Yesterday was a day in America where most consume more calories in one meal than we are supposed to in a day. While yesterday’s meal more than satisfied most of us for the day, we are to look for eternal satisfaction. Today I’m focusing my thoughts on the Lord, the only One Who can truly satisfy.

The Psalm title is Joy in the Fellowship of God in my Bible. “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” (Ps 63:1-5)

Life often takes us through the weary place and the parched wilderness, where only God can provide the comfort and sustenance we desperately need. “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” (Ps 63:1) He alone is our present help in time of trouble (Ps 46:1), and His compassion and mercy towards us is new every morning (Lam 3:22-23). 

David wasn’t content with rituals and ceremonies. He longed not so much to see the sanctuary as to see his God; he looked through the veil of ceremonies to the invisible One. “So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.” (Ps 63:2) 

God’s divine power and glory aren’t confined to any place (Acts 17:24); they are to be heard above the roaring of the sea, seen amid the glare of the tempest, felt in the forest and the prairie, and enjoyed wherever there is a heart that longs and thirsts to behold them. If we allow ourselves to become miserable, it’s because we thirst too little for the majesty of God, and too much for the trivial things. 

In the midst of his wilderness experiences, David often found his spirit thirsting for the Lord and his heart yearning for a touch from God – an occurrence that we all too often discover in the barrenness of our own lives or in the dry places in which we often find ourselves (Ps 23:2).

But his thirsting soul does not sit down and weep for long nor spiral into mournful self-pity but starts to earnestly seek the Lord and to claim in his heart the need for a closer walk with God. “My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Ps 84:2)

“Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You” (Ps 63:3). The love and entanglement of our earthly life can be a frequent and harmful snare, by which only the sense of God’s love can deliver us. What comparison is there between the breath in our nostrils, and the favor of our eternal God? Here David seeks the Lord by remembering the many wonders, power, grace and glory that have been displayed in his own life and the lives of countless others, who have trusted Him as Savior and believed in His promises of grace (Ps 77:11). 

God is a covenant-keeping God whose loving-kindness never fails, and is more desirable than life itself, so He alone deserves our praise. “Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name” (Ps 63:4). Because we know His mercy exhibited in His loving-kindness, we will do as we said and praise Him with our lips, and lift up our hands joyfully to Him. Our true purpose in this life is to glorify God and point others to Him, not ourselves. Thus with the proper understanding of His undeserved favor (mercy), we persevere in praising Him.

There is in the love of God a richness and fullness of soul-filling joy, comparable to the richest food with which the body can be nourished. “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips” (Ps 63:5). A soul hopeful in God and full of His favor is represented as feeding upon the best of the best. When the mouth is full of mercy, it should also be full of thanksgiving. When God gives us the marrow of His love, we must present to Him the marrow of our hearts. Vocal praise should be rendered to God as well as mental adoration; others see our mercies, let them also hear our thanks.

Loving Father, thank You for the example of David and others that remind us day by day that You are a covenant-keeping God whose never-failing loving-kindness is greater than life itself. May I live my life to Your praise and glory. And Lord there are plenty of times that I completely miss the mark and sin against You. Thank You for the Helper who has sealed me and reminds me of Your Word and refines me in fire so that I am continually being sanctified by Your grace. In the precious name of Jesus, who alone provided THE way to You, amen.