Here is another psalm not noted in the commentaries but which I found to be particularly powerful and appropriate for our study. According to the early Christian leader Chrysostom, the early church fathers thought enough of this psalm that they decreed that "no day should pass without the public singing of this psalm." In other words, in the early church Christians were encouraged and expected to repeat this psalm everyday. Must be something important here.

The subtitle says it was written while David was in the Desert of Judah which was apparently the occasion of the revolt of his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15:16-30) and everything in the psalm fits this setting: David is at present the king (11), he appears to be absent from the sanctuary (verses 1,2), he is in a dry and weary land where there is no water (1), he is pursued by enemies who seek his life (9), but he is confident of God’s protection (7,8).

1

"O God... my God!" Too often these words are just a by-word and completely devoid of any religious feeling. Profanity is simply using God’s name in a profane or common way. Let us be careful not to speak of God that way, as a by-word or expression of profanity.

But David speaks of God as really being his God. "My God" is more than a mere profanity. For him it expresses the truth of the moment, namely that God is truly "My God." The whole practical message and purpose of the bible is that God might become "My God." It is that sin has separated me from God and that God has sent Jesus to bring back to the right and proper relationship with the Father. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." This morning, is God your God?

But observe what David says about his God. One of the most interesting and practically instructive lessons for us from the life of David is what excites him, what most interests him, that for which he most hungers and thirsts, what it is he wants, desires and pursues most. And what are we talking about? In a word it is God.

God is his passion. The knowledge of God is what he wants to know most of all - more than math or world literature or computer science or the lyrics to popular songs of the day or the latest world news. A relationship with God is what he pursues first of all. His desire for God is like thirst in a dry and weary land where there is no water. "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." (Psalm 27:4) David’s greatest overriding purpose in life was to seek the Lord.

What is yours? What is your passion in life right now? What is of most interest to you? What excites and interests you the most? What is the great overarching desire of your life? You know what it is. Is it God? Is is the work of God? Is it church? Is it fulfilling the mission of God to seek and save the lost? Is it missionary work? Is this what you are really passionate about?

Or is it something less? Something more mundane? Money? Income? What fun you can have this week? What movie you can attend? A boy- friend or a girlfriend? The next hunting excursion? Getting home to try out your new Christmas gadget? As you sit here this morning, what is it that really piques your interest and gets your juices going? I am glad you are in church this morning, but how important is the church to you and the God we worship compared to other things in your life? Where is God on your list of priorities?

Where are disciples of Christ who demonstrate David’s passion, or Christ’s passion who said, "The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost... My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." Where are the disciples whose passion in life is of the same sort? Where are the Christian young people whose real overriding passion in life is to be the kind of Christian in their youth Paul enjoins them to be, whose passion is to set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity"? Do we have young people like that here?

The word "earnestly" in verse one comes from the Hebrew word for "dawn". David is saying that he seeks God at dawn. God is the first one he thinks about when he gets up in the morning. He gives God the first and best hour of his day. This is the not the first time David speaks of prayer and meditation and thoughts of God in the morning. "Morning by morning, O Lord, you hear my voice. Morning by morning, I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." (Psalm 5:3) "I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you among the nations..." (Psalm 57:8)

Can you say that? Do you seek God in the morning? Do you give him the firstfruits of your day? Have you spoken to God this morning? Do you allow a day to pass without conversing with God, without listening to his word in scripture, without speaking to him in prayer? Can it possibly be right to treat the Lord with indifference? Shouldn’t the child of God speak to his father every day? Shouldn’t the bride of Christ speak to her husband by the day?

Brothers and Sisters, speak with God! This is the noblest speech of all. We speak with everyone else. Most of us are on the telephone for a good portion of the day. We must not forget to speak to God. If half our talk with men were silenced and our talks with God were multiplied tenfold, it would be a good thing. I am afraid that the Muslims who the world over speak to their God three-five times a day, speak more often to their God than we to ours. Where this is true it is a disgrace. This ought not to be! Every morning, let us turn our thoughts and lips Godward first.

2

While David yearns for God, he remembers the occasion where he felt closest to God. It was at the sanctuary. It was not the outward glory, the splendid ritual or the excitement of the great congregation which is his most vivid memory of the sanctuary. Rather, it is the vision of God he remembers there. The grandest vision is the vision of God. The grandest knowledge is the knowledge of God. It is a great thing when our church meetings and our church worship bring us close to God and give a vision of God. When we gather at the sanctuary for worship (when the church which is God’s sanctuary comes together for worship), do we see God there? Do we leave with a sense of the presence of God there?

3

What is most remarkable is that while being hunted like an animal by his own son, David is able to think of God’s loving kindness and instead of complaining about his lot, he wants to offer God praise...

4-5

The purpose of man’s creation, the end of his being, his main employment here and throughout eternity, is the praise of God. There is a hunger and a need that is satisfied there. There is a certain satisfaction found in the vision of God, the worship of God, fellowship experienced with God. It is like the satisfaction (and better) that comes with the richest of foods - a fresh pan of cinnamon rolls, a scrumptious desert, a plate of fried shrimp, or whatever your favorite food might me. It was this kind of satisfaction he found at the sanctuary. Do we?

6

Not only does David start off the day thinking about God, he ends the day remembering God and his experience of God at the sanctuary, his vision of God’s great power and glory and love. In bed, he remembers God and thinks of God off and on throughout the night. Do you?

7

And while trying to preserve his life from a power hungry and blood thirsty son, David manages to sing! He does not say, "I am in trouble and I must get out of it somehow." No, he doesn’t worry, fret, hurry or fear. He quietly waits for God to act while he nestles down contentedly under the shadow of God’s wings. And he sings. He is in the dark, but like the nightingale, he sings in it. He weeps for Absalom but under the shadow of God’s wing he manages to sing.

He sings because of who God is, who God has been and who he is sure God will be. "Because you are my help..." David is in the shadows. He cannot see God, he can only rest in the shadow of his wings. But there he takes refuge. There he finds consolation. There he runs for security - because God has been, is and will continue to be his help.

David has been around long enough to receive God’s help on many occasions, in the contest with Goliath, in the fight with Saul, and now he while in the wilderness being hunted by his own son, he is confident that God will again help him. "I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." (Psalm 57:1) And because God has been his help and he is confident will continue to be his help, he sings in the shadow of God’s wings.

Brother and Sister, let us learn like David to sing in the shadows. While weeping in the darkness, let us learn like David to sing in the shadow of God’s wing. When it comes time to weep, let us find reason to sing as we wait in the shadow of God’s wings. It is easy to rejoice when all goes well. But our faith is tested and proven if we can sing in the shadows. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice."

8

David is clinging to God. It isn’t easy. It is hard to hold on. He has to cling. He resolves to cling and to follow God all the days of his life in spite of all that is happening. Sometimes one must cling to God, one must hold on for dear life. Circumstances make it hard to continue. In times like that we must like David resolve to cling, to say, "My soul clings to you..." And God will hold us up. He will enable us to bear up.

Through it all David continues to be an optimist, to believe that evil will be defeated and good will prevail.

9-11

Are you in the shadows? Sing. Believe. Be confident. Have hope. And rejoice. Are you without God, separated from him, hungry for him? Then seek him.

Repent and turn to him...