God's Love Is Better Than Life

Today, we focus on the next few verses of Psalm 63.

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭63‬:‭2-5 NIV

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.

3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.

4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

Yesterday, in verse 1, we saw how even in a desert where there is no water, David is thirsty for God.

Here, in verse 3, we see that David goes even further to say that God’s love is better than life itself.

David has seen God’s power and his glory at work in his life and has come to see that even life itself does not compare to God’s love. The revelation that David expresses here is so powerful and is the confession that defines a life that has been utterly transformed by the power of God.

David wrote this Psalm while hiding in the desert after one of his sons stole the kingdom away from him. His family is in disarray, and the whole life God had called him to lead had been ripped away from him. Yet even here, David has not lost sight of the deepest joy in his life: the love of God.

David’s revelation doesn’t just stay in his heart or his mind but leads to action. We see expressed here the actions that follow from a heart that earnestly desires after God. He says:

My lips will glorify you

I will praise you as long as I live

In your name, I will lift up my hands

With singing lips, my mouth will praise you

We see the only right response to God’s love is to worship. David even declares that he will be satisfied with the richest of foods. Remember, he is in a desert where even water is hard to find, and yet, just as he had with his thirst for God over water, he declares that God’s love satisfies him in ways beyond food.

Worship God today and turn the things you know about God into words and actions of adoration and praise. Each time you feel hunger or your mind drifting to food, take a moment to speak out this psalm and praise God from whom true satisfaction comes.

How easy it is to live believing that we need earthly things to satisfy us. Earthly things promise to offer us comfort, safety and satisfaction, and, to an extent, they can, but we see here in this psalm that there is something far more satisfying in God. We obviously do need food if we are going to live, but it can never bring the deep satisfaction that God’s love brings into our lives.

Questions and prayers:

Is God’s love the most valuable thing in my life?

Father God, I confess that I so often look for things other than you to comfort and satisfy me. Where those things are sinful, I pray you would help turn away from them. Where those things are good, I pray you will help me to remember that they do not compare to the satisfaction of your love. Amen.

How often do I take time to speak or sing my praises to God?

Lord God, I worship you. I praise you because you are holy, and your love is better than life. Only in you is true satisfaction and comfort found. Help me, like David, to praise you as long as I live. Amen.