631 O God , You are my God ; I shall seek You earnestly ; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water . 2 Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary , To see Your power and Your glory .
3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life , My lips will praise You. 4 So I will bless You as long as I live ; I will lift up my hands in Your name . 5 My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness , And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 63:1-5
Commentary on Psalm 63:1-2
(Read Psalm 63:1-2)
Early will I seek thee. The true Christian devotes to God the morning hour. He opens the eyes of his understanding with those of his body, and awakes each morning to righteousness. He arises with a thirst after those comforts which the world cannot give, and has immediate recourse by prayer to the Fountain of the water of life. The true believer is convinced, that nothing in this sinful world can satisfy the wants and desires of his immortal soul; he expects his happiness from God, as his portion. When faith and hope are most in exercise, the world appears a weary desert, and the believer longs for the joys of heaven, of which he has some foretastes in the ordinances of God upon earth.
Commentary on Psalm 63:3-6
(Read Psalm 63:3-6)
Even in affliction we need not want matter for praise. When this is the regular frame of a believer's mind, he values the loving-kindness of God more than life. God's loving-kindness is our spiritual life, and that is better than temporal life. We must praise God with joyful lips; we must address ourselves to the duties of religion with cheerfulness, and speak forth the praises of God from a principle of holy joy. Praising lips must be joyful lips. David was in continual danger; care and fear held his eyes waking, and gave him wearisome nights; but he comforted himself with thoughts of God. The mercies of God, when called to mind in the night watches, support the soul, making darkness cheerful. How happy will be that last morning, when the believer, awaking up after the Divine likeness, shall be satisfied with all the fulness of God, and praise him with joyful lips, where there is no night, and where sorrow and sighing flee away!