The Night Watches

When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Psa 63:6-7

In the Shadow of Thy Wings

“When I remember thee upon my bed.” Lying awake, the good man betook himself to meditation, and then began to sing. He had a feast in the night, and a song in the night. He turned his bedchamber into an oratory, he consecrated his pillow, his praise anticipated the place of which it is written, “There is no night there,” Perhaps the wilderness helped to keep him awake; and if so, all the ages are debtors to it for this delightful hymn. If day's cares tempt us to forget God, it is well that night's quiet should lead us to remember him. We see best in the dark if we there see God best. “And meditate on thee in the night watches.” Keeping up sacred Worship in my heart as the priests and Levites celebrated it in the sanctuary. Perhaps David had formerly united with those “who by night stand ill the house of the Lord,” and now as he could not be with them in person, he remembers the hours as they pass, and unites with the choristers in spirit, blessing Jehovah as they did. It may be, moreover, that the king heard the voices of the sentries as they relieved guard, and each time he returned with renewed solemnity to his meditations upon his God. Night is congenial, in its silence and darkness, to a soul which would forget the world, and rise into a higher sphere. Absorption in the most hallowed of all themes makes watches, which else would be weary, glide away all too rapidly; it causes the lonely and hard couch to yield the most delightful repose - repose more restful than even sleep itself. We read of beds of ivory, but beds of piety are better far. Some revel in the night, but they are not a tithe so happy as those who meditate in God.

“Because thou hast been my help.” Meditation had refreshed his memory and recalled to him his past deliverances. It were well if we oftener read our own diaries, especially noting the hand of the Lord in helping us in suffering, want, labour, or dilemma. This is the grand use of memory, to furnish us with proofs of the Lord's faithfulness, and lead us onward to a growing confidence in him. “Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.” The very shade of God is sweet to a believer. Under the eagle wings of Jehovah we hide from all fear, and we do this naturally and at once, because we have aforetime tried and proved both his love and his power. We are not only safe, but happy in God; we “rejoice” as well as repose.  (Charles Spurgeon - Treasury of David)

THE LONGING SOUL ABUNDANTLY SATISFIED

Ever since the third century this has been the morning song of the Church. The superscription tells us that it was written in the wilderness of Judah, probably during the events recorded in 2Sa_15:23-28; 2Sa_16:2; 2Sa_17:16. Notice the many references to the life of the soul. These are the many considerations of our mortal pilgrimage! My soul thirsteth; my soul longeth; my soul shall be satisfied; my soul followeth hard after thee.
The soul thirsting, Psa_63:1-4
Let us be on the alert to see God’s power and glory, not only in the sanctuary, but in dry and thirsty lands. How sad and weary, is life without God!
The soul satisfied, Psa_63:5-7
To desire God is to have Him. To long for Him is to be at the well-head. To remember Him on the bed rests us. To meditate on Him in the night is to have the dawn. The shadow of His wings is absolute safety.
The soul in hot pursuit, Psa_63:8-11
God is always in front of us. The Savior went before; we must follow in His steps, but there ought to be as little space as possible between us. Another turn of the road, and you will see Him!   (F.B. Meyer)

Victory For the Longing Soul

​This Psalm, with its passion of love and mystic rapture, is a monument for us of how the writer’s sorrows had brought to him a closer union with God, as our sorrows may do for us, like some treasure washed to our feet by a stormy sea. The key to the arrangement of the Psalm will be found in the threefold recurrence of an emphatic word. In the first verse we read, "My soul thirsteth for Thee;" in the fifth verse, "My soul shall be satisfied;" in the eighth verse, "My soul followeth hard after Thee." These three points are the turning-points of the Psalm; and they show us the soul longing, the longing soul satisfied, and the satisfied soul still seeking.
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I. We have the soul longing for God.
(1) This longing is not that of a man who has no possession of God. Rather is it the desire of a heart which is already in union with Him for a closer union; rather is it the tightening of the grasp with which the man already holds his Father in heaven. All begins with the utterance of a personal, appropriating faith.
(2) Upon that there are built earnest seeking, expressed in the words "Early"—that is to say, "Earnestly"—"will I seek Thee," and! the intensest longing, breathing in the pathetic utterance, "My soul thirsteth for Thee".
(3) Notice what it is, or rather whom it is, that the Psalmist longs for. "My soul thirsts for Thee." All souls do. Blessed are those who can say, "Thou art my God."
(4) Notice when it was that this man thus longed. It was in the midst of his sorrow.
(5) This longing, though it be struck out by sorrow, is not forced upon him for the first time by sorrow. The longing that springs in his heart is an old longing: "So have I gazed upon Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory."
(6) This longing is animated by a profound consciousness that God is best: "Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life."
(7) This longing is accompanied with a firm resolve of continuance: "Thus will I bless Thee while I live."

II. In the second portion of the Psalm, which is included in the next three verses, we have the longing soul satisfied.
(1) The fruition of God is contemporaneous with the desire after God.
(2) The soul that possesses God is fed full.
(3) The satisfied soul breaks into the music of praise.
​(4) This satisfaction leads to a triumphant hope. The past of the seeking soul is the certain pledge of its future.

III. The final section of the Psalm gives us the satisfied soul still following after God. The word translated "followeth" here literally means to cleave or to cling.
(1) "My soul cleaveth after God." Desire expands the heart; possession expands the heart. More of God comes when we can hold more of Him, and the end of all fruition is the renewed desire after further fruition.
(2) There is also very beautifully here the co-operation and reciprocal action of the seeking soul and the sustaining God. We hold, and we are held.
​(3) The soul thus cleaving and following is gifted with a prophetic certainty. David’s certainty of the destruction of his foes is the same triumphant assurance, on a lower spiritual level, as Paul’s trumpet-blast of victory, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?".
(A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 243.)