Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 63:1

"O God, thou art my God; earnestly will I seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, In a dry and weary land, where no water is." — Psalms 63:1 (ASV)

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.