Catholic Commentary on Psalm 63

"You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you." (Psalm 63:1)

Desert Prayer

Psalm 63 is connected to David's time in the wilderness of Judah, probably during Absalom's revolt. The desert is the spiritual setting as well as the geographical one: he is in a dry and parched land where there is no water. And the prayer that rises from the desert is one of the most beautiful expressions of longing for God in the entire Psalter: 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.

Three things are notable about this opening. First, the intimate possessive: you are MY God. Not God in general, not God of Israel in the abstract, but mine, in personal covenantal relationship. Second, the earnestness: I seek you earnestly, with first-light urgency, from the morning watch. Third, the totality: my whole being, flesh and soul together, longs for you. This is not a spiritual longing that pretends the body does not exist. The whole person, in its physical thirst and its spiritual hunger, reaches toward God.

Better Than Life

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. This is one of the boldest comparative statements in Scripture. Life, in Hebrew thought, is the greatest earthly good. To say that God's love is better than life is to subordinate even life itself to the divine relationship. The martyrs of the early Church were sustained by this conviction: the love of God is better than life, so the loss of life for Christ is not the loss of the greater good but the gain of it.

The Satisfaction of God's Presence

I am satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. The night watches are not the hours of anxious wakefulness but the hours of voluntary remembrance. The person who has tasted the richest of foods, who has found in God's love the satisfaction of every longing, remembers at night what they tasted in the day.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, Psalm 63 teaches us what to do with our longing. Do not suppress it. Do not redirect it to lesser satisfactions. Bring it to God in prayer. I thirst for you. My whole being longs for you. Your love is better than life. The longing itself, properly directed, is already a form of prayer and already a form of satisfaction.

Prayer

You, God, are my God. I thirst for you in this dry and parched land. Your love is better than life. I am satisfied as with the richest of foods. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.