Psalm Devotional
The Pursuit of God
The heart of the covenant promise of God to His people is, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people” (Lev. 26:12). By faith, we enter into an intimate relationship with the Lord, which is expressed in terms of mutual ownership.
David begins Psalm 63 with this fundamental truth expressed in the simple, powerful assertion, “O God, You are my God.” To claim the true God as my God is a cherished privilege that each believer shares with the psalmist. What follows in Psalm 63 is a depiction of the longing for God that naturally follows once we know Him as our own.
The title of Psalm 63 indicates that it was written by David in the wilderness of Judah. Perhaps this was in the context of 2 Samuel 15:23, when David fled south during Absalom’s rebellion. The depravation he must have experienced in this dry, desolate atmosphere is turned into a metaphor of David’s thirsty soul longing for God (v. 1). The phrase “early will I seek You” is an accurate, if awkward, translation of a Hebrew verb which derives from the word for “dawn,” suggesting timely eagerness in David’s pursuit of God. The reality of true faith is shown in how it awakens a wholehearted desire to be closer to the Savior-God of the covenant. It is critical that we examine ourselves to see whether we can identify with this prevailing element of Psalm 63. If you are united to Christ by faith, and can call the true God your God, what must follow is a longing to walk with Him more intimately.
