"O God, You are my God;  I shall seek You earnestly;  my soul thirsts for You;  my flesh yearns for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  Thus, I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.  Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You.  I will bless Your name as long as I live;  I will lift my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips."  (Psalm 63:1-5)


Probably like most of you,  I'd read this Psalm a hundred times before this week.  It had been beautiful to me before, but this week it has changed me.  I must share some of what God has laid upon my heart, but keep in mind, this blog will only skim the surface.  Please search this Psalm for yourself and be blessed by what the Lord will show you by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

To experience this Psalm, first I must believe, and live as though I believe, that God is my God!  I believe that Jesus died to pay the price for my sin and that He rose again to life physically, just as He has raised me to new life in Himself spiritually. (1 Cor. 15:1-19, 2 Cor. 5:17) By God's grace and empowerment, I must live in this belief and my life must reflect my belief.  Secondly, I must seek God earnestly. How do I do that?  Well, I'm so glad you asked!  The Lord led me today to the answer in the following passage.

"...I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem...So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.  I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, 'Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances." (Daniel 9:2-5)

Daniel sought the Lord earnestly by doing three things. 1. Reading the Scriptures (specifically the book of Jeremiah), 2. Praying and making supplication to the Lord with true mourning over personal sin (in sackcloth and ashes!), and 3. Confessing his own sins and those of his people to the Lord, recognizing the depth of their iniquity and rebellion.  Like Daniel,  I must, through the grace and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, search the Scriptures,  pray and make supplication to the Lord, and with true and agonizing grief confess my filthy sins, and the filthy sins of my brethren,  to the almighty and eternally forgiving God who has plucked us out of the world to be His own.  I must mourn over my sins and those of the people I call brothers and sisters.  I must have a heart for their forgiveness just as much as I desire the Lord to forgive me!  Notice the closure of Daniel's prayer.

"...we are not presenting our supplications before you on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.  O Lord, hear!  O Lord, forgive! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name." (Daniel 9:18b-19)

Daniel recognizes that he, in and of himself, has no merit and that God's forgiveness will come for His own sake.  How radically God-centered was Daniel?  I pray that God would make me like Daniel, that I would seek God earnestly as Daniel did.  Just as Daniel's nation, Israel, was called by God's name, so my church family is called by Christ's name.  Oh God!  Do not delay, because Your church and Your people are called by Your name!  That is how I should pray for my family in Christ.  Daniel was passionate for his God and for the repentance of his nation, and he had solid faith in God's compassion and mercy.  He sought the Lord earnestly.  Will I?  Will you?  By His grace alone, we will!  God must place within us the desire to seek Him earnestly!    He wants His people to seek Him earnestly!  He instructs them in His Word how they may do so. He is most glorified when they do!

Back to Psalm 63, what is the rewarding result of believing Christ is risen and of seeking God earnestly?  The reward, my brothers and sisters, is that we'll be fully satisfied in God!  We'll praise Him with joyful lips!  We'll lift our hands in His name!  We'll bless him as long as we live!  We'll see His power and glory!  He'll rescue us from our own devices, to which He has given us over in our rebellion and hardness of heart. (Psalm 81:11-12)

So, may we open wide our mouths to be filled with Christ. (Psalm 81:10)  May we be still and listen to the voice of God as we search for truth in His Word. (Psalm 46:10)  May our lives evidence our belief in the risen Christ!  May we seek God earnestly through study, prayer, and confession.  May the Lord be magnified as we become truly satisfied in Him alone!