Have you ever seen a magnetic, framed photograph on someone’s refrigerator with the caption “A Picture of Health”? Inside the frame is usually a snapshot of a healthy child—maybe someone’s son or daughter, niece, nephew, or grandchild.

I think Psalm 63 gives us a picture of spiritual health. It’s a snapshot from David’s life—a prayer-poem he wrote in the wilderness of Judea while running from his rebellious son Absalom.

It’s interesting that of all people in Scripture, David alone is called a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). Why is that? Eugene Peterson answers,

As an instance of humanity in himself, he [David] isn’t much. He has little wisdom to pass on to us how to live successfully. He was an unfortunate parent and an unfaithful husband. From a purely historical point of view he was a barbaric chieftain with a talent for poetry. But David’s importance isn’t in his morality or his military prowess but in his experience of and witness to God. Every event in his life was a confrontation with God.[1]

Every event in his life was a confrontation with God. As shepherd and songwriter, king and giant-killer, saint and sinner, David was constantly conscious of the living God. His God-thoughts are preserved in the psalms, and the 63rd is one of Scripture’s most poignant expressions of Godward desire.

From David’s words we discover four measurements of spiritual health, given to you here in the form of four questions:

1.     What do you long for?

David longed for God: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory” (vv. 1-2).

David’s desire is obvious. Notice first how he describes his desire for God as a soul thirst. Kneeling in the Judean desert, he reflected on the barren, parched conditions around him and said in effect, “My soul is parched.”

He also said that his “flesh faints” for God. This is the language of a lover who aches for his beloved. If you’ve ever been in love, you know the feelings—the ache in the pit of your stomach and the yearning to be with your sweetheart again.

I feel this way every time I leave the country for a short-term mission trip, leaving my wife and three children behind. The worst part isn’t the 18-hour flight, the strange new culture, or the different food, but being away from the loves of my life.

Passion for God indicates spiritual health. Saint Augustine said, “The whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire.”^[2]

2.     What satisfies your soul?

Are you satisfied with God and nothing else? Consider verses 3-5:

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.

David’s desire for God is matched by his delight in God. While desire focuses more on the intensity of hunger for God, delight describes the intensity of satisfaction in God.

Did you notice David’s pleasure language? “Your steadfast love is better than life.” “My soul will be satisfied.” “My mouth will praise you with joyful lips.” These are the words of someone deeply satisfied with God.

Perhaps our problem is that we don’t really believe that God can fully satisfy us, so we long for other, lesser pleasures. My finding satisfaction in God was helped by the old Puritan Thomas Brooks who said:

Certainly, if there be enough in God to satisfy the spirits of just men made perfect, whose capacities are far greater than ours; and if there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, whose capacities are far above theirs; if there be enough in God to satisfy Jesus Christ, whose capacity is unconceivable and inexpressible; yea, if there be enough in God to satisfy himself, then certainly there must needs be in God enough to satisfy the souls of his people. If all fullness, and all goodness, and infiniteness will satisfy the soul, then God will. There is nothing beyond God imaginable; and therefore the soul that enjoys him, cannot but be satisfied with him. God is a portion beyond all imagination, all expectation, all apprehension, and all comparison; and therefore he that hath him cannot but sit down and say, I have enough.[3]

Is God enough for your soul? Are you satisfied in Him?

3.     What do you think about in the still of the night?

Verses 6-7 give the setting for David’s satisfaction in verses 3-5: “[My mouth will praise you with joyful lips] when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.”

David’s thoughts were consumed with God, even in the still of the night, and what we think often about is closest to our hearts. A mind full of God is a good indicator of a “fit” spirituality. Like the blessed man of Psalm 1, our delight should be the law of the Lord, and on His law we should meditate day and night.

Meditation could be compared to both a thermostat and a thermometer. While a thermostat controls the temperature in a room, a thermometer measures the temperature. Meditation on Scripture does both—it measures our spiritual temperature, and it controls and changes it.

To discover how strong you are spiritually, take an inventory of your thought life. Are your thoughts centered on God, His glories, His grace, His Son, and His Word? If so, you will be transformed.

4.     What are you clinging to?

David, who was defamed by liars, betrayed by friends and family, and running for his life, still clung to God.

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped (vv. 8-11).

I remember one of the first times I took my oldest son swimming. He was five years old and couldn’t swim on his own. Although we were in a shallow pool, it was just a little deeper than he was tall. He enjoyed the water, but he clung to his daddy as if for life.

We all cling to something for relief, especially under pressure. We may cling to a person, a thing, or a substance. This is where many addictions are born, and that’s why Ed Welch calls addictions “worship disorders.”

But David found his relief and worship in God. Where do you find yours?

Endnotes

---