Meditating on God
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “meditate?” Biblical meditation is focusing your thoughts on the nature, works, and attributes of God as revealed in the Scriptures. In Psalm 63, David gives us a picture of what it properly is as he communes, longs for, and and joyfully praises God.
David is in a great wilderness, both physically and spiritually. His physical needs cause him to remember and focus in on his spiritual need of God Himself. He meditates on God and begins this psalm with a yearning for God with all of His soul (63:1-2). He sees his stark circumstances and knows that he is spiritually dry and longs for His God (63:1). He thinks back upon the glory and power of God that He has demonstrated to His people and longs to see it in his own life (63:2). David knows that God’s loving-kindness is better than life. Life comes with pleasures and pain, and is temporary. While God’s love endures forever (63:3). In response to God’s love he will bless God all his life, in the good times and tough times (63:4). Be encouraged, brethren, that nothing can separate you from the love of God (Rom 8:38).
David meditates on God at night on his bed. He is filled with joy and gladness as he remembers the help that God has provided him in his life (63:6-7). He is satisfied in God alone (63:5). He clings to God, showing his loyalty to Him alone (63:8). David ends his meditation with joyful praise as he knows that God will judge the ungodly, and God will be glorified (63:9-11). Paul echoes this sentiment in Phil 3:8, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”