Do you feel like you're lost in the wilderness? Find peace as you anticipate returning to God's sanctuary in a few days.
Read / Listen
Read Psalm 63
Listen to passage & devotional:
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 115
Q. No one in this life
can obey the Ten Commandments
perfectly:
why then does God want them
preached so pointedly?
A. First, so that the longer we live
the more we may come
to know our sinfulness
and the more eagerly
look to Christ
for forgiveness of sins
and righteousness.
Second, so that,
while praying to God
for the grace of the Holy Spirit,
we may never stop striving
to be renewed more and more
after God’s image,
until after this life we reach
our goal: perfection.
Summary
Psalm 63 presents some of the most beautiful language ever written, conveying what our attitude ought to be towards God:
I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water (v1)
Your love is better than life (v3)
[In God] I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods (v5)
Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings (v7)
All who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced (v11)
One of the reasons David longs for God is that David has seen God (v2). Not very many people have; certainly Adam & Eve saw God before their sin required they be put out from God's presence. Men like Moses and Isaiah experienced God's presence upfront and personally, but it was very much in a limited way. But there's no Biblical record of David being in the localized presence of God, so what is David referring to here?
David saw God in the same way you do: in the sanctuary (literally: the holy / separate place). It's as David joined with his people coming before God in worship that David beheld God's power and glory.
Dig Deeper
Too many people think of their salvation as a one time event, as the song implies, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. A person wanders around in the dry and parched land where there is no water, stuck in sin and misery, but then prays a prayer and just like that it's nothing but happily ever after.
Certainly the moment you believed you were instantly transformed from being lost to being found, and your blindness instantly gave way to sight, but it's critical for you to understand that that was just the beginning of your salvation! You don't get to spend every moment in the sanctuary, and often, like David, you'll need to wander through the dry and parched land, with sleepless nights and persisting enemies.
This is why you need to develop a craving for God like David's. Notice in v6-7 how thinking of God carried David through the insomnia, and enabled him to sing while being sheltered from the surrounding pressure under God's wings.
To experience this peace, keep yourself as close as possible to God's sanctuary. As you enter alongside other struggling saints each Lord's Day to behold God's power and glory, you'll be refreshed by His presence. This will cause you to, as the catechism says, "never stop striving to be renewed more and more after God's image" as you go back out into the dry and parched land for another week.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose love is better than life (v3);
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God you can be filled with His presence in the sanctuary, and pray for an increased longing for Him which calls you back to worship;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - John 15
