John Calvin Commentary Psalms 63:3

"Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise thee." — Psalms 63:3 (ASV)

Because your mercy is better than life, etc. I have no objections to reading the verse in this connected form, though I think that the first clause would be better separated and connected with the preceding verse. David would appear to be giving the reason for his earnest desire for God.

By life is to be understood, in general, everything that people use for their own maintenance and defense. When we think ourselves well provided otherwise, we feel no inclination to turn to the mercy of God. That being (so to speak) which we have of our own prevents us from recognizing that we live solely by the grace of God.

As we are too much inclined to trust in carnal aids and to forget God, the Psalmist here affirms that we should have more reliance upon the divine mercy in the midst of death than upon what we are inclined to call, or what may appear to be, life.

Another interpretation has been given of the words of this verse, but a very meager and weak one—that the mercy of God is better than life itself; or, in other words, that the divine favor is preferable to every other possession. But the opposition is evidently between that state of secure prosperity, in which people are so prone to rest complacently, and the mercy of God, which is the support of those who are ready to sink and perish, and which is the one effectual remedy for remedying (if one might use that expression) all defects.

The word that I have rendered life, being plural in Hebrew, has led Augustine to assign a meaning to the sentence which is philosophical and ingenious but without foundation, as the plural of the word is quite commonly used in its singular meaning. He considered that the term lives was here used in reference to the truth that different people pursue different ways of life: some seeking riches and others pleasure; some desiring the luxuries and some the honors of this world, while others are devoted to their sensual appetites.

He conceived that there was an opposition stated in the verse between these various kinds of life and eternal life, here by a common figure of speech called mercy, because it is of grace and not of merit. But it is much more natural to understand the Psalmist as meaning that it was of no consequence how large a share people possess of prosperity, and of the means which are generally thought to make life secure; the divine mercy is a better foundation of trust than any life we fashion for ourselves, and than all other supports taken together.

On this account, the Lord’s people, however severely they may suffer from poverty, or the violence of human wrongs, or the languor of desire, or hunger and thirst, or the many troubles and anxieties of life, may nevertheless be happy; for they are well, in the truest sense of the term, when God is their friend. Unbelievers, on the other hand, must be miserable, even when all the world smiles upon them; for God is their enemy, and a curse necessarily attaches to their lot.

In the words that follow, David expresses his resulting resolution to praise God. When we experience His goodness, we are led to open our lips in thanksgiving. His intention is indicated even more clearly in the following verse, where he says that he will bless God in his life. There is some difficulty, however, in determining the exact meaning of the words.

When it is said, So will I bless you, etc., the so may refer to the good reason which he had, as just stated, to praise God, from having felt how much better it is to live by life communicated from God than to live from ourselves and by our own strength. Or the sense may be, so, that is, even in this calamitous and afflicted condition; for he had already indicated that, amidst the solitude of the wilderness where he wandered, he would still direct his eye to God.

The word life, again, may refer to his life as having been preserved by divine intervention, or the sense of the passage may be that he would bless God through the course of his life. The first meaning offers the most instruction and agrees with the context: he would bless God because, by God's goodness, he had been kept alive and safe. The sentiment is similar to that which we find elsewhere:

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord (Psalms 118:17);

and again:

The dead shall not praise the Lord, neither any that go down into silence, but we who live will bless the Lord, (Psalms 115:17, 18).

In the lifting up of hands, in the second clause of the verse, it alludes to praying and vowing; and he indicates that besides giving thanks to God, he would gain additional confidence in prayer and be diligent in practicing it. Any experience we may have of the divine goodness, while it moves us to gratitude, should at the same time strengthen our hopes for the future and lead us confidently to expect that God will perfect the grace which He has begun.

Some understand by the lifting up of his hands that he refers to praising the Lord. Others, that he speaks of drawing encouragement from divine assistance and boldly facing his enemies. But I prefer the interpretation already given.