The Wilderness Song
Psalms 63
February 9, 2020
Tonight we come to the 63rd Psalm and it is a Psalm with a distinction.
“A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.”
We certainly grant that this is not very specific since it could appear that David spent several time periods in the wilderness.
• He spent a great deal of time there when running from Saul.
• He spent a great deal of time there when warring with the Philistines.
• He spent time there when fleeing from Absalom.
But because verse 11 refers to David as “the king”, we are inclined to believe that it referred to one of his trips later in life, likely when he fled from Absalom.
And yet it is not the exact time that is important,
But rather the purpose that we seize upon.
Some of you may remember,
But several years ago when studying through the book of 1 Kings we read the story of Elijah and how he had expected revival in Israel, but instead was met with a death threat from Jezebel.
Elijah was so disillusioned at this
That you will remember he ran from the northern tip of Israel to the southern tip of Judah, and then ran another day’s journey into the wilderness where he sat down by a juniper tree and prayed to die.
When we studied that story, I referred to it as “Wilderness University”.
It is a title I stole from my mom.
Neither of my parents got a college degree,
• Though my dad did get a degree from Cebo’s horseshoeing school.
• Neither of them were compelled to go to college.
• But my mom was adamant that they had both received a degree in faith from “Wilderness University”.
I believe it was in 1985, I was in 3rd grade,
• When my parents picked my sister and I up from school and took us to Dairy Queen
• To inform us that my dad had been laid off from his job as a machinist.
• The plan was for my dad to be a horse trader full time.
• Anything of financial security was gone.
My mom would describe those next years as “Wilderness University”
It was there that my dad took classes like:
• “I Wish I Was A Cow” – where he actually envied how a cow could be at rest with no worries of life.
• “Throwing Rocks At God” – where he would chunk dirt clods in the air while exclaiming that he was tired of living by faith.
• “Don’t save the Manna and don’t save the horses” – where God was teaching him not to store, but to trust.
My mom would take classes as well, like:
• “How to hunt for milk money in the couch cushions”
Those years were difficult times in the lives of my parents
Where God was teaching them who He was.
As I told you back in our study of Kings,
God puts His people through classes at “Wilderness University”
But the only degree that is ever earned there is a FAITH degree.
You learn to trust God or you stay in the wilderness.
And even for those who have graduated,
• We often learn that God is in favor of continuing education
• Because it is not at all uncommon for His people to get to attend more than once in their life.
You may not have called it “Wilderness University”,
But I’m betting you have a time like that in your life.
A time when God sent you into the wilderness;
The great unknown and begin to box you in
So that He might reveal more of Himself to you.
And you are probably also aware that this was common practice for God.
• No sooner did God call Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans and into Canaan then did God send a famine on that land to push Abraham.
• No sooner did God stop Esau from stealing Jacob’s blessing then did God send Jacob into the wilderness and to a man named Laban.
• No sooner did God deliver the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt than did God send them into the wilderness that He might solidify their faith.
We see it over and over.
Even our Lord began His ministry with a 40 day stent in the wilderness.
It is a common destination for the people of God.
Well, David wrote this song while in that type of wilderness.
Whether you are there now, or you find yourself there tomorrow,
This song is there to remind you of the purpose of your education
And the expected response that you might earn your faith degree.
And certainly as we contemplate these times in our lives
We must also come to the realization that
Though the wilderness may not always be a pleasant time,
It is most certainly a valuable time.
Hebrews 12:5-6 “and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”
Hebrews 12:11 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
We understand the value
Of these times of discipline and wilderness training.
Charles Spurgeon said, “When the bed is the softest we are most tempted to rise at lazy hours; but when comfort is gone, and the couch is hard, if we rise the earlier to seek the Lord, we have much for which to thank the wilderness.”
(Spurgeon, C.H. [The Treasury of David – Volume 2; Psalms 58-110; Hendrickson Publishers; Peadbody, MA] pg. 65)
Or another quote I read from Spurgeon, “I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me up against the Rock of Ages.”
We are talking about the infinite value of
What we gain from times spent in the wilderness of God.
David here sings a song that shows us how to approach it.
• He in effect gives us the answers on the test.
• He tells us what God is teaching us and what we should learn.
And we can divide it up into 3 main truths to learn in the wilderness.
#1 CRAVE GOD
Psalms 63:1-5
Much time could justifiably be spent just on the first phrase of this Psalm.
“O God, You are my God;”
There are depths of mystery and grace in that statement.
That not only is He “God”,
• The One who created the universe by the word of His power,
But also in that great power that He would be willing to be “my God”
David sang of this gracious mystery in Psalms 95
Psalms 95:1-7 “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
It is grace indeed that the God of the universe
Would be willing to associate Himself with us.
And it is the privilege of our lives that we could call
The One true God “my God” as David does here.
It is the opening of the great song
And perhaps the single most important truth
To learn in the wilderness.
God sends us there, if for no other reason than
That we might learn that He alone is God and we are not.
David leaks this answer out at the very beginning.
• In the wilderness there is but one prize.
• In the wilderness there is but one objective.
• In the wilderness there is but one final aim and goal.
It is not relief, it is not prosperity, it is not even enlightenment
It is that we might know our great God.
A few weeks ago when studying John 11 with our youth we read that peculiar statement at the beginning of the chapter:
John 11:3-6 “So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”
• Martha and Mary and Lazarus were in a wilderness of sorts,
• They had sent for Jesus because they knew Him able to heal the sick.
• But Jesus, because He loved them, purposely waited two more days, and
ultimately for Lazarus to die.
Why?
We reminded the youth that it was because
The greatest thing God can give you
Is a greater revelation of Himself.
There is nothing greater to give.
It’s worth more than anything this world can offer.
Those sisters knew Jesus was “The Great Physician”,
They had no idea He was also “The Resurrection and the Life”.
They were in their wilderness that they might learn this truth.
That is why David is here; that he might know God.
And David knows that.
“I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh years for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
He wasn’t seeking water.
He wasn’t seeking relief.
He was seeking God.
Psalms 42:1-2 “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?”
Psalms 84:1-4 “How lovely are Your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah.”
David’s desire is to seek God, not comfort.
And this desire is based upon
The reality of what he has learned in the past.
His experience has been that when he sought God, he found Him,
And when he found Him, it was worth it.
(2) “Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.”
David is aware of the payoff for seeking and ultimately finding God.
When you find Him, there is no comparison.
What God has to offer is infinitely better.
(3-4) “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”
David here refers to that loyal favor of God.
• And David says it is “better than life”
Psalms 84:10 “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
David takes all that he could obtain in this world
And then puts it on the scales with God on the other side
And makes his judgment that there is no comparison.
Obtaining the favor of the LORD is of more value than all the things of life.
“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands; I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand. I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause; I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame; I’d rather be true to His holy name. He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom; He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb; He’s all that my hungering spirit needs; I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead. Than to be the king of a vast domain Or be held in sin’s dread sway; I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.”
• David saw the great treasure in the field.
• David saw the pearl of great value.
It is what Paul spoke of when he said:
Philippians 3:7-8 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,”
A man who loves the world, when he finds himself in the wilderness, only seeks back the things of the world.
But a man who loves God, when he finds himself in the wilderness, seeks that he might obtain the things of God.
This is where David was.
• He was seeking God.
• He was craving God.
Because he was aware that only in God is true satisfaction found.
(5) “My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.”
Think on that for a moment.
“My soul is satisfied…”
That is a satisfaction that this world cannot offer.
• Our world seeks to satisfy the flesh, and for short periods of time is even able
to accomplish that.
• But when has the world ever been able to satisfy the soul?
• When has the world ever been able to produce true abiding and lasting
contentment?
When has the world ever allowed us to say with Paul:
Philippians 4:11-12 “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”
The world doesn’t.
David understood that this wilderness time
Was in part to rip from him his dependence on the world
And to allow him to find all that he needed and all that he wanted in God.
And David was taking advantage of the opportunity.
Now just by way of reinforcement,
Consider Israel when they were in the wilderness.
They did not learn this lesson.
Numbers 11:4-6 “The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”
If you will remember God taught us that
He purposely let them get hungry and then provided manna
Because He wanted to teach them that man does not live by bread alone.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”
But Israel craved the wrong things in the wilderness.
They craved meat, and the Bible says God gave it to them.
Numbers 11:31-33 “Now there went forth a wind from the LORD and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp and about two cubits deep on the surface of the ground. The people spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers) and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague.”
This is why Paul told us about their example and wrote:
1 Corinthians 10:6 “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”
They were a bad example.
Do you want a good example?
Matthew 4:1-4 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'”
When our Lord was in the wilderness.
• He had gone for 40 days seeking only God with no bread at all, and even when tempted to gratify the flesh, He resisted.
• He understood the purpose of the wilderness was to crave God not the things of the world.
David seems to know that too
And is here taking advantage of the opportunity.
David is craving God.
In the wilderness we learn to crave God.
#2 CLING TO GOD
Psalms 63:6-8
There may be many of us who actually score well
On the first portion of the test.
• We find ourselves in affliction and quickly realize that the purpose is that we might seek God.
• We quickly recognize how worldliness and idolatry had crept into our hearts and so we repent and make a pledge that now we will seek God.
• The Bible comes out, the prayer times become intense,
• And we surmise that now that we have learned our lesson that surely our time of darkness is quick to come to an end.
• And then we endure night after night after night after night.
But as time goes on WE WONDER WHY God has not already pulled us out of the wilderness, after all, we learned our lesson.
We learned one lesson, but there is more to learn.
God is not only teaching us TO CRAVE Him, but also TO CLING to Him.
God is teaching us endurance. God is teaching us to trust.
God is making sure we are not merely using Him
To regain the things and comforts of this world,
But rather that we now want Him more than those things.
To put it another way,
“God is making sure that we see Him as the end, not as the means.”
AND HERE WE FIND DAVID.
• In the deprivation of the desert David learned to crave God.
• Now David is in the darkness of night, where he is learning to cling to God.
The night paints a picture of
• Slow moving minutes and hours that creep by.
• A day may fly by, but to lie awake at night causes the moments to slowly walk.
• The night is long…
The night also depicts darkness and that of confusion.
• A man often knows where he is headed during the day and feels confident and
capable to chart his own course.
• A man who walks through the dark is dependent upon the hand in front of him
to guide him through.
This is also part of the wilderness.
Not only that God may gain our attention,
But that God may keep our attention.
God doesn’t just want to be the Source Of Our Seeking,
But also the Subject Of Our Meditation.
And here God has David’s attention.
(6-8) “When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches, For You have been my help, And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.”
As David lays upon his bed enduring a night in which he cannot sleep,
He turns his thoughts to the great works of God.
“For You have been my help”
• All that God has done for me…
• All the benefits of having God on my side…
And all the joys of walking with God.
“in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy”
Every time we read of dwelling “in the shadow of [God’s] wings”
IT IS BECAUSE DANGER ABOUNDS.
David always went there to escape from the enemy.
David always went there because he was in danger.
It was like going to the cellar during a tornado.
And yet, as David recounts it,
He never spent a night in that cellar
That wasn’t the best night of his life.
Every time he was pressured to run to God and take refuge under His wings, it ended up being the most joyful night of his life.
And David realizes that.
And he says, “My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.”
There is the lesson to be learned in the wilderness.
Certainly we must see that only in God is our soul satisfied,
But we must also learn that only to God must our soul cling.
In the wilderness David learned TO CRAVE GOD
And David learned TO CLING TO GOD.
And again, Israel failed here also.
Psalms 95:7b-11 “Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
That was the place where Israel chose to put God to the test
To force Him to prove that He was God.
Instead of simply clinging to God they sought to force God
To prove Himself worthy of their affection.
The Bible says that God loathed them for that
And refused to let them ever leave the wilderness.
The writer of Hebrews picked up on that and warned the church:
Hebrews 3:12-14 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,”
The writer of Hebrews said, don’t do what they did; cling to Christ!
And of course Jesus was a great example for us here as well.
Matthew 4:5-7 “Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'”
• Satan wanted Jesus to force God’s hand.
• Satan wanted Jesus to force God to prove His favor.
BUT JESUS UNDERSTOOD
The wilderness was not a place for testing the heart of God,
The wilderness was a place for testing His own resolve.
Jesus determined to cling to God in the wilderness.
It appears that David did too.
• In the wilderness we learn to crave God.
• In the wilderness we learn to cling to God.
In the wilderness we learn to:
#3 CONFESS GOD
Psalms 63:9-11
Here David gives us some DESCRIPTION OF HIS WILDERNESS.
• For my parents the wilderness was a time of financial uncertainty.
• For some it is an illness or a battle with a disease.
• For some it is a period of workplace struggle or hardship.
For David it was physical persecution.
People wanted to kill David.
This hostility led David into the wilderness, and as we said
While he was there HE CRAVED God and HE CLUNG to God.
But that is not all David learned in the wilderness.
DAVID ALSO LEARNED TO CONFESS GOD.
That is, to renew his commitment to the Lord.
David learned to rise up again in faith and confess his allegiance to Christ.
We learn this also in the wilderness.
As we said a few weeks ago, when God prunes the branch or injures the branch, the purpose is to drive branch further into the vine for more of that healing sap.
The wilderness works the same.
It is to clarify our resolve and renew our commitments.
During periods of comfort
• Our commitments can become blurred and even our very confession can
become cloudy.
• It can be difficult to see just who we are following and seeking.
And yet during a time in the wilderness all of the dross is removed
And God brings our focus back to rest upon Him.
DAVID IS THERE.
Look at his confidence and confession.
(9-10) “But those who seek my life to destroy it, will go into the depths of the earth. They will be delivered over to the power of the sword; they will be pray for foxes.”
Now this is NOT what David sees currently happening.
This is what David sees through eyes of faith.
He has drawn near to God and rested in God
And now his faith is confirmed and he is confident
That God will act on his behalf.
This confidence David now has is part of that satisfaction of soul that David spoke of back in verse 5.
• He has drawn near to God.
• He has beheld God’s power and glory.
• He has tasted again of God’s lovingkindness.
• He has remembered God in the night.
• He has taken refuge in the shadow of His wings.
• And the result is a satisfied soul that now sings for joy to God even in the midst of the wilderness.
Do you see how confirmed David’s faith is?
(11) “But the king will rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him will glory, for the mouths of those who speak lies will be stopped.”
That is a great statement.
“everyone who swears by Him will glory”
That is to say,
• “everyone who confesses Him”
• “everyone who declares His name as their God”.
Or as the New Testament put it:
Romans 10:11 “For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
David has returned there.
In this wilderness he has once again found his great confession.
And it is the confession David began the song with.
“O God, You are my God”
That is exactly where the wilderness is designed to take us.
• Only, the wilderness is not satisfied when that is the profession of our lips.
• The wilderness doesn’t stop until that is the confession of our heart.
That is what the wilderness does.
And again, this was something Israel refused to learn.
• No sooner did they enter the wilderness than did they build for themselves a golden calf.
And even that wasn’t the end of their idolatry.
Numbers 21:4-6 “Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.”
There Israel actually spoke against God.
That is a far cry from confessing Him.
The pain of the wilderness exposed the condition of their heart.
• God wanted them to crave Him and cling to Him and confess Him.
• Instead they craved bread, tested Him, and spoke against Him.
And even that is not all.
Numbers 25:1-3 “While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry against Israel.”
Israel would join themselves to other gods.
They did not understand the wilderness or the purpose of it.
But again, Jesus did.
Matthew 4:8-11 “Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'” Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.”
• Satan offered Jesus a way out of the wilderness.
• Satan offered Jesus the glory of the world without the pain of the cross.
But Jesus knew where His allegiance rested.
Jesus confessed God.
He understood the purpose of the wilderness.
He craved God, He clung to God, He confessed God
DAVID UNDERSTOOD IT AS WELL.
And you know that both David and Jesus, having earned a degree in faith, would exit the wilderness.
The children of Israel who refused to learn never did.
• They were all laid low in the wilderness.
• They never graduated.
And if you follow the story, those who did enter the land would over the years fall into the same sins and God would send them to the wilderness again.
• God would send them to Babylon.
• And when He did, He would again tell them the purpose.
Jeremiah 29:10-14 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”
Do you see how God would send them there
So that they might learn to crave and cling to and confess God again?
And yet even in this Israel’s education would be short lived.
• Time after time they would continue to rebel and never seemed to be what God intended.
• They never seemed to learn their lesson.
And that is why it is so remarkable to us
That Jesus also entered the wilderness
And accomplished what they nor us ever did.
Jesus aced the wilderness.
• And that is why when we look back and see our failures and follies and times of refusal to seek and trust God, we rejoice at the gospel and the fact that we can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
God does in fact still bring us to the wilderness to teach us to crave Him and cling to Him and confess Him,
But even in our failures He does not loathe us as He did the rebellious Israelites because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ who delighted the very heart of God.
Well that is your song for the wilderness.
• When you go, now you see what God is teaching you.
• Now you see the degree you are studying for.
• But you also see the necessity of the One who already aced the class.
And so in your wilderness,
Crave Jesus, Cling to Jesus, and Confess Jesus.
That is the degree you are receiving.
