Ps 63 In the wilderness do you gripe?

The Bible is a word of history, and a word for our daily living. A word for every day; a word for the future. God's word of commitment to us, inviting us to live committed to Him. Many of us love the words of Psalm 23, it appeals to our desire to live a good life in green pastures. Psalm 63 was written by David in the desert of Judah. It probably refers to the events in 2 Sam c15 v13ff when he fled from Absalom, his favourite son, who rebelled, seeking to be king.

David fled from Jerusalem. He crossed the Kidron valley, on his way to the desert, in the company of those loyal to him. He went up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, head covered and barefooted, to the summit, where people used to worship God. Pursued by Absalom he crossed the Jordan river where friends bring his people various goods, including bedding and food and drink, for they have become hungry and thirsty in the desert.

God’s people are not promised an easy life. The Gospel is not the good news of the good life but the way of the true life. In Psalm 23 David celebrates God’s comforting, protecting, providing care. But life also takes us into wilderness. What may people do, even God's people when they are taken out of pleasant pastures and into desert wilderness? From Israel in the Exodus to the present day, when God takes His people into the wilderness they... often complain, and worse some fall into grumbling and mumbling against God. David does not.

Psalm 63 is not psalm of complaint. It is not a psalm of lament, as if God has forgotten him. Here l am pushed out of my home, my capital and possibly even my throne by my own son who has rebelled against me. Now I and my people, your king and your people are weary and worn in the desert. Why have You deserted us? Where are You, when we needed You? But in the desert of thirst and hunger David’s soul thirsts for God. His body longs for God, in the dry and weary land. He remembers the goodness of God; he knows that God’s love is better than life, and therefore he praises God. He revels in God’s love. Because God has blessed him before he knows that God will bless him again. He will be satisfied. Therefore ‘with singing lips his mouth will praise God’.

This is not just words about the future. When all this is over I will praise. It is a present commitment, as if to say my lips do not mouth complaints, but songs of praise. In wilderness times instead of sleeping peacefully we can revolve round and around and around on the points of our worries, but David remembers God. He meditates on Him, not his anxieties. Instead of being hugged by his worries he clings to God. He trusts in His right hand. He rests in the shadow of His wings. And in all this of David we see Jesus.

Jerusalem rejected Him. The priests and elders contrived to kill Him. The people even sought another king, saying, we have no king but Caesar. On the Thursday, aware of His coming betrayal by one supposedly loyal to Him, He also goes to the Mount of Olives and there weeps blood, for He has come to the wilderness of the cross, the desert doom of sin, the breaking of His eternal relation-ship with His Father who will forsake Him, for Jesus will drink the cup of His wrath. But as David prophetically foresees the King will rejoice in God. And all those who swear His name will praise Him. God’s right hand upheld Jesus, and affirmed Him as Christ and Lord. He is Emmanuel. God with us by the Holy Spirit. He does not desert us in our desert days, All who love Christ Jesus will know wilderness, but like David we can cling to God knowing that His love is better than life. ln desert days cling to Jesus for He will uphold you. Praise O God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.