Psalm 63 - Shade from the Shadow

You can cling to God because He's clinging to you.

Beware of building your theology from bumper stickers.

Psalm 63

A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

¹ 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.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary

and beheld your power and your glory.

³ Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,

and in your name I will lift up my hands.

⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;

with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;

I think of you through the watches of the night.

⁷ Because you are my help,

I sing in the shadow of your wings.

⁸ I cling to you;

your right hand upholds me.

⁹ Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;

they will go down to the depths of the earth.

¹⁰ They will be given over to the sword

and become food for jackals.

¹¹ But the king will rejoice in God;

all who swear by God will glory in him,

while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

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Canons of Dordt

Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election

Point 2 - Limited Atonement

Point 3 - Total Depravity

Point 4 - Irresistible Grace

Point 5 - Perseverance of the Saints

Article 13 - Assurance No Inducement to Carelessness

The renewed confidence of perseverance

• does not produce immorality or lack of concern for godliness in those put back on their feet after a fall,

• but it produces a much greater concern to observe carefully the ways of the Lord which he prepared in advance.
  

They observe these ways in order that

• by walking in them they may maintain the assurance of their perseverance,

• lest, by their abuse of his fatherly goodness,

  • the face of the gracious God

    • (for the godly, looking upon his face is sweeter than life,

    • but its withdrawal is more bitter than death)

  • turn away from them again,

    • with the result that they fall into greater anguish of spirit.

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Summary

We're probably reading Psalm 63 at the wrong time of the year. Most of you see nothing but snow as you look out right now; and for those who find themselves reading this in more tropical climes, please don't describe your current weather conditions in the comment box below; we don't want to hear it. David comes to us this morning from the a place far different than our current upper midwest winter snowscapes; he's in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

Psalm 63's inscription - the italic header seen so often throughout the psalter that explains the author, the setting, and sometimes the tune the psalm should be sung to - informs that David wrote it in the Desert of Judah. But it wasn't his physical lack of water that drove him to poetry. It was his spiritual thirst for God - my God - that David earnestly sought.

David knows exactly what he's missing because of all the times he's seen God in the sanctuary and beheld His power and glory. While it's true that our sanctuaries look far different than tabernacle in which David worshipped God, it's not the physical place David longs for. It's being in God's holy presence and experiencing His love which is better than life.

We’ve noticed often these last weeks that life can feel like a long walk through a valley darkened by death’s shadow, as David so famously described it in Psalm 23:4. But in Psalm 63, David sings of a far more pleasant shadow - the shadow of God’s wings. Because you are my help, he writes, I sing in the shadow of your wings. In God, David finds shade from death's dark shadow, and so can you.

  Dig Deeper  

David describes a beautiful tensegrity in the verse that drew our attention to Psalm 63 today:

⁸ I cling to you;

your right hand upholds me.

You've probably heard the trite bumper sticker phrase "Let go and let God." Ostensibly, the cliche is meant to remind that God's right hand upholds me, which of course is true! Those are David's - and so many other Biblical writers' - exact words! But nowhere does the Bible tell you that's it's alright for you to just 'let go' and passively let God's right hand roll you through life! Quite the opposite, in fact!

A tensegrity is the integrity that's achieved when tension is applied - think of how a rope becomes firm and strong when it's pulled from opposite directions. David's verse here definitely has tension - does his integrity come from the fact that he's clinging to God, or does it come from the fact that God's right hand is upholding him?

Of course the answer is both! Derek Kidner explains this well: "The two halves of verse 8 make one of the most vivid statements of the two facets of perseverance." David certainly clings with all his might, "But it is God himself who makes this possible, and the firmness of his upholding grasp is implied in the allusion to the right hand, the stronger of the two."

So cling to God. Earnestly seek Him. Long for Him with your whole being, the same way you'd long for a drink of water in a dry and parched land. But do so with the comfort of knowing that your eternal security does not come from your strength or ability to cling. Rather it comes from the almighty power of God's right hand.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father who upholds you with His right hand;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for calling you to His sanctuary on the Lord's Day to be empowered to cling to Him;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Revelation 15