Crave

“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)

It’s as if David had in mind a particular attribute about God and was saying, “God, you are my Almighty God. It is the one attribute I need most right now.” He does more than simply pray here; he sets God before himself as his God. He doesn’t just know facts about God; He knows him in a deeply personal way.

David adds “early will I seek You.” Your translation may read “earnestly I will seek you” (ESV, NASB, NIV) and this emphasizes David’s earnestness to seek after God. The other major translations (KJV, NKJV) say “early I will seek You” and would emphasize David seeking God in the morning. Either translation is possible.

If David is saying, “I get up in the morning and the first thing I do is seek after You,” that would imply he is earnest to seek after God. It would mean that it is his 1^st thought in the morning. This was the widely accepted view in the early church. It would also seem possible to be viewed as early in the morning because later in vs. 6, David refers to the “night watches” and perhaps he is using the morning and evening as brackets to his day of seeking after God.

David is pursuing God. David longs for the presence of God like a nomad in the desert needs water. He had an unquenchable thirst and appetite for God. His entire being. The man of God gives his entirety to God and that is what David does.

At the age of 19, Jonathan Edwards wrote in his diary and made the following covenant to God: “On January 12, 1723, I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down; giving up myself, and all that I had to God; to be for the future, in no respect, my own; to act as one that had no right to himself, in any respect. And solemnly vowed to take God for my whole portion and felicity; looking on nothing else, as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were; and his law for the constant rule of my obedience: engaging to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, to the end of my life.” Edwards was like David who gave his entire being to God.

David wants closeness; he wants nearness; he wants to sense the active presence of God in his life. David craves for an intimate relationship with His Creator. Do you?