O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; Psalms 63:1-11.-Two divisions; each begins with his soul-thirst for God in his exile from holy ordinances (Psalms 63:1-3; Psalms 63:6-8); in each follows his hope for the future; in Psalms 63:4-5, hope of HIS OWN blessedness; in Psalms 63:9-10, hope of the destruction of his foes; concluding summary (Psalms 63:11) answering to title.
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah - not referring, as the marginal references (1 Samuel 22:1-23; 1 Samuel 23:1-29) imply, to David's flight from Saul; for the mention in Psalms 63:11 that David was "king" forbids this; but to his flight from Absalom to "the wilderness of Judah" (2 Samuel 15:23; 2 Samuel 15:28; 2 Samuel 16:2; 2 Samuel 17:16), "the plains of the wilderness." This wilderness (cf. Matthew 3:1) lay east of Judah and south of Benjamin, and stretched from near Jericho on the north, to the southwest end of the Dead Sea and the mountains of Edom on the south. Compare Hebrew, Psalms 63:1, "thirsty" (hayeephim), with 2 Samuel 16:2; 2 Samuel 16:14; 2 Samuel 17:2. In Psalms 42:1-11 he was beyond Jordan; in this psalm he is in the wilderness on the near side of Jordan.
O God, thou art my God. Faith enabled David to appropriate God as his, even in the greatest affliction (Psalms 3:7).
My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee - who alone canst satisfy the thirst of an immortal "soul." The vehemence of the soul's desire affects the "flesh;" the body is affected by strong emotion (Psalms 84:2).
In a dry and thirsty land - literally, 'a weary land,' the epithets that apply to himself, 'dry and weary,' being transferred to the "land" (2 Samuel 16:14).