Psalm 63 - God’s Presence and Everlasting Love

Well, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are in a great portion of scripture today.

We are in Psalm 63, and the inscription for the Psalm reads this, a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

And from the cross references that I've got in my Bible, it tells us the specific time that David was in the wilderness of Judah, because obviously there were many times that he was.

And it's from when after David is a king over all of Israel, it is after he has committed his great sin, that we went over when we looked at Psalm 51. And now I'm going to give you guys, Lord Willem, the briefest background to our Psalm for today.

So David has many children by many different women. He has one of his sons, and one of his sons rapes his half-sister. And his half-sister had a brother named Absalom.

Absalom was furious. David, as the king over Israel, should have executed justice, that the punishment for those that raped people in Israel, the punishment was death. And so that should have been what David passed down, but David didn't.

And he kind of fell into the exact same trap that earlier in the book of 1 Samuel, that Samuel himself had fallen into, that though he personally followed the Lord, he didn't ever tell his sons no.

And so his sons would steal, commit sexual immorality, all sorts of stuff, offer like pagan incense and stuff to God, all sorts of things that they should not have done. And Samuel didn't do anything about it.

And now David is not doing anything about the sin within his own household. And I say sin, they're not to belittle a crime, but because in ancient Israel, crimes and sins were the same thing most of the time, or at least they were supposed to be.

That if you were doing a crime, it was because it was a sin. You didn't have crimes that weren't sins. So, Absalom executes justice, and he ends up killing his half-brother, and he's taken out, but then Absalom flees for his life.

His mother that David had married was a princess from a nearby kingdom, and so Absalom goes to that other kingdom, and he's there with his grandfather, within his grandfather's court, for a couple years.

David eventually ends up missing Absalom so much that he hasn't come back to jerusalem, but he doesn't see him for a year or two years.

And during that time, there's just a whole bunch of bitterness and all sorts of stuff welling up in the heart of Absalom. So he does finally kind of reunite again with his dad, but it is in Absalom's heart that he goes, I'm going to take the throne.

And so he sits at the city gates to jerusalem, and he slowly winds over the people's hearts that they're like, man, like this Absalom guy's great.

And he in essence tells him, hey, you know, if I were the king, man, I would really help you out in this situation. I'd make sure that you'd get what you want. And certainly that's how many of our politicians today are, that just trust me.

If you vote for me in the words of the old kids movie Napoleon Dynamite, vote for Pedro and all of your wildest dreams will come true. And for some reason, it never really seems to work out.

You know, eight years ago, there was one particular group in office, and I don't know, not all of my wildest dreams came true. righteousness did not flow through our nation.

And over the last four years, not all of my dreams came true and righteousness did not flow in our nation. So I'm beginning to think maybe we need a ruler that's better than what this world has to offer. That's just a little something.

I'm drinking my coffee. So don't take me too seriously. So Absalom is trying to win the hearts of the people.

He succeeds in doing so. He usurps. He takes the throne.

He takes several of David's concubines. I believe it's 10 of them, if I remember correctly. And he lays with them in kind of on the rooftop in the sight of Israel, kind of as a, I am the king now.

Like these concubines belonged to the king and now I have slept with them. And so I am now the king. It was a very, very deeply immoral thing that he was doing.

David runs for his life because Absalom is looking to have him killed. Absalom's got, actually Bathsheba's grandfather, Ahithophel, is Absalom's main advisor. So as you'll remember, David had Bathsheba's husband killed.

He had impregnated Bathsheba. That baby dies and then David brings Bathsheba into his harem after, after Uriah's dead.

So now that girl's grandfather is the guy advising this new king and he's telling him like, hey, you got to make sure that you get David right away because if he, if he lives, if he survives this current point, if he's allowed to regroup and get some

troops and all that stuff, you are going to lose. But David has a counselor that's a friend of his that he is basically being like a double agent. And so he is also in the court and he tells Absalom, no, no, no, no, you don't want to do that.

You want to amass your troops and you want to make sure that you've got like a really good showing and only then can you attack them because you know, you know your dad and he's like this amazing warrior.

And so you need to have an amazing fighting force to be able to go after him. And obviously, that was a recommendation. That was advice that helped out David.

And so David was eventually able to to win. Absalom had extremely long hair that he only cut like twice, twice a year, and he didn't cut it very much.

And as he is fleeing from the battle, his hair gets caught in a tree and he ends up just like hanging by his hair. And one of David's generals ends up chucking a spear through him and ending the rebellion that way.

So super, super messed up situation, like the whole way through. There is zero part of this that makes you go like, wow, God's really in control of like everything that's happening right now. This all seems righteous and good.

Certainly we know that this was in fulfillment of what God had said to David, that he said, hey, because you have done this, the sword that you have wielded against other families, it's not just going to stop with hurting them, it's going to turn

back in on your family. And so here you have, frankly, just things of rape and incest and rebellion and attacking father against son, son, or brothers against brothers, the whole nine yards.

One of the takeaways that we can find from that is don't assume that when you sin, that there will be no consequences for you.

And it almost never will it be like God's punitive judgment of like, hey, I'm going to hit you with a lightning bolt or something. Most of the time it will be the way that you treated others.

because what you did in your sin, it will come back on you. So you were a jerk to people, people will be a jerk to you. It's one of those things that God has made our world to work in that way.

You have whatever a person sows, that's what he's going to reap. We sow corruption from the flesh, we reap corruption, but we sow to the spirit, we get life as a result. So, let's trust the Lord, let's follow him, let's follow his ways.

So, as David is booking it out of jerusalem, hoping to live, hoping to survive, hoping that they don't take Bathsheba's grandfather's advice and send out a troop to kill David right now while he's got the women and children and only a few of his men.

This is what David writes, God, you are my God. I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you.

My body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate and without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life.

So I will bless you as long as I live. At your name, I will lift up my hands. You satisfy me as with rich food.

My mouth will praise you with joyful lips. When I think of you as I lie on my bed, I meditate on you during the night watches because you are my helper. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.

I follow close to you. Your right hand holds on to me. But those who intend to destroy my life will go into the depths of the earth.

They will be given over to the power of the sword. They will become a meal for the jackals. But the king will rejoice in God.

All who swear by him, by God, will boast for the mouths of liars will be shut. So here, here's this call of David. And I think it's really interesting what his focus is on for so much of this psalm.

One of the other psalms that we looked at in Book 1 of Psalms many months ago, if I remember correctly, is Psalm 3. I'm turning it over real quick to make sure that I have that correctly. Yeah, it is Psalm 3.

Yahweh, how my foes increase. There are many who attack me. Many say about me, there is no help for him and God.

But you, Yahweh, are a shield around me, my glory and the one who lifts up my head. I cry aloud to Yahweh and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep.

I wake again because Yahweh sustains me. I will not be afraid of thousands of people who have taken their stand against me on every side. Rise up, Yahweh.

Save me, my God. You strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked.

Salvation belongs to Yahweh. May your blessing be on your people. In that one, you have David specifically crying out for help to God from his enemies.

But the main point of this Psalm, of Psalm 63, is God, I love you and I want to know you, to experience you, to rely on you.

And certainly, there's a point in our troubles where we can call on God to help with the troubles, to say, God, I need the money. God, I need this relationship to be fixed. But are you just looking for God to do stuff for you?

Or are you also earnestly seeking to know God, to worship him, to love him, to praise him? Is that where your focus is in your times of trouble? I love there in verse one that he says, God, you are my God.

It is this personal ownership. He says, you're not just the God of Israel. You're not just the God of my parents.

You are my God. I am owning you as the one that I worship. And then he says, I eagerly seek you.

He says, I'm pursuing you. I'm going after you. I want to know what you think.

I want to know what you want because that is important for me. He says, I thirst for you. My body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.

He says, God, I have a need for your presence. I have a need to experience you. Certainly, we don't go by our emotions.

We don't go by our feelings. But we are to know the presence of God, to know the Holy Spirit, to listen to His voice, to hear Him. There are times when I've felt His presence in comforting me.

I've felt His presence in convicting me. I've felt His presence in challenging me and moving me to action. And I'm so grateful for all of those times.

I'm thankful for the times, honestly, in worshipping Him, where the truth of God's Word and the emotion of music and my spirit, you know, joining in with other believers to say, this is truly like who God is and what He's like and His Spirit, that it

just results in a knowledge that we've met with God, of times of prayer that we've said, hey, we are in agreement with this. We are asking for God to work according to His will.

And as we're doing that, man, I know that God is with us because we know where two or three are gathered together in His name, there He is in the midst of us. And certainly He's with us personally and He's with us corporately.

And if He's with the church when we have to make decisions of like church discipline, which is what Matthew 18 is talking about there, then certainly He's also with us when we are as a church not disciplining people, but we are calling on Him to work

in a way. Man, God is there for us. So David says, this is what I want, God. I want your presence.

And He says, so I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. He says, God, I'm taking a look at where you are because I want to see how powerful you are and I want to see you glorified.

Where do we see God's power and His glory? Well, we can certainly look at creation all around us. We can look at people made in the image of God, their creativity, their abilities, the beauty that all of God's creation possesses.

And we can see, God, you are so powerful to hold all of this together. You are so powerful to create. And God, you are glorious.

You are so much better than us. We are flawed. We sin.

We are incomplete. But God, you are perfect in all of your ways. And certainly as we look at Christ is the perfect example of God's power to take away sin, to work miracles, to give us his word.

We can see his glory as he took all of our sin on him on the cross, and he has given us all of his righteousness, and he defeated the grave, and he robbed the principalities and powers, and he gave us spiritual gifts, and he ascended into heaven, and

he is seated on the right hand of God, and he will return again. And he is a glorious and a powerful God. Let's gaze on him in so many ways, because as we recognize truth, truth helps us to then feel his presence, because we know what's true.

And as we have knowledge that what God says is reality, then that affects our emotions.

That's frankly, the goal of truth is to serve so that not just we would have a head full of knowledge about God, but that we would have a heart full of love and obedience and joy for God. If all we do is we learn facts, we're not getting it.

But our head, our truth, our knowledge is meant to service a love for God. Verse number three, he says, my lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life.

God's steadfast love, his hasad, that covenant love that never leaves, it is better than life. Would you rather have some life or have God's steadfast eternal covenant love on you?

Well, as we think about it, like that's why we have trust that God's love is better than life because God's love is longer than our lives. Our lives go like this. They're just a vapor.

They appear for a second and then they're gone forever. But God's love never ends and God's love not ending.

If it is an everlasting love, then certainly that would mean that those of us that are the recipients of that everlasting love are also going to be everlasting. That God's, the nature of God's love for us tells us that there is life beyond the grave.

That when we die, we're in the presence of Christ and one day, as jesus said, as Martha said and many other people, we will be resurrected. And we will once again have physical bodies and walk on this earth just as Adam and Eve walked with God.

So we can love God because his faithful love, his everlasting love is better than life. He says, so I will bless you as long as I live. God, I'm going to talk about you.

I'm going to praise you. He says, at your name, I will lift up my hands. The Hebrew word here is yadah.

It's to shoot out the hands. And man, if you've ever been to a concert of any kind, you have seen people do this. It is a natural reaction.

When there is something praiseworthy, we shoot up our hands.

You know, if you're watching your kid and they finally, they're learning to ride a bike without training wheels, and they finally start doing it, and they're going and they're nailing it, you know, you're going to shoot your hands up, and you're

like, yes! Or if your team, you know, breaks a 98-yard run, and they're going all the way to the end zone, and they score a touchdown to win the game, you're shooting your hands up, and you're saying, yes! This is the natural reaction.

And so here's what David says. He says, I'm going to lift up my hands because you are worthy of everything that I could possibly give. He says, you satisfy me, as with rich food, my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.

He says, actually, not this Sunday, but the following Sunday. We're going to be going over in John 4, where jesus says, I have food to eat that you don't know about. And here David has the same thought of God.

You satisfy me more than food. Having a relationship with you, knowing what I know about you, knowing your promises is more important to me than what keeps me alive. You are the ultimate point of my existence.

God is the ultimate point of all existence. So we ought to be the point of my existence. Verse number six, when I think of you, as I lie on my bed, he's thinking about God during the night time.

He says, I meditate on you during the night watches. That is that muttering, that repeating of the word of God even while he sleeps. That's Psalm one.

In God's law, the blessed man, the happy man, he meditates on God's law day and night. It's Joshua 1, 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you will meditate on it.

You will memorize it. You will continually mutter it to yourself day and night. Here's what David says that he is doing.

He says, because you are my helper. Once again, that's that word, Ezer, from Genesis chapter 2, with God saying that he would make an Ezer suitable for Adam. He says, he's going to need a helper.

He's going to need someone to come alongside of him who will be able to help him. And David says, God, you are that Ezer to me. You are the helper to me.

He says, I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings. I follow close to you. Your right hand holds on to me.

He says, God, you're protecting me. You're keeping me safe. There, the statement, your right hand holds on to me.

I think of jesus's words that he says, that he has all of his people, all of his followers, all those that would believe in Christ. And they're in his hand, and he is in the father's hand.

And he says, and no one is able to pluck them out of my father's hand, that we have security in God. And then ending the Psalm, he says, but those who intend to destroy my life will go into the depths of the earth.

And here, obviously, the grave, he says, the people that are going after me, here, his own countrymen, his own son, he says, they're choosing the path of destruction. They're not following what's right.

And he says, they will be given over to the power of the sword. They will become a meal for jackals.

That is, those wilderness creatures, those that are outside of where civilization is at, that these people are gone from the community that God made them for and made them a part of. They abandoned it.

And so they will die far away from from where their life was intended to be. He says, but the king will rejoice in God. All who swear by him will boast, for the mouths of liars will be shut.

When we trust in God, we can then praise him and boast about him and be grateful for him. Are you boasting about God? Are you telling others about him?

Are you praising him? Are you boasting about him? Are you singing about him?

Are you keeping him a secret? He's done amazing things for you. He died for you.

He loves you. He's giving you all of your food and clothing and shelter, each and every day. Are you expressing your gratitude?

And are you telling other people about him? He is worthy of it. I've attached two songs to this episode.

Number one is the song Sometimes by Step. It's an old Rich Mullins song. I've linked here the version by Shane and Shane, just because I love them.

And that's a great little look at some of the phrasing from this psalm. And then the Shane and Shane song, Psalm 63, Better Than Life is amazing. So Sometimes by Step has a few lines from the psalm.

Psalm 63, Better Than Life is, like, you memorize that, you'll have memorized a good portion of Psalm 63 itself. So linked those for you in the description notes. And we'll be in Psalm 64 tomorrow.

And looking forward to spending that time with you. See you then.