My Psalm 63 ‘Mixtape”
Part of being rooted like the tree described in Jeremiah 17 is having truths to grip onto during both life’s tumult’s, and zeniths. I used to be so excited about putting together mixtapes/CD’s back in the 90s and early-2000s What did we do? We essentially compiled a track of our most treasured songs. Like, you just knew everybody’s mind would be blown by listening to your mixed tape because you had chosen the creme a la creme of songs. It can be the same with God’s Truth and with quotes from past and present stewards of His Truth. Except it’s a compilation not just for other people’s minds to be blown, but rather, your own mind. C.H. Spurgeon put’s it so eloquently:
“An ointment for every wound, a cordial for every faintness, a remedy for every disease. Blessed is he who is well-skilled in heavenly pharmacy and knows how to lay hold on the healing virtues of the promises of God.”
It is good to have an arsenal of truths and sayings for all life’s seasons. I have been in a particularly difficult season, so I have found comfort in meditating on Psalm 63. I’ve also been on a pretty good C.H. Spurgeon binge currently, which is rather timely because Spurgeon was a man well-acquainted with grief, most of his life. I love his commentary on Psalm 63 and so here are just a few of my gleanings from his exposition (VV. 1, 3, and 6). They’re my Psalm 63 “mixed tape,” so to speak.
V1. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Spurgeon: “…Firm faith enables him to claim him [God] as his own. He has no doubts about his possession of his God; and why should other believers have any?”
“Observe the eagerness implies; he will not wait for noon or for the cool eventide; he is up at cockcrowing to meet his God. Communion with God is so sweet that the chill of the morning is forgotten and the luxury of the couch is despised.”
”A weary place and a weary heart make the presence of God the more desirable; if there be nothing below and nothing within to cheer, it is a thousand mercies that we may look up and find all we need
V3. “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”
Spurgeon: Life is dear, but God’s Love is dearer.
“We ought not to make our praises of God to depend upon our own personal and present reception of benefits; this would be mere selfishness; even publicans and sinners have a good word for those whose hands are enriching them with gifts; it is the true believer only who will bless the Lord when he takes away his gifts or hides his face.
V6. when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
Spurgeon: “If day’s cares tempt us to forget God, it is well that night’s quiet should lead us to remember him.”
It is good to have God’s truths to cling to in life’s pits. Thankful to be able to find comfort in David’s hymn during a time of suffering he experienced while in this wilderness. On Earth, we are always in the wilderness!