In this picture is my dog, Calvin and if you've attended my church before and heard me preach, this would be the millionth time I've used him as a sermon illustration. When you don't have kids, dogs are the next best thing for sermon illustrations. Calvin loves to be around people. We have him sit at the table with us when we're eating, and he always wants to sleep on our bed.
Whenever Mianna has a night shift, I bring him up, and cuddle with him. He longs for that type of interaction with us. He is also very clingy. Whenever myself or Mianna get home, he immediately runs to the door and jumps up to us to greet us showing us that he is happy that we're home and how much he missed us while we are gone.
What I appreciate about Calvin and his particular demeanour is that he has taught me what it means to long for the presence of God. Unlike myself and unlike Mianna, he doesn't have the baggage of daily responsibilities and he is free to experience a loving and nurturing relationship with us. He longs for our presences and his natural reaction to being with our presence is excitement, satisfaction, and comfort. Similarly, this is what it looks like to be in God's presence-not to just long to be with God but to find full satisfaction, safety, and comfort. This morning, we tackle Psalm 63 where King David was exiled in Judah because Saul sought after him. So he writes this Psalm painting a picture of his longing for God and the expectation that God will deliver him.
I) The longing for God's presence (vv.1-2) a) The search for God (vv.1a)
The phrase "Earnestly I seek you" follows a common way of expressing deep longing in literature. In the Hebrew tradition, "seeking" was often used to describe how people longed for God, especially during difficult times. This search for God is often connected with "night," which symbolizes hardship or suffering. In many cases, people are hoping for the "morning" or the dawn, which represents a time of relief or a new beginning. Even though the night represents tough times, the key idea is that they are still desperately seeking God's presence, even in their struggles.
This stanza continues within this theme of how he longs for God. He says that "his soul thirsts for (God"). "His body longs for (God)." Just like how our body craves food and water when we're hungry and thirsty, the psalmist’s whole being is yearning for God. He is longing to be satisfied by the fulfillment that only God's presence can bring. He describes his spiritual condition as a "dry and weary land where there is no water." This is a powerful metaphor, comparing his soul to a desert in a drought—empty and parched. Just as the land needs water to survive, he is desperate for God's presence to restore and refresh him during this spiritual drought.
b) The inner temple of David's heart (vv.2)
The question here is, where exactly is David seeking God? There are a few possibilities:
Most likely, it’s the third option: David’s longing is happening within himself, and he’s associating the temple with God’s presence because that’s where he has most often experienced it. In this "sanctuary" of his heart, David is focused on "beholding" God's power and glory. The themes of God's power and glory are common throughout the Bible, but here David is particularly thinking of God's power to save and deliver. There's a strong emphasis on the reality that God is King, and it is this sovereignty that David is longing to experience and witness.