Sermon – Psalm 63 – Longing for God

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – Psalm 63 – Longing for God

February 28, 2016

            Today we are continuing with our look at the Psalms of Lent.  We have followed Jesus into the wilderness.  So far we have been reminded that God is our refuge, our fortress, the person we can count on when all else fails.  Last week we saw that to build up our trust in God we need to worship every Sunday, pray and meditate on scripture every day, and attend Bible studies.  Through these practices of piety the Holy Spirit causes us to grow into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

            Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness where his trust in God was tested.  We don’t know what happened to Jesus in those 40 days.  All we know is that Jesus was with the Holy Spirit and had a conversation about Old Testament scripture with the Devil.  What else happened to him?  What would happen to a man in the desert for 40 days?  We will get to this, but first let’s pray.

            “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

            I have been in the Judean desert.  This desert is a vast expanse of sand.  Think of our beach on a summer day in full sun with the temperature over 100 degrees.  Think of our beach stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions.  There is nothing to eat or drink.  And the sun is beating done on your neck.  I visited Judean desert in an air conditioned bus with plenty of bottled water.  Jesus had neither.  And he was there for 40 days!  What happened?

            Rabbi Tani Prero leads a Jewish wilderness camp named Camp Yaalozu.  He knows what it’s like to live in the Judean desert.  First there would be no water to drink.  There wouldn’t be enough food.  So a person would experience deep hunger and thirst.   He would miss his bed and sleep on a few branches if he could find them.  His skin would dry out from the relentless heat and lack of shade.  If someone brought him some food, the wild animals that roam the desert would steal it.  His body would begin to fail.  His mind would weaken, and he would begin to hallucinate.  He would see visions, mirages.[i]

            We don’t know if Jesus experienced these things in the desert.  He may have, but he never told us what happened.  We do have a firsthand account from a man who did spend some time in the desert.  He was an ancestor of Jesus and was named David.  Let’s listen to David’s account of hiding in this desert from King Saul who was trying to kill him about a 1000 years before Jesus.  We read in Psalm 63:

1a You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;

            David is hiding in the Judean desert.  He has fled with his men as King Saul pursues him to kill him.  David is thirsty.  He has no water no water to drink.  His body is dehydrating.  He will die soon if he doesn’t find some water.  His skin is dry and brittle.  But notice that he doesn’t complain about the lack of water.  It’s not water that he longs for.  Rather, he longs for God.  He trusts that God will provide him with what he needs.  And he is confident that God will be his refuge and fortress.  Here is what David says.

1b I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

            And so David, experiencing great thirst, longs not for water but for the only thing that can save him, God. 

            Several days have passed, and with still no water David begins to see visions.  He is hallucinating.  His body is deprived of food and water.  His imagination is growing.  And he sees a vision of God in his temple.  Here is what he sees.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

            After a few more days David begins to realize that he is dying.  No one can withstand that kind of heat without food and water.  He longs for God.  He has seen visions of God in his temple.  And now he experiences God’s great love for him.  Even in the midst of his suffering God’s love is shining.  And if God loves you your life has meaning.  There is no reason to despair in suffering, because you are a child of God.  Here is how David described it.

³ Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. ⁴ I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

            David is in the wilderness with no food and water.  The sun beats down on him.  His body is dry and parched.  His life is coming to an end.  There is no guarantee the God will provide him with the necessities of life.  And that is when David begins to think about food.  He had never experienced hunger as he does right now.  And David then says a most surprising thing.

⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

            David’s body needs food and water to survive.  In the absence of both he will probably soon die.  But in this experience David is satisfied, not with the food and water he desperately needs, but with God, his creator, who remains with him and strengthens him.

            As the sun goes down, David experiences a little relief.  The cooler temperature feels good to his parched body.  The hot sand beneath his feat begins to cool.  And as he lies down to sleep he again begins to hallucinate.  He sees a vision of his own bed.  And he is next to it kneeling in prayer to God, a prayer that lasts the whole night long.  Here is what he says.

⁶ On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

            When the sun rises the next morning David’s first thought is not about his own hunger and thirst.  He does not think about his own dry body or even his death which may be very close.  Rather his thoughts turn to God.  And as the sun rises high in the sky, with no shade for protection, David begins singing because even if there is no physical protection from the rays of the sun God is still with him.  Here is what David says”

⁷ Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

            As the hot dry day continues David’s body begins to shut down.  The lack of water, the lack of food, the heat, the sun have all brought David almost to the point of death.  But even here David thinks about God.  God is with him.  God will protect him.  Listen to David’s confession.

⁸ I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

            And with that we have seen David’s full transformation.  He is no longer concerned with his physical body.  His hunger and thirst are no longer important.  All he cares about is that God is with him.  David trusts God with his life.

            But the immediate threat to David was not lack of water.  King Saul was continuing to search for David in desert.   He and his men were getting close.  And so God spoke words of prophecy and comfort.  Here is what David heard.

9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth.
¹⁰ They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals.

            At God’s command the Philistines attacked Israel.  Saul ended his pursuit of David to meet this threat.  And in the following battle Saul died, in fulfillment of the prophecy, making David the new king.  God had saved David’s life.  And David, in gratitude for this salvation promised this to his God:

¹¹ But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

            And with that David is able to leave his hiding place in the desert.  He is ready to begin ruling as king.   His relationship with God is strong.  He knows that God saved him from certain death in the wilderness.

            Jesus also emerged from the wilderness after forty days.  Did he go through the same agony as his ancestor David?  I think he did.  I think he experience the relentless hot sun.  His body became burned and dry.  He experienced hunger and thirst.  He began hallucinating and seeing visions.  He saw God in the temple.  He imagined himself in his own bed.  And through this experience he developed his relationship with the Father.  The Father saved the Son’s life in the desert.  And Jesus knew that the Father would always be with him to strengthen him no matter what happens.

            This promise is for us as well.  No matter what happens to us we have a savior.  We can depend on God our refuge and fortress.  We develop this trust not by hiding in a desert but through worship, prayer and Bible study.  As we do these things the Holy Spirit fills us with confidence and trust which will sustain us throughout our lives. 

            So whatever wilderness you face, the wilderness of bad health, the wilderness of lack of resources, or the wilderness of loneliness remember that you have a savior.  You can trust God with your life, because Jesus knows all about the wilderness.  Let’s pray.

            “O God, you are our God; and we come to worship and thank you! Today, we come together to our sacred space, because within our souls, we have a deep longing and a craving thirst for God’s presence—so that we may personally know more clearly and truly experience God.  Our faith community has a yearning to learn about God in a new and intimate way, because we feel undernourished, as if we are starved of God’s presence. As individuals, and as a gathered people, we come; lifting our hands in praise to our God in anticipation of a blessing— and receiving from our God – the comforting warmth of words of grace. We yearn to follow God more closely, and to be guided by God’s hand.”  Amen. (http://www.thetimelesspsalms.net/w_resources/lent3c_2013.htm)

---

[i] Sermon based on:  Tani Prero, Jewish Bible Quarterly: Psalms Chapter 63: David in The Wilderness,  (2014), vol. 42,3, pp244-246.