There is a Thing which is Better than Life

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Psa 63:3 

A Voice from the Wilderness

David's expression is cryptic. What is better than life? Isn’t life an end in itself? Or is there more? According to David, there is more, and it’s God’s love, his steadfastness, or his faithfulness.

David’s God is a God of covenant, the God who keeps his word.

To the optimist, life is good, full stop. To the fatalist, life is good or bad according to what it hands you. To the atheist life is a shadow, and there’s nothing more.

What of the God believer? Solomon the preacher launches his homily with: “It is useless (vanity), useless, everything is useless.”

Then there is that verse in Isaiah which, still having life as its motif, launches:

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Isa 40:6-8 

But David, speaking in poetic nuance, says God’s lovingkindness is better than life! And so, in a roundabout way, we come to learn that life is a matter of revelation, and not syntax.

And it is the sort of knowledge which prompts one to sing, every day, and wherever one is. David’s thirst found him in the wilderness, that place loved by God, for meeting his people.

Wilderness is a place of intense thirst, but even more of deep knowledge. So we have the treasury of David in the psalms. It is a bottle full of his tears, which God prepared for him, so that we, of this present age, might find comfort and patience. As it is written:

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1Co 10:11  

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Rom 15:4  

Life and Thirst

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 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. Psa 63:1 

“O God.”

It just shoots from the lip: O God. As if it’s a child crying for help. What prompts the heart to skip a beat like that? Sorrow? Shock? Joy? Gladness? Doubt? Trust?

“Thou art my God.”

It is the testimony of history. Sometimes the testimony of the heart. It is what the saints have known, and what they have told us.  

We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. Psa 44:1  

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Psa 78:3  

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Psa 139:1  

“Early will I seek thee.”

I will do it the first thing, O God. You are my Father, my everything. You are my God. You will come first. My times are in thy hand.   

My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

My soul, my heart, my life. I want you, O God. where are you? “longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land”. My heart pants. I hunger for your love, I hunger for your mercy, O God…   

What is a desert place, and what is a dry land? It is the soul which is dry; it is the heart that is famished. It’s the language of the Spirit, the language redolent with memories of years…

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psa 23:1  

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psa 23:4  

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. 

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. 

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. 

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. 

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Psa 27:1-6  

Even in a dry and thirsty land God still speaks. I shall not lack. And David was in a wilderness. And David’s sighs were beyond this life.

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psa 16:11  

And this is the life which the saints have seen, and have declared, that here they are not citizens, but strangers. So the world does not understand them.

For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Heb 11:14-16  

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 1Jn 5:11-12  

A Living Life, and a Dead Life

It is a mystery. This life.

It was created by God. It was “killed” by him (through the sin of man), and it was recreated by him. And now the believer lives by the power of the Spirit. The unbeliever is not alive to this power. And one day life will not be a mystery anymore.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. 

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. Joh 5:24-26 

The Thirst is Finished, and Yet it is Not

I can understand now why, at Pentecost, the first believers were thought drunk. Or why some thought Christ was mad. For revelation in God will always arouse a rapturous response in the heart. It’s the poetry of the heart. It is why some fear open confession about Christ. The fear of sounding foolish is very real.

Though it need not. There is no fear in love.

Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. Psa 60:12  

And such is the truth, which sets a man free – free to go back home, free to sing, free to dance, and sometimes free to just sit quietly by the Father, and gaze. It’s the thirst caught in the throat. The thirst we shall know, when we arrive.

Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand? Job 26:14  

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1Jn 3:2  

What the Soul Knows Very Well

It is the intrusion of light against darkness. When it happens there’s no more fear.

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Joh 8:12  

Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. 

But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because

there is no light in him. Joh 11:9-10  

David was surrounded by darkness, and yet how much light was about him!

David knew. David was at peace, though he was in the wilderness.

Where are you right now?

Are you worried?

Is there no light?

Hold onto him. He is faithful. Trust him.

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. 

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. 

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psa 139:7-14 

God grant that he will give you a life which your soul will know very well.