Singing Psalm 63 to grasp what is better than life
- Apr 26, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Singing Psalm 63 to grasp with your mind what is better than life
Your life with God can be cherished beyond anything even amid murderous threats and lies that might surround you. As a matter of course, he keeps you safely within him as a baby is satisfied for many months within his mother’s womb, happy to be there, not feeling imprisoned while being nourished and protected there.
It is a matter of course you accept and expect his provision because of who God is and because you trust him, that no matter the threat of the moment, you will be delivered from it.
It pleases God that you trust him to reward your faith in him, that you don’t fear those who can destroy the body. You are putting all your hope in the one who has power over body and soul. You are following the lamb who before his shearers was silent, who did not open his mouth. You can conceive of something better than life.
Singing Psalm 63 to grasp in your body what is better than life
As far as it depends on you, as acts of gratitude for the one who gifted it to you, you care well for your body, giving it rest, water, food, and exercise, so that you can use it to do the work that God prepared in advance for you to do, whatever that is. You hope to be a blessing to others in their spirits, souls, and bodies.
You wouldn’t think of voluntarily placing your body (or anyone else’s) in harm’s way for no good reason or to fill it with poison. Because you were bought with the blood of Jesus, you belong to him. You are not your own. Like a baby in the womb, you don’t perceive this dependence as a negative. You sense something better than life.
Your identity is not in your body (or in anyone else’s.) Rather, it is in the one who made it. You entrust it to him. There’s nothing anyone can do to ultimately hurt you. Destroy this body, and it will be raised up again because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and you are following him.
Singing Psalm 63 to grasp with your emotions what is better than life
Whereas before, if someone were to speak negatively about you behind your back, and you found out about it, you would be incensed. Now that you know the Lord has your back, your reputation is no longer paramount. You can take negative gossip about you in stride, matter-of-factly, because your eye is not on what others think of you, but on what the Lord thinks of you.
You strive to be gentle and kind in word and in heart to all people because this honors God as it sows and waters seeds that he can make grow. Because the Lord thinks about you so much, you are free to think about him and others, no longer burdened with an overabundance of thoughts about yourself. You feel something better than life.
Singing Psalm 63 to grasp what is better than life
Even what falls through the cracks of the justice system he will make right.
Psalms 56, 118, and Romans 8 rhetorically ask what singing Psalm 63 answers: What can man do to me? Stephen displays the answer in Acts 7 as he falls asleep in Jesus with joy. His body awaits restoration and beyond to immortality. His presence with Jesus doesn’t skip a beat.
Your sure answer to that question can be like Stephen’s would be if it was posed to him. What can man do to you? Nothing harmful that God won’t reverse, even if it kills you.
“Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.” ~ Psalm 63:3
April 26, 2022
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Heart ♥️ reflection
February 6, 2025
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” ~ John 17:20-21
Question: What does God want from me more than anything else?
Heart reflection: It’s funny, this thing that God wants from you more than anything? It’s your heart. This should come as no surprise. Think about your relationships. The closest ones. What do you want more than anything from them? Isn’t it the same thing? Isn’t it their hearts? To know that they aren’t just with you because they have to be or to get something from you? There’s nothing like being with someone when you get the sense that while you are together he wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. You want to know that you have his heart. Just like he wants to know that he has your heart. There’s nothing worse than for someone to feel like it’s pulling teeth to be around you. When you consider that God made you for relationship in his image, it’s no wonder that you want the same thing as he does.
“I think of You thus as I lie in bed
And bring You to mind
in the hours of night.
Since You ever have been my help,
Your wings are my shield and joy.” ~ Psalm 63:6-7
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The Psalms—Q&A
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ~ Matthew 22:36
How does the Lord Jesus leading me to sing Psalm 63 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
“O God, you are my God, and early will I seek for you. My soul is athirst for You… my flesh longs after You… because Your love is more than life, my lips will give You praise… my soul, as with the choicest food, is fully satisfied” ~ Psalm 63:1-5
It got me thinking when I came across an article where the author self-commends that she makes a point of talking a lot about prayer because it can change you. I didn’t look further to see if other points were brought to bear on the subject. These questions did come to mind immediately after reading the thesis statement that the article led with. Does the motive behind the prayer matter? Do we liken God to a rabbit’s foot, a lucky charm, a vending machine, a methodology, an undesired means to a desired end? Say a prayer and he gives me what I want? Is it just me or is there something unsatisfying and empty about looking at prayer merely as something that makes me better with the focus on me?
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” ~ James 1:16-18
It’s not that God does not give me good things because he does. Am I thankful to him for those? Do I give him the glory for what he does? Am I deceived into thinking that the things he gives me are greater gifts than he himself is to me? Since God made me for a relationship with him, is it unreasonable for him to expect my heart?
“When the day that lies ahead of me
Seems impossible to face
When someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way.
“Then I look at you
And the world's alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it's gonna be
A lovely day.....” ~ Bill Withers, “Lovely Day”
Can you imagine addressing God as your deepest desire in the face of when life hamstrings you either physically or when it rips away long held relational or vocational dreams?
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Would it be a surprise to anyone that I profess to be a kind of firstfruit of his creatures?
“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” ~ Acts 3:19-21
Am I generally refreshed and joyful living as a kind of firstfruit of God’s creatures?
“I’ll praise You with joyful lips.
I think of You thus as I lie in bed
And bring You to mind in the hours of night.” ~ Psalm 63:5b-6
Then I look at You, God. I seek You late in the night, early in the morning, and throughout the day. Just one look at You and all is right.
Ask Azariah, Hananiah, and Mishael who were sent to the fiery furnace because they refused to bow down before the 90 ft. gold image of King Nebuchadnezzar and worship it: How did having to wait for God’s deliverance teach you to trust him?
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
June 12, 2026
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