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63. Psalm 63

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.


6 I shall surely remember thee, etc. It may be read also, when, or, as often as I remember thee, I will pray in the night watches. But as the Hebrew particle here used is occasionally taken for an adverb of affirmation, as well as of time, I have adhered to the commonly received translation, In this case, his remembering God is to be understood as the same thing with his meditating upon him; and the one clause contains just a repetition of the sentiment expressed in the other. If the particle be taken in the different sense formerly mentioned, the words intimate, that as often as the name of God recurred to his mind, he would dwell upon it with pleasure, and speak of his goodness. He particularly mentions the night watches, as, when retired from the sight of our fellow-creatures, we not only revert to what may have given us anxiety, but feel our thoughts drawn out more freely to different subjects. We have next the reason assigned for the engagement or declaration he has just made, which is, that he owed to God his preservation. The experience of the divine goodness should dispose us to prayer as well as praise. “I will come into thy house,” says the Psalmist in another place, “in the multitude of thy mercy,” (Psalm 5:7.) The second part of the seventh verse is expressive of the lively hope with which he was animated. He was resolved to rejoice and triumph under the shadow of God’s wings, as feeling the same peace and satisfaction in reliance upon his protection as he could have done had no danger existed.


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