Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 63:8
My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
8. followeth hard after thee ] Lit., cleaves after thee; cleaves to God (Deu 10:20 &c.) and follows Him (Hos 6:3). Hard = ‘close.’ Cp. Shakespeare, Hamlet, i. 2. 179 “Indeed my lord, it followed hard upon.”
thy right hand &c.] Cp. Psa 17:7; Psa 18:35; Psa 41:12; Isa 41:10. Man’s effort is met by God’s care (Php 2:13).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8, 9. While he draws ever closer to God, his enemies will be destroyed.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My soul followeth hard after thee – The word used here – dabaq – means properly to cleave to; to adhere; to be glued to; to stick fast. Then it means to attach oneself to anything; and then, to pursue or follow after. The idea here is that of adhering to, or cleaving to; and the meaning is, that the psalmist adhered firmly to God, as pieces of wood glued together adhere to each other; that he, as it were, stuck fast to him; that he would not leave him or be separated from him. The language represents the feelings of true piety in adhering firmly and constantly to God, whatever there may be that tends to separate us from him. The adhesion of bodies by glue is a striking but not an adequate representation of the firmness with which the soul adheres to God. Portions of matter held together by glue may be separated; the soul of the true believer never can be separated from God.
Thy right hand upholdeth me – The right hand is that by which we accomplish anything; and, by constant use, is stronger than the left hand. Hence, the expression is equivalent to saying that God upheld him with all his strength. The meaning is, that God sustained him in life; defended him in danger; kept him from the power of his enemies.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 63:8
My soul followeth hard after Thee, Thy right hand upholdeth me.
Endeavour and support
I. The effort which the Christian makes. My soul followeth hard after Thee. This seen in his–
1. Uniform obedience to God. This obedience spiritual, of the heart; and universal.
2. Lively faith in the promises.
3. Communion and fellowship with God. Hence he follows hard after God as his guide, his refuge and his portion. Are we doing this?
II. The support which the Christian receives.
1. God delivers their feet from falling, His right hand upholds them.
2. Their hearts from fainting. Learn, then, to love the ordinances of the sanctuary and to improve them; and to ascribe all our good to God. (W. Tonse.)
The saint following hard after God
I. Following after God is the motion of the soul–
1. In knowledge (Hos 6:3). The knowledge of the only true God, as God and our God, is the principle and root of piety (Joh 17:8). Lift up thy voice and cry for it. Follow hard after it. Search for it as for silver. Dig for it as for hid treasures. Read daily. Pray fervently. Think seriously.
2. In faith. Believe in God, saith our Saviour, believe also in Me. If we believe firmly, we will follow hard after Him. Following hard and believing firmly, is following and believing with vigour, and ardour, and constancy.
3. In love. The love of God shed abroad in the heart kindles in it love to Him; and the love which it kindles, impatient lest it lose sight of Him, follows Him with ardour. It cannot bear the thoughts of distance. It wishes to be near Him, and to enjoy the comfort of His presence.
4. In hope. Are we in prosperity? Let us follow Him in hope of its continuance. Are we in adversity? Let us follow after Him in hope of its removal. Are we in darkness? Let us follow after Him in hope of light. Are we in danger? Let us follow after Him in hope of salvation.
5. In desire. Desire is the stepping of the soul in the way toward God, the fountain of our blessedness and glory; and the stronger and more lively desire is, our motion in following after Him will be quicker and faster.
6. In obedience. New obedience is the motion of the soul after God in the way of His commandments.
7. In communion. God looks down on His chosen following hard after Him, and they look up to Him. In speaking and hearing. He speaks, and they hear.
II. The ardour of the soul following after God which the text expresses by the word hard, includes–
1. Keenness in respect of desire.
2. Diligence in respect of means.
3. Vigour in respect of exertion. With all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
4. Perseveringly in respect of continuance.
5. Affectionately in respect of complacency and delight. This is ardour in piety. What more concerning it can we say? Alas! it is above our experience. O that the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord were shed abroad more diffusively in our heart by the Holy Ghost! (Joh 7:37).
III. The ends and purposes for which pious souls follow hard after God.
1. That they may see Him in His beauty and glory.
2. That they may be near Him.
3. That they may hear Him.
4. That they may be helped. They have weights to carry which are too heavy for their weakness, and exertions to make in obedience and self-denial which are above their strength. Of themselves they are nothing, and can do nothing but as succoured from above. Believing and feeling their own insufficiency, they would be always near their help.
5. That they may be enriched. God is rich, rich in mercy, rich in goodness, rich in grace; and in following after Him His people are enriched and filled with His goodness. The riches of His glory is their treasury; and Christ having the key that opens it, and authority and power over all it contains, their wants are supplied, and their souls filled with all the fulness of God.
6. That they may be preserved. Their adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. The world is a numerous and formidable party, devising their hurt. Yet are they in safety, because they follow hard after God their preserver.
7. That they may be brought to His kingdom and glory. He is the breaker up of their way before them, and that they might not err, or go wrong, and come short, He hath appointed the Captain of Salvation their leader and commander. (A. Shanks.)
Holy ardour
I. Describe this state of experience. It implies–
1. A renunciation of the world. This results from a conviction of its vanity.
2. A deliberate choice of God, as the only adequate good of the soul.
3. A vehement and intense desire after Him.
4. The exercises of faith and hope.
II. Investigate the reasons why it is so rare. It is obvious few Christians enjoy this experience. The principal causes of their languor are–
1. Inattention to the state of their own hearts. They are not recollected; thy do not examine themselves closely. Hence they are ignorant of their real condition, and do not keenly feel their wants.
2. Permitting the objects of sense to make too deep impressions. These naturally tend to blunt the edge of holy desire, and to divide and weaken the soul.
3. Neglect of the instituted means.
4. The indulgence of wrong dispositions, etc. Unbelief, pride, vain curiosity, levity, censoriousness, uncharitable or useless conversation, etc.; all these, like cold water, tend to damp and weaken, if not wholly to extinguish, the desire for God.
III. Represent it as the most desirable experience.
1. It is the best security against the allurements and troubles of the world. A heart earnestly pursuing God has no leisure to gaze on the seductive charms of temporal good, and no disposition to pierce itself with the thorns of worldly solicitude.
2. It renders every duty delightful. In this state nothing is done through custom, formality, or any other inferior motive–but every duty is performed with the highest views.
3. It prepares us for the largest communication. We always receive from God what we earnestly and faithfully seek from Him (Luk 2:9-10). By this holy fervour the soul throws itself open to receive all the fulness of God–the shoreless, fathomless ocean of good.
4. It advances our sanctification, and consequently qualifies us for glory. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
The divinity of a true life
I. God is the Supreme Object of a true life. My soul followeth hard after Thee.
1. As the centre of my affections. I want to fix, settle my heart, with all its varied sympathies and affections, in Thee. Thou art the original centre of my soul; but I have lost Thee, and now my intense desire is to come back to Thee.
2. As the guide of my life. I want a guide; I have lost my way; the path is intricate, perilous, and very dark.
3. As the companion of my heart. I want a friend, some one who understands me, can sympathize with me, calm my agitated nature. My sense of desolation sinks me like lead, saddens me as a thunder cloud.
II. God is the sustaining power of a true life. Thy right hand upholdeth me.
1. Thy right hand in the blessings of material nature.
2. Thy right hand in the beneficent influence of Providence.
3. Thy right hand in the moral forces of the Gospel. It is Gods power alone that can sustain the soul in its strugglings after life. (Homilist.)
The Christians pursuit
I. What is implied. Following hard after God supposes–
1. A previous acquaintance with Him. Holy affections are not heat without light, but light and heat combined; the mind is both illuminated and sanctified.
2. Ardent and intense desires.
3. Laborious exertion.
4. Perseverance in seeking. His seeming slights shall only increase their importunity.
II. Why David thus followed hard after God.
1. Guilt and distress followed hard after him.
2. His enemies followed hard after him.
3. He had followed hard after other things to no purpose.
4. We may add, the powerful attractives of divine grace. The reason why David followed after God was, that goodness and mercy followed after him. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
David following God, and upheld by Him
I. Davids carriage to God.
1. The inclination of a Christians heart to God, and his simple propensity towards Him. There are three notions in which we may took upon God, according to either of which the soul of a Christian is inclined and carried after Him. First, as the Author of nature. Secondly, as the Giver of grace. Thirdly, as the Bestower of glory and eternal life. All these three are considerable in God, and in reference to all of them are a Christians desires after God, and his soul does propend towards him.
2. A Christians importunity. A good Christian, if he be in some distance and separation from God for a time, yet cannot long be content to be so. This may be made good unto us according to a twofold explication; whether ye take it of a distance and separation in regard of spirit, a state of spiritual desertion; or whether ye take it of a distance and separation in regard of the means; a deprivation of the public ordinances and ministerial dispensations. A good Christian cannot long content himself in either of these estrangements from God; but while it is thus with him, his soul does follow hard after him. Let us therefore so carry ourselves that we may not provoke God to deal thus with as. It is a great deal better for us, and more kindly, and more to be wished for, that our desires should be carried after these things for the excellency which is in the things themselves, and our own closing with them, than from want and deprival of them. For which cause it concerns us to prevent God, that He may not be forced to deal so with us.
3. A Christians adherence, My soul cleaveth to Thee; so some translations render it; and indeed it is most agreeable to the original text, which signifies to adhere (Gen 2:24; Pro 18:24). This cleaving implies three things: union as the foundation of it; fastening as the progress of it; perseverance as the accomplishment. Now, to quicken us so much the more to the practice of this present duty, which is here in Davids example commended to our imitation, let us further consider this with ourselves, that there is nothing else which is, indeed, fitting for our souls to cleave unto but God alone.
II. Gods carriage to him. Thy right hand, etc.
1. By the right hand of God, we are in one word to understand, His strengthening and confirming grace; which is called His right hand, in regard of the powerfulness of it, and dexterity for the preserving of His people. This is that which (as David here signifies) is extended and stretched forth to this purpose, as to himself, so to all other Christians, who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation (1Pe 1:5). This upholding of Gods right hand, thus explained, is often mentioned to us in Scripture (Psa 138:7; Psa 139:10; Son 2:6). And many such places as these, all coming to this purpose, to show unto us Gods almighty power and grace in the supportment of His servants. This is seen, and does discover itself especially in two particulars.
(1) As to matter of sin, upholds me that I fall not into that.
(2) As to matter of affliction, upholds me that I sink not under that.
2. But why is the power of God in His stablishing and assisting grace expressed by the name of His right hand, here and in other places? We may conceive for three reasons especially.
(1) As it is a hand of strength, the right hand is such, it has more strength than the other hand has. And so is it with the grace of God. The right hand of the Lord hath the pre-eminence, as we find it twice there repeated (Psa 118:15-16); hence, also, called a right hand of power in others (Mat 26:64; and Mar 14:62), etc.
(2) As it is a hand of readiness, it is more expedite and ready to be used than the other is, and therefore we express all expediteness by a word taken from hence, which we call dexterity. So is Gods grace where it puts forth itself, it is very ready and expediting, and He Himself is ready presently to use it upon any occasion, for the good of His servants.
(3) As an hand of success. It is the right hand so, forasmuch as whatever it takes in hand prospers to it, and does infallibly obtain its effect. (T. Horton, D. D.)
The saint upheld by Gods right hand
I. The course of piety.
1. Begins in reconciliation.
2. Goes along the way of Gods commandments.
3. Ends in everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
II. The upholding of the soul in following hard after God in the course of piety.
1. The dominion of grace in the soul is maintained. Upheld by almighty strength, it lives and reigns.
2. The dominion of grace in the soul is extended. Under this influence faith increases, hope expands, holiness brightens, and the cross becomes light and easy.
3. The purposes of the heart under the dominion of grace to follow hard after God in the course of piety are accomplished by His upholding the soul with His right hand.
III. The right hand with which David believed himself to be upheld.
1. His power. Upheld by this attribute which is omnipotent, no weight can crush, no calamity can overwhelm, and no enemy can break the purposes of the pious heart, and turn it off the way of Gods commandments. What can He not do? what will He not do? what is He not ready to do for those who are upright before Him, and keep the way of His testimonies?
2. His mercy. In the upholding of power, mercy shines; and in the upholding of mercy, power exerts itself gloriously. What upheld you when your foot slipped? was it not mercy? What kept you out of the gulf of despondency? was it not mercy? What succoured you in the hour of temptation? was it not mercy? What strengthened you under burthens and vexations? was it not mercy?
Conclusion.
1. In the practice of unfeigned and lively piety there is reward.
2. Pious souls are upheld in their course.
3. Pious souls are sensible of their being upheld by the right hand of power and mercy.
4. Pious souls acknowledge their upholding by the right hand of the Lord to His praise (A. Shanks.)
.
Psa 64:1-10
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. My soul followeth hard after thee] dabekah naphshi achareycha, “My soul cleaves (or) is glued after thee.” This phrase not only shows the diligence of the pursuit, and the nearness of the attainment, but also the fast hold he had got of the mercy of his God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Followeth hard after thee, i.e. pursueth thee eagerly, diligently, and resolvedly, and as it were step by step, when thou seemest to run away from me; which is the emphasis of this Hebrew word. My soul and spirit cleaveth to thee, as this verb signifies, Gen 2:24; Jer 13:11, when my body is absent from thy sanctuary.
Upholdeth me: I do not lose my labour in following hard after thee; for though I am not, yet restored to the enjoyment of thy presence in thy house, yet I have present supports from thee, whereby my spirit is kept from fainting under my manifold pressures, and is enabled with faith and patience to wait upon thee, till thou seest fit to deliver me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
My soul followeth hard after thee,…. In a way of duty, and in the use of means; as prayer, meditation, c. though at a distance from the house of God, and worship of it that he might not lose sight of him; that he might know more of him, and have more communion with him; being drawn after him with the cords of love, and strongly affected to him. Or, “my soul cleaveth after thee”, or “to thee” t; not to the world, and the things of it; not to that which is evil, but to that which is good, even the “summum bonum”; not to the creature, but to the Lord; which is expressive of union to him, even such an one as is between man and wife, who cleave to each other, and are one flesh, Ge 2:24; and as is between head and members, vine and branches; see 1Co 6:17; and of communion in the exercise of grace, and discharge of duty. To cleave to the Lord into hold to him, the head; to exercise the graces of faith, hope, and love upon him; and to follow him in his ways and worship; to abide by his truths; to attend his ordinances; to keep close to his people, and to adhere firmly to his cause and interest; see Ac 11:23. The Targum is,
“my soul cleaveth after thy law;”
thy right hand upholdeth me; that he fell not through the snares laid for him, and the stumbling blocks thrown in his way; that he stood and bore up under all his afflictions, temptations, and difficulties; that he was enabled to follow hard after the Lord, and cleave unto him; this supported, supplied, and protected him, even the mighty power and grace of God. In what a happy, comfortable, and safe condition must the psalmist be! his soul following hard after the Lord; and the Lord holding and sustaining him with his right hand! and how vain must be the attempts of his enemies against him! whose destruction is next predicted.
t “adhaesit post te”, Montanus, Gejerus; “tibi adhaesit”, Tigurine version; so Piscator, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8 My soul has cleaved hard after thee The Hebrew verb means also to apprehend, or follow, especially when in construction with the preposition which is here joined to it, and therefore we might very properly render the words, — My soul shall press or follow after thee. (434) But even should the other translation be retained, the sense is, that David’s heart was devoted to God with steadfast perseverance. The phrase, after thee, is emphatical, and denotes that he would follow with unwearied constancy, long as the way might be, and full of hardships, and beset with obstacles, and however sovereignly God might himself seem to withdraw his presence. The latter clause of the verse may be taken as referring simply to the deliverance which he had previously mentioned as having been received. He had good reason to persevere, without fainting, in following after God, when he considered that he had been preserved in safety, up to this time, by the divine hand. But I would understand the words as having a more extensive application, and consider that David here speaks of the grace of perseverance, which would be bestowed upon him by the Spirit. To say that he would cleave to God, with an unwavering purpose, at all hazards, might have sounded like the language of vain boasting, had he not qualified the assertion by adding, that he would do this in so far as he was sustained by the hand of God.
(434) Dr Adam Clarke renders, “My soul cleaves, or is glued after thee.” “This phrase,” says he, “not only shows the diligence of the pursuit, and the nearness of the attainment, but also the fast hold he had got of the mercy of his God.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) My soul . . .Literally, my soul cleaved after thee, combining two ideas. (Comp. Jer. 42:16.) The English phrase, hung upon thee (comp. Prayer-Book version), exactly expresses it.
For depths, or abysses of the earth, comp. Psa. 139:15; Eph. 4:9. It means the under world of the dead.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. My soul followeth hard after thee Or, my soul taketh fast hold behind thee. The figure is that of following close behind, and taking fast hold meanwhile of, the person leading. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” 1Co 6:17; see Jer 13:11.
Thy right hand upholdeth me See Son 2:6. It is not enough that we should take firm hold of God, but God must also take hold of us. Our feeble grasp would be insufficient, but “none can pluck us out of his hand.”
“Soul,” here, must be understood of the inner and spiritual nature, as in Psa 63:1; Psa 63:5
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Because, From Deep Within Him, He Follows Hard After God , God’s Right Hand Upholds Him, So That Those Who Are Seeking To Destroy Him Will Themselves Be Destroyed ( Psa 63:8-10 ).
From David’s inner thoughts springs inner action. His inner life follows hard after God. This is why God’s right hand upholds him, and deals firmly with his enemies.
Psa 63:8-10
‘My inner life follows hard after you,
Your right hand upholds me.’
And those who seek my inner life, to destroy it,
Will go into the lower parts of the earth.
They will be given over to the power of the sword,
They will be a portion for jackals.’
‘My inner life follows hard after you.’ This is literally, ‘my inner life cleaves after you’. He clings on to God at all costs and follows Him, being bound to God by God Himself. To him God is everything. And because this is so God’s right hand upholds him. The right hand is indicative of the most powerful hand. He is upheld and sustained by God in His Almightiness. And thus he has total assurance that his enemies cannot prevail.
Those who seek his person in order to destroy him will instead find that they themselves will go to the grave. While he, in his inner heart, goes upwards to God, they will go downwards into the grave world, swallowed up like Korah and his fellow-rebels who sought to usurp God’s anointed priests (Num 16:31-33). Whilst his life is given over to God, their lives will given over to the sword. Whilst he is God’s portion, they will be portions for scavengers, who will eat their dead bodies. Their future is bleak indeed. Such is the portion of those who ill-treat God’s people.
‘They will be given over to the power of the sword.’ This is literally ‘they will pour him out to the power of the sword’, with the ‘they’ being God’s mysterious instruments of justice.
‘They will be a portion for jackals.’ The fate of those who rebel against God is often depicted in such terms. Compare Eze 39:4; Eze 39:17-20; Rev 19:17-18.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 63:8. My soul followeth hard after thee My soul hath kept close,hath adhered to thee. The Psalmist means that his soul adhered to God with the warmest affection, and longed to offer up his sacrifices of praise in his sanctuary.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 601
FOLLOWING AFTER GOD
Psa 63:8. My soul followeth hard after Thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
IT has been said, that Christian progress is more evinced by desires than by actual attainments. This sentiment is either true or false, according to the explanation given of it. If it be meant that there can be any growth in Christianity without attainments in holiness, or that growth in grace is to be measured by any thing but actual attainments in every part of the divine life, it is extremely erroneous: but if it be meant, that our views of a Christians duty, and our desires after a perfect conformity to the divine will, will increase beyond our actual attainments, it is true: for a divinely enlightened soul has no bounds to its desires: but, alas! the good that it would, it does not; and the evil that it would not, that it does: so that, after all its exertions, it is constrained to say, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? With this the Psalmists experience was in strict accordance. He speaks in the beginning of this psalm, not as one who was in actual possession of all that he desired, but as one whose appetite for heavenly things was altogether insatiable: O God, thou art my God: early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. So again, in the words of my text, he speaks, not as one who had attained, but as one pressing forward in order to attain: My soul followeth hard after thee. But was he discouraged as one that had failed in his endeavours? No: he regarded the desires which he felt, and the endeavours which he put forth, as evidences that God was with him of a truth; and as grounds of hope that he should ultimately attain all that his heart could wish.
We see, then, here,
I.
The experience of a heaven-born soul.
Two things are found in every child of God:
1.
He has desires which nothing but God himself can satisfy
[The language of every enlightened soul is, Whom have I in heaven but thee, O God? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee [Note: Psa 73:25.]. He pants after peace and holiness; but how shall he obtain either the one or the other but from God himself? The world around him can contribute nothing, either to remove guilt from his conscience, or pollution from his soul. Nor can he himself do any thing for the effecting of these most desirable ends. If he look at his past or present life, he can find nothing whereon to found his hopes of acceptance with God: his very best duties are so defective, that they fill him only with shame and sorrow. Not one action of his life can he present to God as perfect, or as deserving a recompence in the eternal world: much less can he present any thing that shall, by its superabundant merit, purchase the forgiveness of former sins. Then, as it respects future obedience, he finds how frail his firmest resolutions are, and how weak his strongest efforts. It is in his Redeemer alone that he can find either righteousness or strength: and hence to him he looks, in order that he may obtain from him those blessings which his soul so greatly needs ]
2.
He seeks after God for a supply of them
[He follows hard after God. He follows after God in every way that God himself has appointed. He waits upon God in secret prayer, and implores help from him in sighs and groans and tears. He wrestles with God, even as Jacob of old did; and will not let him go till he has conferred the desired blessing. In public ordinances, too, he waits, as at Bethesdas pool, for the stirring of the waters, and for the communication of the benefits he so greatly needs. Nor does he yield to discouragement because he does not presently obtain all that he desires: he is content to tarry the Lords leisure, assured that he shall not be ultimately cast out, or suffered to seek the Lord in vain.
The whole of this experience may be seen in another psalm, where David places in one view the greatness of his necessities, and the urgency of his requests: I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me; lest I be like them that go down to the pit. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee [Note: Psa 143:6-8.].]
That we may not think too unfavourably of this experience, let us notice,
II.
The confidence which it is calculated to inspire
The Psalmist, in the latter clause, did not merely intend to assert a fact, but to mark the connexion of that fact with the experience which he had just delineated; and which he regarded,
1.
As an evidence of mercies received
[He was conscious of ardent desires after God, and of laborious exertions in seeking after him. But whence was it that such desires had ever arisen in his mind? And how came they ever to be put forth into act? And whence had he derived that firmness of character, that he could persevere in his pursuit of God, under all the discouragements which he had to contend with? Were these the spontaneous product of his own heart? or were they infused into him by man? or did they arise out of any contingent circumstances capable of producing them? No: they sprang from God only, who had cast, as it were, the mantle of his love upon him, and drawn him to himself. It was God who in the day of his power had made him willing to renounce all his former pursuits, and to follow after Christ as the God of his salvation. God had made him willing in the day of his power, and had kept him hitherto in his everlasting arms. Of all this, his experience was a decisive proof and evidence: and he could not but say, He that hath wrought me to the self-same thing is God.]
2.
As an earnest of yet further mercies in reserve
[In this light Gods mercies may with great propriety be viewed; and I doubt not but that this idea was intended to be expressed in the words before us. It is precisely what David more fully expressed in another psalm; where, having said to God, Thou hast delivered my soul from death, he adds, Wilt thou not keep mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling, that I may walk before the Lord in the light of the living [Note: Psa 56:13.]? This was a legitimate inference from the premises which he had stated: and St. Paul drew the same inference with a yet stronger measure of confidence and assurance; saying to his Philippian converts, I am confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ [Note: Php 1:6.]. St. Paul, in particular saw that there was an inseparable connexion between grace and glory: for that whom God did predestinate in eternity, them he also called in time; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified [Note: Rom 8:29-30.], And a sweet truth it is, that He will not forsake his people, because it hath pleased him to make them his people [Note: 1Sa 12:22.]; and that whom he loveth, he loveth unto the end [Note: Joh 13:1.].]
Address
1.
The lukewarm Christian
[Having spoken favourably of good desires, I must guard with all possible care against a misapprehension of my meaning. It is said in Scripture, The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour [Note: Pro 21:25.]. This is a very awful truth: for there are many who rest satisfied with languid desires, instead of labouring for the things desired, Against such a state our blessed Lord very strongly cautions us, when he says, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able [Note: Luk 13:24.]. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence: and the violent must take it by force [Note: Mat 11:12.]. And, whatever be your sentiments about the unchangeableness of Gods love, you may be perfectly sure that you are not walking acceptably with him, unless you can say with truth, My soul followeth hard after God.]
2.
The earnest and zealous Christian
[Whatever attainments you make in the divine life, never forget to whom they must all be ascribed. A ball would as soon return of itself to the cannons mouth, from whence it had been shot forth, as you of yourself would ever have returned unto God. And a new-born infant would as soon provide for all its own wants, as you would have preserved yourself, by any power of your own, in the ways of God. It is God who in the first instance quickened you from the dead, and gave you both to will and to do what was pleasing in his sight. Give him, then, the glory of all that your either are or have; and live dependent on him even to the end; for it is he, and he alone, who can uphold you: and as he is able to keep you from falling, so he will present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy [Note: Jude, ver. 24.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
There is a delightful connection between this verse and the former. The soul which hath found a God in Christ his help, will certainly follow hard after the same, and indeed desire larger manifestations. Reader! is this your case? Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious? If so, saith the apostle, to whom coming, 1Pe 2:3-4 . (faith is not a single act, but a continued act), always coming, always seeking larger, fuller, greater, deeper enjoyments of the Lord Jesus; hanging upon him, cleaving to him, not letting him go without a blessing; like the apostle Paul, or the patriarch Jacob, or Moses, from well knowing the largeness of Christ’s heart and his love to his redeemed; not as though we had already attained, or were already perfect; but forgetting things behind, and reaching forth towards those which are before, to press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. See Gen 32:26 ; Deu 10:20 ; Joh 15:4 ; Phi 3:12-14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 63:8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
Ver. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee ] Adhaesit anima mea post te. As hard as mine enemies do after me, even hard at heels, as we say; Sic trahit sua quemque voluptas. A Christian’s close cleaving to God is the continent cause of all his comfort. This we must beg of God, Jer 13:11 , sc. that we may cleave to God with full purpose of heart, Act 11:23 , and if he seem to withdraw, to follow him hot foot, and press his footsteps.
Thy right hand upholdeth me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
THIRST AND SATISFACTION
Psa 63:1
It is a wise advice which bids us regard rather what is said than who says it, and there are few regions in which the counsel is more salutary than at present in the study of the Old Testament, and especially the Psalms. This authorship has become a burning question which is only too apt to shut out far more important things. Whoever poured out this sweet meditation in the psalm before us, his tender longings for, and his jubilant possession of, God remain the same. It is either the work of a king in exile, or is written by some one who tries to cast himself into the mental attitude of such a person, and to reproduce his longing and his trust. It may be a question of literary interest, but it is of no sort of spiritual or religious importance whether the author is David or a singer of later date endeavouring to reproduce his emotions under certain circumstances.
The three clauses which I have read, and which are so strikingly identical in form, constitute the three pivots on which the psalm revolves, the three bends in the stream of its thought and emotion. ‘My soul thirsts; my soul is satisfied; my soul follows hard after Thee.’ The three phases of emotion follow one another so swiftly that they are all wrapped up in the brief compass of this little song. Unless they in some degree express our experiences and emotions, there is little likelihood that our lives will be blessed or noble, and we have little right to call ourselves Christians. Let us follow the windings of the stream, and ask ourselves if we can see our own faces in its shining surface.
I. The soul that knows its own needs will thirst after God.
And so I come to two classes of my hearers; and to the first of them I say, Dear friends! do not mistake what it is that you ‘need,’ and see to it that you turn the current of your longings from earth to God; and to the second of them I say, Dear friends! if you have found out that God is your supreme good, see to it that you live in the good, see to it that you live in the constant attitude of longing for more of that good which alone will slake your appetite.
‘The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine,’ and unless we know what it is to be drawn outwards and upwards, in strong aspirations after something-’afar from the sphere of our sorrow,’ I know not why we should call ourselves Christians at all.
But, dear friends! let us not forget that these higher aspirations after the uncreated and personal good which is God have to be cultivated very sedulously and with great persistence, throughout all our changing lives, or they will soon die out, and leave us. There has to be the clear recognition, habitual to us, of what is our good. There has to be a continual meditation, if I may so say, upon the all-sufficiency of that divine Lord and Lover of our souls, and there has to be a vigilant and a continual suppression, and often excision and ejection, of other desires after transient and partial satisfactions. A man who lets all his longings go unchecked and untamed after earthly good has none left towards heaven. If you break up a river into a multitude of channels, and lead off much of it to irrigate many little gardens, there will be no force in its current, its bed will become dry, and it will never reach the great ocean where it loses its individuality and becomes part of a mightier whole. So, if we fritter away and divide up our desires among all the clamant and partial blessings of earth, then we shall but feebly long, and feebly longing, shall but faintly enjoy, the cool, clear, exhaustless gush from the fountain of life-’My soul thirsteth for God!’-in the measure in which that is true of us, and not one hairsbreadth beyond it, in spite of orthodoxy, and professions, and activities, are we Christian people.
II. The soul that thirsts after God is satisfied.
We can have as much of God as we desire. There is a quest which finds its object with absolute certainty, and which finds its object simultaneously with the quest. And these two things, the certainty and the immediateness with which the thirst of the soul after God passes into a satisfied fruition of the soul in God, are what are taught us here in our text; and what you and I, if we comply with the conditions, may have as our own blessed experience. There is one search about which it is true that it never fails to find. The certainty that the soul thirsting after God shall be satisfied with God results at once from His nearness to us, and His infinite willingness to give Himself, which He is only prevented from carrying into act by our obstinate refusal to open our hearts by desire. It takes all a man’s indifference to keep God out of his heart, ‘for in Him we live, and move, and have our being,’ and that divine love, which Christianity teaches us to see on the throne of the universe, is but infinite longing for self-communication. That is the definition of true love always, and they fearfully mistake its essence, and take the lower and spurious forms of it for the higher and nobler, who think of love as being what, alas! it often is, in our imperfect lives, a fierce desire to have for our very own the thing or person beloved. But that is a second-rate kind of love. God’s love is an infinite desire to give Himself. If only we open our hearts-and nothing opens them so wide as longing-He will pour in, as surely as the atmosphere streams in through every chink and cranny, as surely as if some great black rock that stands on the margin of the sea is blasted away, the waters will flood over the sands behind it. So unless we keep God out, by not wishing Him in, in He will come.
The certitude that we possess Him when we desire Him is as absolute. As swift as Marconi’s wireless message across the Atlantic and its answer; so immediate is the response from Heaven to the desire from earth. What a contrast that is to all our experiences! Is there anything else about which we can say ‘I am quite sure that if I want it I shall have it. I am quite sure that when I want it I have it’? Nothing! There may be wells to which a man has to go, as the Bedouin in the desert has to go, with empty water-skins, many a day’s journey, and it comes to be a fight between the physical endurance of the man and the weary distance between him and the spring. Many a man’s bones, and many a camel’s, lie on the track to the wells, who lay down gasping and black-lipped, and died before they reached them. We all know what it is to have longing desires which have cost us many an effort, and efforts and desires have both been in vain. Is it not blessed to be sure that there is One whom to long for is immediately to possess?
Then there is the other thought here, too, that when we have God we have enough. That is not true about anything else. God forbid that one should depreciate the wise adaptation of earthly goods to human needs which runs all through every life! but all that recognised, still we come back to this, that there is nothing here, nothing except God Himself, that will fill all the corners of a human heart. There is always something lacking in all other satisfactions. They address themselves to sides, and angles, and facets of our complex nature; they leave all the others unsatisfied. The table that is spread in the world, at which, if I might use so violent a figure, our various longings and capacities seat themselves as guests, always fails to provide for some of them, and whilst some, and those especially of the lower type, are feasting full, there sits by their side another guest, who finds nothing on the table to satisfy his hunger. But if my soul thirsts for God, my soul will be satisfied when I get Him. The prophet Isaiah modifies this figure in the great word of invitation which pealed out from him, where he says, ‘Ho! everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.’ But that figure is not enough for him, that metaphor, blessed as it is, does not exhaust the facts; and so he goes on, ‘yea, come, buy wine’-and that is not enough for him, that does not exhaust the facts, therefore he adds, ‘and milk.’ Water, wine, and milk; all forms of the draughts that slake the thirsts of humanity, are found in God Himself, and he who has Him needs seek nowhere besides.
Lastly-
III. The soul that is satisfied with God immediately renews its quest.
Brethren! these are the possibilities of the Christian life; being its possibilities they are our obligations. The Psalmist’s words may well be turned by us into self-examining interrogations and we may-God grant that we do!-all ask ourselves; ‘Do I thus thirst after God?’ ‘Have I learned that, notwithstanding all supplies, this world without Him is a waterless desert? Have I experienced that whilst I call He answers, and that the water flows in as soon as I open my heart? And do I know the happy birth of fresh longings out of every fruition, and how to go further and further into the blessed land, and into my elastic heart receive more and more of the ever blessed God?’ These texts of mine not only set forth the ideal for the Christian life here, but they carry in themselves the foreshadowing of the life hereafter. For surely such a merely physical accident as death cannot be supposed to break this golden sequence which runs through life. Surely this partial and progressive possession of an infinite good, by a nature capable of indefinitely increasing appropriation of, and approximation to it is the prophecy of its own eternal continuance. So long as the fountain springs, the thirsty lips will drink. God’s servants will live till God dies. The Christian life will go on, here and hereafter, till it has reached the limits of its own capacity of expansion, and has exhausted God. ‘The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
followeth. Supply Ellipsis by reading “[cleaveth to and] followeth”.
hard = close.
hand. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
My soul: etc. “My soul cleaveth davekah after Thee;” which not only shews the diligence of the pursuit, and the nearness of the attainment, but the fast hold he had of the mercy of God.
followeth: Psa 73:25, Psa 143:6, Psa 143:7, Gen 32:26-28, 2Ch 31:21, Son 3:2, Isa 26:9, Mat 11:12, Luk 13:24, Luk 18:5-7
thy: Psa 18:35, Psa 37:24, Psa 73:23, Psa 94:18, Son 2:6, Isa 41:10, Isa 42:1, Phi 2:12, Phi 2:13, Col 1:29
Reciprocal: Deu 4:4 – General Psa 37:17 – Lord Psa 55:22 – Cast Psa 119:116 – Uphold Psa 138:3 – strengthenedst Psa 139:10 – General Son 2:5 – Stay Son 8:5 – leaning Isa 41:13 – will hold Mat 19:5 – cleave Phi 3:12 – I follow 1Ti 6:12 – lay
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 63:8. My soul followeth hard after thee Pursues communion with thee, and a conformity to thee, with earnest, increasing, and restless desire, lively expectation, and unwearied diligence: follows thee resolvedly, and, as it were, step by step, when thou seemest to depart, and withdraw thyself from me, as the Hebrew phrase here used implies. My soul and spirit cleave, or adhere to thee, (as the word , dabekah, is rendered, Gen 2:24; Jer 13:11, and elsewhere,) even when my body is absent from thy sanctuary. Thy right hand upholdeth me Supports and preserves me from sinking under the many trials and troubles which have lain, and still lie, heavy upon me; and upholds me in my devotions, maintaining holy desires in my heart, and preventing my being weary in thy service: so that I do not lose my labour in following hard after thee. Let us always remember we should fail and be weary of following the Lord, and certainly should not follow him fully, if his right hand did not uphold us. It is he that strengthens us in the pursuit of himself, that raises and supports good affections in us, and encourages and comforts us, while we are labouring after what we have not yet attained. It is by his power that we are kept from falling, and enabled to persevere in his ways. Let him therefore have the praise and glory!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
63:8 My soul {e} followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
(e) He assures himself by the Spirit of God to have the gift of constancy.