A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
David fled into Judah's wilderness to escape Saul's murderous pursuit, and this psalm gathers his pious meditations and vows made under such severe trials. Some place it during Absalom's rebellion, but the desert setting and David's peril fit the Saul years best, even though he calls himself king, expressing his confident faith that God would fulfill His promise to raise him to the throne.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 63:1-11
O God, thou art my God; or, O God, thou art my Mighty One. The last Psalm left the echo of power ringing in the ear, and it is here remembered. Strong affiance bids the fugitive poet confess his allegiance to the only living God; and firm faith enables him to claim him as his own.
The title tells us when the psalm was penned, when David was in the wilderness of Judah; that is, in the forest of Hareth (Sa1 22:5) or in the wilderness of Ziph, Sa1 23:15. 1. Even in Canaan, though a fruitful land and the people numerous, yet there were wildernesses, places less fruitful and less inhabited than other places.
Commenting on Psalm 63:1-2