According to their superscriptions, many of the Psalms were written for public worship. The dedication “To the Chief Musician” occurs frequently, and some have recommendations for musical accompaniment and even the names of tunes to be used. Authors are often identified – predominantly David, but also Asaph, one of the three Levites whom David appointed to lead the singing in the Tabernacle (1 Chron 6:31-47). Also named are the sons of Korah, and Solomon.

Not a few Psalms are anonymous, and most are without context. Psalm 63, however, provides both author and context; it is “of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah”. This one, then, was not penned for public worship, but is a testimony, a very personal composition, arising directly from a specific part of David’s experience during the reign of King Saul.

The Mountain of Hachilah

It has been suggested that the occasion was during Absalom’s rebellion,¹ but the geography of that event does not fit Psalm 63. At that time David fled eastward from Jerusalem, across the Kidron and Mount of Olives to the wilderness plains of the Jordan trench, then across the river to Mahanaim, in the tribal lands of Gad (2 Sam 15:13-17:29). But the context of Psalm 63 is the wilderness of Judah, which lies to the south and east of the ridge of hill country on which Jerusalem and Hebron are situated, extending down to the Dead Sea. It includes the wildernesses of Ziph, of Maon and of En Gedi.

David spent considerable time in this area (as recounted in 1 Samuel 22:5-27:1). The superscription of Psalm 54 relates to David’s first experience of betrayal by the people of Ziph, as it directly quotes their “Is not David hiding with us?” (1 Sam 23:19). In that Psalm, David requests deliverance and vindication from God and states his confidence that his prayer will be answered. This is no airy-fairy mysticism nor armchair ‘positive thinking’; it is an expression of trusting faith embedded in the grim and gritty reality of a desperate situation.

As it happened, David and his men were on a mountain called Hachilah and came very close to being captured in a pincer movement of Saul’s troops. However, Saul’s strategy was providentially thwarted when he received news of an attack by the Philistines and had to re-deploy his forces to repel them (1 Sam 23:26-28). In this way David’s prayer in Psalm 54 was answered – his faith confirmed – and he was able to move down to the wilderness of En Gedi, where water was more readily available (as was free ‘clean’ food, in the form of ibex [wild goats]; see Deut 14:5, also right: courtesy of Todd Bolen).

Seeking God

It appears, then, that Psalm 63 was most likely written during David’s second period of hiding in the mountain of Hachilah, when he suffered a second betrayal by the local inhabitants (1 Sam 26). This betrayal was no casual excursion to inform Saul at Gibeah of David’s whereabouts: it involved a round trip of about 60 miles! Not long before that, in the sheep-shearing period (late February/early March), further west of Hachilah, David and his men had been blessed by an abundance of provisions from Abigail, wife of the local flockmaster (1 Sam 25). Now, as summer’s heat and aridity advanced, he was being hounded by Saul yet again. His life was truly full of ups and downs!

How did he react? Did he ask, as in Psalm 10, “Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble?”, or in Psalm 13, “How long, O Lord?...How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”? NO! Early in the morning, David sought God. Neither provisions nor deliverance were his primary concern. Though he was indeed in “a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water” for him and his men, he sought not physical water, but the presence of God (Ps 63:1).

In the second verse of Psalm 63, we discover that David had witnessed the power and glory of God during a visit to the Tabernacle, the ‘sanctuary’ (qodesh in Hebrew, signifying the sacred place). Perhaps this had happened when he fled from Saul in desperation to Ahimelek at Nob and was provided with the previous day’s showbread from the Holy Place (1 Sam 21). Here in Psalm 63 his whole being longed and thirsted for the presence of God again, and we gain insight into the man’s heart, into his inner desires and deepest priorities.

The context of Psalm 63 is the wilderness of Judah, which lies to the south and east of the ridge of hill country on which Jerusalem and Hebron are situated.

God’s Lovingkindness

As David continues in verses 3 to 5, we find him praising the One he longs for, his soul’s condition contrasting markedly with his physical circumstances. As Spurgeon remarked, “There was no desert in his heart, though there was a desert around him.”² Far from ‘dry and thirsty’, there was a wellspring bubbling up within, based on his experience of the Lord’s ‘lovingkindness’.

This is a very special word, and it is worth noting that, as Tozer reminds us, “Words are not truth, but are caskets in which the gem of truth is carried.”³ ‘Lovingkindness’ is a word specially invented by Miles Coverdale during his translation of the scriptures into English, completed in 1535. It was his solution to the profundity of the Hebrew word chesed, which combines kindness, favour and mercy. What a sparkling, multi-facetted gem is this! And David treasured it. As he turned it over and around, there in the wilderness, he remembered the many ways in which the Lord had guided, provided and protected him (vv6-7). Though he gives no details in this Psalm, he surely remembered such things as:

• The steadfast friendship of Jonathan, who informed him of Saul’s evil intentions (1 Sam 20) and on another occasion “strengthened his hand in God” (1 Sam 23:14-18)
  
• The guidance and protection of God in David’s relieving the city of Keilah from the Philistines at harvest time (1 Sam 23:1-5)
  
• The deliverance of David and his men from Saul’s planned capture at Keilah (1 Sam 23:6-13)
  
• The kindness of some of the people of Ziph in informing David of betrayal and of Saul’s intended foray against him (1 Sam 23:24-25)
  
• The raid by the Philistines that caused Saul to change his plans at the point he had almost outwitted David and his men (1 Sam 23:25-28). Interestingly, the Puritan minister John Flavel (1630-1691) saw this as one of the most striking examples of precise timing in God’s acts of Providence.⁴
  
• The escape from Saul and his forces near the Rocks of the Wild Goats (ibex) at the cave of En Gedi (1 Sam 24)
  
• The copious provision of food by Abigail and the prevention of David’s intended murder of Nabal (1 Sam 25:2-35)
  

Truly, here was lovingkindness in abundance.

‘Lovingkindness’ is a word specially invented by Miles Coverdale in the 16^th Century, as his English solution to the profundity of the Hebrew word 'chesed'.

Chesed

Elsewhere, David refers again and again to lovingkindness, such as in Psalms 26:3 and 36:7. Lovingkindness also features in Psalm 92 which, although unattributed, has many of the hallmarks of David: “It is good…to declare your lovingkindness in the morning” (vv1-2).

We noted above that the Hebrew word he uses is chesed. Remarkably, it appears 247 times in the Tanakh (Old Testament), underlining its great significance. Sadly, the NIV translates it simply as ‘love’, missing much of its richness. Some commentators maintain that it is difficult to translate; by that I understand them to mean with a single word – hence Coverdale’s masterly solution. From the various ways in which it is used, the scholar Norman Snaith points out that chesed is characterised by being steadfast and undeserved, and that in it “there is no reference to any sentimental kindness and no suggestion of mercy without repentance”.⁵ Precious truths indeed.

From of Old

In the sixth verse of Psalm 26, in seeking forgiveness and deliverance, David cries out, “Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and your lovingkindnesses, for they are from of old.” Thus, his knowledge of them was not purely personal, profound though that was, but also derived from the scriptures available to him: the Torah, the five books of Moses.

The same is just as true for us in the here and now of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially for those who feel they are in desert places. We now have much greater opportunity for meditation on, and appreciation of, the lovingkindnesses of the Lord: to reflect upon their operation in our own lives and to explore them in his word. Maybe we should even make our own list, as I did here for David, and consider sharing them as testimony. We shall find, as did David, much cause to rejoice and to bless the Lord (vv4-5, 7) and to face the future with confidence in him (vv5, 8-9).

Let’s ensure that we take the opportunity with both hands, and do not lose it when some form of normality returns.

References

1 E.g. Spurgeon, CH, 1885. The Treasury of David, Psalm 63.

2 op. cit.

3 Tozer, AW, 1993. God Tells the Man Who Cares. Authentic Media, 2009 edition, p134.

4 Flavel, J, 1678. Divine Conduct; or, The Mystery of Providence. London.

5 Snaith, NH, 1944. The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament. Epworth Press.

Read more of David Longworth's studies on the original contexts of the Psalms here.