4. Pursuing God
Hymns: RHC 335 Keep On Believing, 337 Never Give Up, 306 Pass Me Not
PSALM 63
1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou artmy God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; 2 To see thy power and thy glory, so asI have seen thee in the sanctuary. 3 Because thy lovingkindness isbetter than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as withmarrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise theewith joyful lips: 6 When I remember thee upon my bed, andmeditate on thee in the nightwatches. 7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. 9 But those thatseek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Psalm 63:1-11 (KJV)
PURSUING GOD
OUTLINE
(1) Seeking God Early (v1)
(2) Seeking His Presence (v2-4)
(3) Strengthened (v5-7)
(4) Determination and Resolve (v8)
(5) The righteous is not forsaken but vindicated (v9-11)
INTRODUCTION
David was trained in the pursuit of godliness by the providence of God in the wilderness. He was a fugitive, living in constant threat to his life. It was there in the wilderness that he was taught the lesson of spiritual discipline to be constantly in touch with his God. He wrote many psalms recounting his spiritual encounters with God. David learned how to deal with his emotions, his depression and his weariness in the wilderness.
(1) Seeking God Early (v1)
1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
O God, thou artmy God; early will I seek thee. It showed a determined heart. It is in the intensive stem with an emphasis of seeking and desiring after God. That thirst and hunger after righteousness is a sure sign of an awakened conscience to the need of the soul. He realizes his need for God. He confessed, “My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”
Spurgeon made a good observation concerning our spiritual need when he wrote commenting on Psalm 42:1 “As the hart panteth after the water brooks…”, “A camel does not pant after water brooks, because it carries its own water within. But the hart does, because it has no inward resources. After being hunted on a hot day, it has no inward supplies; it is drained of its moisture. So are we. We do not carry a store of grace within of our own on which we can rely. We need to come again and again and again to the divine fountain and drink of the eternal spring. Hence it is because we have a new life, and that life is dependent on God, and has all its fresh springs in Him, therefore we pant and thirst after Him” (Edited).
The camel is a unique creation of God. Our body’s normal internal temperature is approximately 37°C with only slight variation over a 24-hour period (about ½ a degree either side). Like many mammals, as we heat up, we sweat in order to maintain this temperature. Rather than wasting excess moisture maintaining a constant temperature, the camel’s internal body temperature is regulated so that it steadily increases from 34°C at dawn to 41°C during the hottest part of the day.
The camel can then dissipate the stored heat overnight, bringing its internal temperature back to 34°C by the following morning. Its fine woolly coat assists by insulating against excessive heat gain. This reduces water loss by as much as two-thirds compared with maintaining a constant temperature. When the camel does sweat, it prevents its blood from thickening (a condition that can result in cardiac failure) by replacing lost moisture from other body tissues. Thus, a camel can tolerate a 25 to 30% loss of body mass by dehydration – twice what would be fatal for most mammals. The red blood cells of the camel also have membrances that permit an unusual degree of swelling. So, when a source of water is available, despite the fact that the camel can absorb over 100 litres of water into its body in 10 minutes, they won’t burst under the osmotic variation (the sudden diluting of the blood).
The cells of cattle would rupture in the same situation. A thirsty camel is able to further minimize moisture loss by concentrating its urine into a thick syrup. This reduces output to one-fifth of the normal volume, while the faeces produced are so dry they can immediately be used as fuel for fire. A camel doesn’t always need a direct source of water in dry conditions, either. In cooler whether, if supplied with a source of forage that contains enough moisture, a camel may not drink any water for months. It can also tolerate a much higher level of saltiness in the water, since it needs six to eight times as much salt as other animals in order to absorb and store water. The hump of the camel is not a storage area for water, as commonly believed, but fat, which the camel uses as energy when food sources aren’t available. When food is plentiful the camel will overeat and store the excess as fat in its hump, which can weigh as much as 45 kg2. As the fat in the hump is converted to energy in times of scarcity, the hump begins to shrink ad can even slip off the back and hang down the side. However, once the camel is able to rest and eat, the hump will become firm and plump again.
We are different from the camel. Like David, who realize that God is able to help him out of his troubles, the missionary Hudson Taylor shares about his testimony why he maintains his daily quiet tim.
(2) Seeking His Presence (v2-4)
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
He has experienced the goodness of God in his life. He has experienced the care of God for him. He realizes the ability of God to help him in the dangers that he is facing daily in the wilderness.
This experience is understood by David while he was a fugitive in the wilderness. He cultivated the habit of seeking God waiting upon God to help him.
David has experienced the lovingkindness of God in his life. God loves and cares for him. The outworking of God’s love is His compassion in showing a way out of our difficulties. He recounted past faithfulness of God. He will continue to praise and bless God while he lives. He has a relationship with God that is so precious and valuable to him. God is praiseworthy for He is the giver of life. The life that he has is from God.
Prayer is power. He gave his petitions and troubles to God.
(3) Strengthened (v5-7)
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. 7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
The blessings of God that came to him gave strength and prosperity to his soul. We must seek God ourselves to experience this blessing.
David is strengthened and rejoices when he remembered the promises of God and meditate upon them (v6-7)
Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
To mediate is to ponder, consider carefully, think over with carefulness, with deliberateness. Let me illustrate the process of meditation from an unclean animal in the bible, the hare – a member of the rabbit family, it chews the cud; it does not have a split hoof. Chewing the cud means that an animal chews its food, swallows its food, swallows it and digests it part-way in the stomach. Then the food is returned to the mouth where the animal chews it a second time and then swallows it to be digested the rest of the way in its stomach. This provides an illustration of the process of meditation, it is a slow process where the nutrients are slowly absorbed, its essence and its whole.
Realization
(a) Because He is God (v1a)
(b) His thirsty soul may be filled (v1b)
(c) A weary body may be refreshed (v2)
(d) He may see God’s power and glory (v3a)
(e) Recount past faithfulness of God (v3b,7)
(f) God loves and cares for him (v3a)
(g) God is praiseworthy for He is the giver of life (v4b)
(h) He shall receive nourishment for his soul – marrow and fatness (v5a)
(i) It gives him joy in the heart (v5b)
(j) God favours him – What a friend He has in Jesus! (v8b)
(4) Determination and Resolve (v8)
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
The verb “follow hard” literally means “to cling, to cleave”. What is the motivation that gave him the strength to cling and cleave to God? The literal translation, “My soul cleaved to Thee, for Thy right hand supported me.” (Psalm 63:8).
Like what the Apostle Paul said to Timothy, in “exercise thyself…unto godliness” (1Timothy 4:7). The word “exercise” “γυμνάζω” means “train, exercise, work out vigorously”, to sweat it out. This is the New Testament metaphor for “discipline”. Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The word “strive” “ἀγωνίζομαι”is “to engage in an (athletic) contest, fight, struggle, strive, strain every nerve, toil, sweat it out.”
David learned how important his spiritual and physical well-being is linked to his devotion to his God. Therefore, he spared no effort to seek God with all his heart.
(5) The righteous is not forsaken but vindicated (v9-11)
9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.
“Here we find David rising to a more assured confidence, and triumphing as if he had already obtained the victory. And there is every reason to believe, that though he had escaped his difficulties, and was in circumstances of peace and prosperity when he wrote this psalm, yet he only expresses what he actually felt at the critical period when his life was in such imminent danger. He declares his conviction that the enemies who eagerly sought his life would be cut off; that God would cast them headlong into destruction; and that their very bodies should be left without burial. To be the portion of foxes,is the same thing with being left to be torn and devoured by the beasts of the field.It is often denounced as one judgment which should befall the wicked, that they would perish by the sword, and become the prey of wolves and of dogs, without privilege of sepulture. This is a fate which the best of men have met with in the world, — for good as well as bad are exposed to the stroke of temporal evil; — but there is this distinction, that God watches over the scattered dust of his own children, gathers it again, and will suffer nothing of them to perish, whereas, when the wicked are slain, and their bones spread on the field, this is only preparatory to their everlasting destruction.” (Calvin)
Hymn Story: PASS ME NOT
[As earnest Christian pastor told of a young man about whom he had long felt much anxiety, as he had seemed so unconcerned about his soul, and was, in reality, a real cause of disturbance and interruption in classes for other young men. Meeting him one day, the loving pastor sought once more to influence him, urging, “We want you for Christ and his service.” There was a certain change in his manner which did not escape the eye of the prayerful watcher for souls, and—lacking time to do more—he seized the opportunity to secure the presence of his young friend at a Christian Endeavour meeting soon to be held. True to his promise he was there. When an opportunity was given for some of the young men to choose a song, it was seen that he was urging his companion to select some particular hymn. The other, yielding to his request, asked if the hymn, “Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,” might be sung; and both young men joined in the singing with evident interest and heartiness. Later in the evening it was requested that all who were definitely on the Lord’s side would confess their allegiance by standing. Whereupon the one over whom the heart of the pastor was specially yearning rose at once, and with decision. “Tell me about your conversion,” the thankful pastor requested at the close of the meeting, when hands were clasped in glad, brotherly welcome and recognition. “Oh, yes,” assented the other. “It was all through that hymn we have just sung. I was working on the canal at G–, and there was a meeting being held at the Mariner’s Chapel, nearby. The words floated out over the water, and from the tug where I was working I could hear them plainly enough. When they were just going to sing those lines—‘While on others Thou are calling, Do not pass me by!’ a great fear came over me, and I thought, ‘Oh, if the Lord were to pass me by, how terrible it would be!’ Then and there, on the tug, I cried out, ‘O Lord, do not pass me by.’ And”—with a bright smile—“he didn’t pass me by. I am saved.’”]
Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
Refrain
Savior, Saviour,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
Let me at Thy throne of mercy
Find a sweet relief,
Kneeling there in deep contrition;
Help my unbelief.
Refrain
Trusting only in Thy merit,
Would I seek Thy face;
Heal my wounded, broken spirit,
Save me by Thy grace.
Refrain
Thou the Spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me,
Whom have I on earth beside Thee?
Whom in Heav’n but Thee?
Refrain