A Self-Counseling Paradigm: Psalm 63

This reflection is based on a sermon by Tim Keller. The sermon is based on Matthew 6:9 (“Hallowed be your name”) and Psalm 63.

The material below aims to highlight biblical truth in such a way that this truth can then be applied to an individual. This resource is generalized, not necessarily seizing upon any particular suffering or sin struggle. Part of the beauty of Scripture is that God often gives us instruction and help that can “travel” across a variety of issues (e.g., anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, addiction, etc.).

Introduction/context:

• “Hallowed” means to view/treat something as sacred. To be captivated, gladly astonished, melted with gratitude for what God has done and who he is. This is what Jesus is getting at as he teaches his disciples how to pray to God in Matthew 6.  
  
  • To treat him as glorious and great as he really is
  • “To have entire heart captivated with wonderment for him.” (Calvin)
• Psalm 63 gives us a living example of what it means to “hallow” God. It’s as if Psalm 63 can be projected onto the backdrop of Jesus’s words in Matthew 6.
  
  • The context is likely David on the run from Absalom (long after David’s sin with Bathsheba, the death of his infant son, his daughter being raped by her half-brother, etc.)
• 5 aspects (not steps, though there is a logical order to them) that feed into this kind of praise and tell us how to “do” it:
  
  • Thinking
  • Expressing
  • Appraising
  • Beholding
  • Experiencing

1. Thinking

• David doesn’t just say God is “great.” He digs into it, enumerates it, and goes into specific details.
• Keller states, “Praise is linked to love.” And love goes into specifics. It analyzes. It thinks things out. It gets creative.
  
  • “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
  • When you truly love someone, your love overflows into verbal praise.
  • Not just “God is great” or “God is love.”  
    
    • God is worth “thirsting” for (v. 1)
    • “Whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land” (v. 1)
    • God’s love is “better than life itself” (v. 2)
    • God “satisfies more than the richest feast” (v. 5)
    • David lies awake thinking of God at night (v. 6)
• Application: The starting point of hope for every Christian is who God is. So, consider who God is and what he is like. Get detailed, get granular. Don’t be lazy or vague.

2. Expressing

• The things seen and pondered have to be expressed and declared.
• Expressed musically, privately, corporately, skillfully.
  
  • “I will praise you with songs of joy.” (v. 5)
  • “...lifting up my hands to you in prayer.” (v. 4)
  • “I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings” (v. 7)
• Reflections on the Psalms (C.S. Lewis) – “A Word About Praising” chapter
  
  • Lewis says that he didn’t initially understand how praise works when he became a Christian, and this led him to an uneasy feeling concerning how God delights in being praised.
  • Then he turned a corner:
    
    • “Joy always spontaneously overflows into praise…. Expression of praise completes the joy.” This is why, when a person discovers a great new song or celebrates their favorite team’s victory, they can’t help but tell someone about it.
    • “We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise does not merely express but completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed consummation. So God, in commanding us to glorify him, is inviting us to enjoy him. You can’t get at the joy until you get out the joy.”
    • We don’t simply enjoy something, then praise it/him/her. It’s not that bifurcated. Rather, part of the joy happens by praising. To not praise actually hampers the joy.
• Example: a “meaty” song or hymn
  
  • Have you ever noticed that singing this kind of song—of expressing in particular and precise and eloquent ways—actually enhances your joy?
• This could be thought of as one way to distinguish religious folks from those who love God for himself (his inherent goodness and beauty). Praise only truly comes from the latter category. Religion (i.e., works-based, transactional relationship with God) is mercenary; praise only comes when things are good and easy for you.
  
  • Prayer for stuff, not adoration for intrinsic value
    
    • Consider how this would work if someone married another only for the status, sex, or inheritance.
• Application: God’s faithfulness, mercy, and steadfast love are intended to evoke a response. This is not only right; it is also for our good. How might God’s goodness translate into your lips being unsealed to speak of him or to him, even if this simply means that you pour out your heart to him?

3. Appraising

• To appraise means to consider the value of something and contrast it with other competitors (e.g., a home, land, job opportunity, etc.)
• David—likely on the run for his life (see superscript)---thinks out the implications of what he knows and has experienced.
  
  • “Your unfailing love is better than life itself.” (v. 3) In other words, to David, being loved by God is ultimately more important than staying alive.
    
    • Said differently, it was paramount that David know that God loved and cared for him. It was not as necessary that David stay alive. He could lose the latter and yet still have the former.
• This is similar to Paul in Acts 20:24 (his life’s value was ultimately found in serving God)
• Also echoes David in Ps. 27:1
  
  • “The LORD is my light and my salvation – so why should I be afraid?” David is appraising. The first part leads to the second part. “If God is this strong and good, then why am I _______?”
• Application: What does the “if/then” look like for you? God cares about our feelings, but he also intends for us to reason out the implications of who he is.

4. Beholding (i.e., to engage firsthand)

• Augustine observed that what truly defines a person isn’t what they cognitively believe (or say they believe) or even how they behave, but rather what they love.
  
  • The reason we ultimately do what we do (for good or for ill) is because of what we love. Self-harming habits come because our loves are disordered.
  • If that’s true, then it’s only through adoration that our hearts and imaginations will ever change.
• “I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory….You satisfy me more than the richest feast.” (vv. 3, 5)
  
  • David delves into sensory language. He doesn’t just know God in his head; he has experienced him in his heart as well.
  • Honey’s sweetness can be described, and the reasons for its taste can be given, such that someone can know of its sweetness cognitively. But this is not the same as actually tasting it.
  • It’s one thing to theologically know that God is satisfying; it’s another to have experienced him as satisfying.
• In many cases, the only/best way to be freed from pressing worries/fears/addictions is to be captivated by God’s beauty and to have experienced him in your heart.
  
  • This kind of love (for God as God) reshapes our hearts.
  • The love of God grounds us, such that the things we formerly thought gave us security don’t matter as much. They take a backseat.
• Application: What fans the flame of your affections for God, so that you “see” God more clearly and wondrously? A good meal? A beautiful sunrise or sunset? A walk outside as you survey God’s creation? Use imaginative language, as David does in verse 5. Allow the imaginative language to engage your senses.

5. Experiencing (resting in what God has done for us)

• David marvels that God has not abandoned him (v. 11).
• The ultimate reason why David and we are not abandoned (despite our deserving nothing short of abandonment) is because Jesus was abandoned and driven into the wilderness on our behalf.
  
  • When this is absorbed into our spiritual DNA, this changes us.
• Poem by George Herbert
  

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
        Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
        From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
        If I lacked anything.

"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here":
        Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
        I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
        "Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord; but I have marred them; let my shame
        Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
        "My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
        So I did sit and eat.

• We will not perfectly know, love, and adore God until heaven. But there are appetizers here on earth before the Great Feast.
• Application: What makes your “soul draw back” from God? Prayerfully submit your reasons for hesitancy to what God has done for you in Christ.

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