God, bring me to the place where I genuinely cling to You because I so love you.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Psalm 67
*portions of this devotion first published in 2016