My Soul Thirsts for You

  

Psalm 63: 1-11

 

6-25-2022

 

My Soul Thirsts for You

O God, you are my God; earnestly 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.   So, I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.   Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.  So, I will bless you as long as I live; in your name, I will lift up my hands.  My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.   But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.  But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

 

King David in the wilderness of Judah, shall we look at 2 Samuel chapters 15-16 to understand why the King is in the wilderness of Judah?  As we examine this account you find lies and fake news as our last President would have said.  A son of the King had taken years to get even with one of his half-brothers for violating his sister Tamar, and when Absalom killed him, he fled and went to Geshur.  We have often pointed out that David dropped the ball when it came to being a dad, he knew what Amnon had done to Tamar but never took any action.  But Absalom was not one to forget or forgive and he began to come up with not only payback for Amnon but at some point, a conspiracy against his dad, King David.

 

Like anyone who is deceptive, Absalom had a plan to lie and often lied so that the people believed it to be true.  We find this account in 2 Samuel 15:1-6.  Absalom may not have come home with a plan to replace his dad, but the anger and hate that lived in his heart, had taken control of his ability to think using reason, to rationalize, plus his desire for power and to be honored along with the hate and anger, drove King David from the throne to the wilderness.

 

But unlike Absalom, whose life was centered on deception, the King had God as his Rock and his salvation, he knew that God had put him on the throne and that God would go into battle with him.  He does not sound in chapter 63 to be fearful of man, but a man who needs fellowship with the Lord.

 

I find it important that David and his army and the people that have come with him are in dry and weary land where there is no water, but it is not water David thirsts for, no it is a word from God.  How different we have become as the Church, we got a program center and not a God center.

 

David hit the nail on the head, in these verses about Absalom and his followers, one of my teachers said hate is similar to one drinking poison, and believing the other person will die.  When one is driven by lies and deception, they lose the ability to desire truth, and in fact, they are closed to truth and reason.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.   But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.  But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice