This weeks devotional is entitled, Remembering, Even In The Dark: Psalm 63, and is written by Dr. Timothy Tennent. Dr. Tennent serves as the President of Asbury Theological Seminary. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.
PSALM 63 (NIV)
1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
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Sing this psalm with the Seedbed Psalter today! Visit the resource here.
CONSIDER THIS
A wise person once said that we should never forget in the days of darkness what we have learned in the days of light. This is the lesson of Psalm 63. This psalm was written in one of the most difficult periods of David’s life. David is in exile in the desert. He is in a desert, both physically and spiritually. He has fled from Jerusalem. He cannot experience God’s presence in the temple. The ark of the covenant has been left behind. When David declares that he is in a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (v. 1), it is a statement as much about his spiritual condition as it is his physical one. Yet, in the midst of this difficult time, David remembers God’s faithfulness in the past: “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory” (v. 2). Spiritual amnesia is one of the great problems that beset us during times of trial. We forget God’s past faithfulness. In contrast, David teaches us to remember, to call out upon him even “through the watches of the night” (v. 6), knowing that the same God who was with us in the light will guide us in the days of darkness and trial