Psalms 63:3

_BECAUSE THY LOVINGKINDNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE, MY LIPS SHALL PRAISE THEE._ Because thy loving-kindness (is) better than life. This gives the reason why he so eagerly thirsts after God, and after the ordinances of the sanctuary-namely, because in the land of the people of the covenant, God's "loving-kindness" is fully revealed; and that loving-kindness is better than lives (so the Hebrew) - i:e., better than life and all life's earthly blessings. What I desire is not so much my restoration to the good things of life, of which I have been deprived, as restoration to spiritual ordinances. MY LIPS SHALL PRAISE THEE - after that thou hast in thy loving-kindness restored me to external communion with thee and the Church in thy sanctuary. "Praise" - literally, 'to still' or 'soothe by praise.'...

3_Because thy mercy is better than life, etc. _I have no objections to read the verse in this connected form, though I think that the first clause would be better separated, and taken in with the verse preceding. David would appear to be giving the reason of his earnestness in desiring God. By _life _is to be understood, in general, everything which men use for their own maintenance and defense. When we think ourselves well provided otherwise, we feel no disposition to have recourse to the mercy of God. That _being _(to speak so) which we have of our own, prevents us from seeing that we live through the mere grace of God. (428) As we are too much disposed to trust in aids of a carnal kind, and to forget God, the Psalmist here affirms that we should have more reliance upon the divine mercy in the midst of death, than upon what we are disposed to call, or what may appear to be, life. Anoth...

3-6 Even in affliction we need not want matter for praise. When this is the regular frame of a believer's mind, he values the loving-kindness of God more than life. God's loving-kindness is our spiritual life, and that is better than temporal life. We must praise God with joyful lips; we must address ourselves to the duties of religion with cheerfulness, and speak forth the praises of God from a principle of holy joy. Praising lips must be joyful lips. David was in continual danger; care and fear held his eyes waking, and gave him wearisome nights; but he comforted himself with thoughts of God. The mercies of God, when called to mind in the night watches, support the soul, making darkness cheerful. How happy will be that last morning, when the believer, awaking up after the Divine likeness, shall be satisfied with all the fulness of God, and praise him with joyful lips, where there is no...

Verse Psalms 63:3. _THY LOVING-KINDNESS_ IS _BETTER THAN LIFE_] This is the language of every regenerate soul. But O how few prefer the approbation of God to the blessings of life, or even to life itself in _any circumstances_! But the psalmist says, _Thy_ _loving-kindness_, חסדך chasdecha, thy _effusive mercy, is better_ מחיים mechaiyim, than LIVES: it is better than, or _good beyond_, countless _ages_ of _human existence_. _MY LIPS SHALL PRAISE THEE._] Men praise, or _speak well_, of power, glory, honour, riches, worldly prospects and pleasures; but the truly religious _speak well_ of GOD, in whom they find infinitely more satisfaction and happiness than worldly men can find in the possession of all _earthly good_....

BECAUSE THY LOVING-KINDNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE - Thy favor; thy mercy. This is of more value than life; more to be desired than life. Life is the most valued and valuable thing pertaining to this world which we can possess. See the notes at Job 2:4. But, above this, David valued the favor and friendship of God. If one or the other was to be sacrificed, he preferred that it should be his life; he would be willing to exchange that for the favor of God. Life was not desirable, life furnished no comforts - no joys - without the divine favor. “My life itself, without Thy love, No taste of pleasure could afford; ‘Twould but a tiresome burden prove, If

EXPOSITION A PSALM of one absent from the sanctuary, and longing to return to it (Psalms 63:1, Psalms 63:2), pursued by enemies who seek his life (Psalms 63:9), but confident in God's protection (Psalms 63:7, Psalms 63:8), and, indeed, full of joy and praise and thankfulness (Psalms 63:3 and Psalms 63:11). Near the close he lets fall a word, which shows him to be a ki

BECAUSE THY LOVINGKINDNESS [IS] BETTER THAN LIFE,.... For life without the love of God is nothing else than death: a man that has no share in the love of God is dead while he lives; all the enjoyments of life, health, riches, honour, friends, c. are nothing without the love of God the meanest temporal blessings with it are preferable to the greatest without it, Proverbs 15:17; it lasts longer than life, and therefore must be better than that; death cannot separate from it; it continues to all eternity. And that the saints prefer it to this natural life appears by their readiness to lay it down for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, in which the lovingkindness of God is so richly manifested unto them; to which may be added, that it is the love of God which gives to his people spiritual life, and which issues in eternal life, and therefore must be better than a temporal one. The Targum is,

This is said to be «A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.» I suppose, therefore, that it was composed when he fled from Jerusalem because of the cruel treachery of his son Absalom. He must have been heart-broken, and stricken with the greatest possible sorrow as he fled away with his faithful followers into the wilderness of Judah. But even there he praised his God; and he did not sing unto him with old and stale Psalms, but with a new song. How restful and calm he must have been, in his great sorrow, to sit down even in the wilderness of Judah, and make a new hymn of praise unto the Lord! How gloriously he begins! Psalms 63:1. _O God, thou art my God;_ The psalmist has no doubt about this great fact, he does not hesitate or falter, but he makes the positive assertion, «O God, thou art my El, my mighty God, strong to deliver me.» In the sixty-second P

Psalms 63 Heart Longings _ 1. To see Thy power and glory (Psalms 63:1)_ 2. Satisfied longings (Psalms 63:5) A Psalm of David when he was an outcast in the wilderness of Judah. Thus it fits in well with the outcast remnant, thirsting after God, longing to see His power and His glory displayed. And these longings are created in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, as in our hearts also. These longings will be satisfied in the coming day of His manifestation, when His people shall praise and worship Him....

LXIII. Written by one who has seen God's glory in the Temple and resolved to praise Him all his life. He is confident his enemies will perish. Psalms 63:11 refers to a Hebrew king, possibly Maccabean. The language of the Ps. is late. PSALMS 63:1. Follow _mg._ IN A DRY: read, as a dry. As the parched soil pines for rain, so the Psalmist for union with God. Psalms 63:2. So: read as. Place Psalms 63:4 immediately after Psalms 63:2....