David's Wilderness Experience

God, You are my God; I seek earnestly for You;

My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

The opening statements in my Bible tell me that David wrote this Psalm when he was in the wilderness of Judah and from the intense words he uses in the picture he paints, you perceive that David was at the point of despair. He says I earnestly seek. Earnestly means seriously, intensely, with determination–sincere, meaningful. He says my soul thirsts. Thirst would be a very real threat in this wilderness. David uses that metaphor deliberately to tell us of his dire need. My flesh faints. Webster tells us that means feeble, weak, a state of semi-consciousness. Then David places himself in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Put yourself there with David. Can you see the bleak, barren wilderness stretching before you–the “dry and weary land”? Lick your lips. Are you thirsty? Let him put the words in your mouth. Use your imagination and make it as real for you as it was for him.

But something unusual happens at this point as David writes his song. He doesn’t get in his chariot and race madly toward Jerusalem leaving it all behind. He doesn’t mount his mighty steed and thunder away from that wilderness that is like a “dry and weary land where there is no water”. No. What does he do? He stops those dreadful thoughts and begins thinking about the times he has been with his God in the sanctuary–sweet times, poignant memories, wonderful experiences. And he is a different man! He changes miraculously! Why? Because in his thought-life he goes back and meditates on how precious those times with “my God” were.

“I see Your power; I sense Your lovingkindness; I praise You, God, with my hands lifted up to You; my soul is satisfied and I no longer thirst” (vv. 3-5)! “I think about being with You, precious God in Your sanctuary, how You have been there like a stronghold for me every time I have needed You, and I sing with joy as I rest in the shadow of Your “wings”