Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 63

Early will I seek thee. — LXX. and Vulgate, to thee I wake early, i.e., my waking thoughts are toward you, and this was certainly in the Hebrew, since the verb here used has for its cognate noun the dawn. The expectancy which even in inanimate nature seems to await the first streak of morning is itself enough to show the connection of thought. (Compare the use of the same verb in Song of Solomon 7:12; and compare Luke 21:28, New Testament Commentary.)

Soul ... flesh. —Or, as we say, body and soul. (Compare Psalms 84:2, my heart and my flesh.)

Longeth. —Hebrew, khâmah, a word only occurring here, but explained as cognate with an Arabic root meaning to be black as with hunger and faintness.

In. —Rather, as. (Compare Psalms 143:6.) This is the rendering of one of the Greek versions quoted by Origen, and Symmachus has “as in,” etc.

Thirsty. —See margin. Fainting is perhaps more exactly the meaning. (See Genesis 25:29-30, where it describes Esau’s condition when returning from his hunt.) Here the land is imagined to be faint for want of water. The Septuagint and Vulgate have pathless. The parched land thirsting for rain was a natural image, especially to an Oriental, for a devout religious soul eager for communion with heaven.

To see thy power ... —The transposition of the clauses in the Authorized Version weakens the sense. Render, So (that is, in this state of religious fervor) in the sanctuary have I had vision of you, seeing your might and glory. The psalmist means that while he saw with his eyes the outward signs of Divine glory, he had a spiritual vision (the Hebrew word is that generally used for prophetic vision) of God.

Because. — Such a sense of the blessedness of Divine favour—here in its distinctive sense of covenant favour—that it is better than life itself, calls for gratitude displayed all through life. “Love is the ever-springing fountain” from which all goodness proceeds, and a sense of it is even more than the happy sense of being alive. The following lines convey in a modern form the feeling of this part of the psalm:

“So gazing up in my youth at love,
As seen through power, ever above
All modes which make it manifest,
My soul brought all to a single test—
That He, the Eternal, First and Last,
Who in His power had so surpassed
All man conceives of what is might,
Whose wisdom too showed infinite—
Would prove as infinitely good.”

R. BROWNING: Christmas Eve.

Thus — i.e., in the spirit in which he now speaks. For the attitude of the uplifted hands, see Note, Psalms 28:2.

Satisfied. —This image of a banquet, which repeats itself so frequently in Scripture, need not be connected with the sacrificial feasts.

Remember. —Better, remembered.

Bed. —Literally, beds.

Night watches. —According to the Jewish reckoning, the night was divided into three watches: the “beginning,” or head (rôsh); the “middle” (tikhôn, Judges 7:19); and the “morning” (boker, Exodus 14:24).