Psalm 63 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 63 (1928 BCP) is the psalm Deus, Deus meus in the Psalter of the American Book of Common Prayer (1928). In the monthly order printed with that Psalter it is appointed, with Psalm 62, at Morning Prayer on the twelfth day of the month. Its movement is from bodily and spiritual thirst, through praise and remembered help, to steadfast dependence upon God.
Prayer Book text
The 1928 text gives the prayer an emphatically personal beginning. The speaker does not seek an abstraction or a merely useful gift, but addresses God as “my God”; the image of a waterless land names the whole person’s need.
O GOD, thou art my God; * early will I seek thee.
2 My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee, * in a barren and dry land where no water is.
The next couplet keeps desire and worship together. “Sanctuary” does not make the psalm a flight from the world: the one who knows dryness comes before God to behold divine power and glory, and answers mercy with praise.
3 Thus have I looked for thee in the sanctuary, * that I might behold thy power and glory.
4 For thy loving-kindness is better than the life itself: * my lips shall praise thee.
Desire answered in praise
The psalm’s language prevents a simple opposition between desire and fulfilment. The thirsty soul praises now, even while it awaits complete satisfaction; its praise is embodied in mouth, lips, and lifted hands.
5 As long as I live will I magnify thee in this manner, * and lift up my hands in thy Name.
6 My soul shall be satisfied, even as it were with marrow and fatness, * when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips.
This gives the Prayer Book use of Psalm 63 a theological shape. In the Daily Office, praise is not an ornament added after private reflection; it is the Church’s way of learning to desire God above the goods that ordinarily promise security. The repeated first-person singular is also available for corporate prayer, because the congregation takes up inspired words rather than inventing a religious mood.
Memory, help, and perseverance
The night-time remembrance in verses 7–9 joins quiet meditation to active trust. The ground of rejoicing is not self-possession but God’s prior help and upholding right hand.
7 Have I not remembered thee in my bed, * and thought upon thee when I was waking?
8 Because thou hast been my helper; * therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
9 My soul hangeth upon thee; * thy right hand hath upholden me.
For this reason the psalm can speak in the morning office both of wakeful seeking and of remembered rest. It is not a promise that devotion removes hardship. Its final verses also retain the psalmist’s plea for God’s just dealing with those who seek his hurt (verses 10–12); in Christian prayer those difficult words must be heard under Christ’s command to love enemies and to leave judgment to God, not as permission for private retaliation.[5]
Christian interpretation
Augustine’s exposition of Psalm 63 is a significant early Christian witness to reading its thirst as a desire directed to God rather than to the transient goods of “the desert.” His contrast is sharp and pastoral:
For every one that willeth anything to be granted to him, is in the heat of longing; the longing itself is the thirst of the soul. … All men are inflamed with longing, and scarce is found one to say, “My soul hath thirsted for Thee.”
That reading illuminates, but does not replace, the literal Prayer Book text: its concrete thirst, sanctuary, sleep, hands, and wings keep Christian devotion answerable to the created, bodily life God sustains. Augustine similarly takes the psalmist’s remembered help as an account of grace in moral action:
For unless God aid our good works, they cannot be accomplished by us.
Thus Psalm 63 serves Anglican prayer as a scriptural school of desire, thanksgiving, vigilance, and dependence. The 1928 Psalter’s monthly appointment ensures that these themes return to the worshipper before they can be reduced to a single passing experience.
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer; and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 63, Deus, Deus meus; “The Twelfth Day: Morning Prayer,” The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 63, Deus, Deus meus, verses 3–4, The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 63, Deus, Deus meus, verses 5–6, The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 63, Deus, Deus meus, verses 7–9, The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.
- ↑ Romans 12:19–21; Matthew 5:43–48, Authorized Version.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Psalm LXIII,” §3, in Expositions on the Book of Psalms, trans. J. E. Tweed, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1888), Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Psalm LXIII,” §12, in Expositions on the Book of Psalms, trans. J. E. Tweed, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1888), Christian Classics Ethereal Library.