“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. I was just looking at the dates and discovered it’s been two months since I’ve recorded a video. And we’ve been very busy the last couple of months.
During that time, we spent three weeks in South Africa. Amazing, amazing trip. Spent a week recovering from jet lag. Then we went to Tennessee for several days where we celebrated a second Passover Seder. This time with my cousin, hi Joe, hi Vicki, down in Tennessee with their Bible study class.
So we just got back a couple of days ago and I’m ready to get back in the saddle and continue with our Psalms teachings.
By the way, if you don’t subscribe to our Torah Today Ministries newsletter, please go to our website, torahtodayministries.org and subscribe to the newsletter. And then I’ll cut you up with our travels and pictures and just information if you’d like to keep in touch and see what’s going on behind the scenes.
So without further ado, let’s get right into Psalm 63. This short psalm by David is considered to be one of us most beautiful.”
“And to me, what stands out about it is that though he’s in a tough spot, because as the superscription says, it’s a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. What was he doing there?
Fleeing from Saul. King Saul is out to kill David. And though he’s in this tough spot, this psalm is a little different from most that he writes in the wilderness.
Because instead of praying for God’s deliverance, all he does, he just wants to see God’s face.
I often say that there are two kinds of people in the world. Religious people and spiritual people. Religious people are always looking to God to fix their problem. Spiritual people realize, I am my own problem. Father, the solution is just to see you better, to know you better.
Spiritual people want God. Religious people only want God to fix their problems. So I hope that we all transition over our lifetimes to become spiritual people who can see not only the world and others, but ourselves from a more spiritual viewpoint and just love God because we love God.”
“And that’s what seems to be reflected here in this Psalm. So here, David is in the wilderness, fleeing for his life. So what do you expect him to pray for?
Deliverance, of course, but that is not what he prays for. It says, Oh God, you are my God, I earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you. As in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Isn’t that amazing? It’s God, I just want you. And if it’s my time to die, I’m ready to die. If you want to deliver me, wonderful, that’s fine.
But Father, I just want you. Because eventually we should reach a point in our lives where we realize there’s nothing besides God himself. And so it’s just more of him we want. We just want to go return to our source. And we just want to know him better.”
“Now, I have earnestly seek in red letters because it’s an interesting word. It’s not the typical word for seek. It comes from the word shechar that you can see here. And shechar is the word that can mean dawn when the sun comes up.
The morning prayers are called shacharit, the dawn prayers. But it also means black. When you pronounce it shechor, it means black. But the word also means to seek.
Rabbi Sampson Raphael Hirsch says this about the word shechar. Shechar is the search for an object which is not spatially distant from us, but which we cannot see because it’s still dark.
In other words, it’s as if David’s saying, I shechar for you, Lord. I know you’re not far away. I just can’t see you right now because circumstances are kind of concealing you from sight.”
“There was a prayer I came across yesterday by Rabbi Nohson, who wrote his prayers out, and he did this over 200 years ago. And he said that, Lord, you are close to us, even when we are far from you.
And something about that just rang true in my soul. And I know there have been times that I have been far from God, but he was never far from me. I just couldn’t see it, because I was in the dark.
So he says, I earnestly seek you. I know you’re close. I just can’t see you because of circumstances. 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 envisioned you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. That word envisioned is the word chaza.Very interesting word. Chaza means to envision, to perceive, to behold.
But there’s another definition for this word that seems kind of odd, but it’s the word for chest. And as you read through Leviticus, if you’re reading through the portions of Leviticus, which we’re in right now as I record this, it talks about how when you bring an offering, there are parts of the offering that go on the altar. One of those parts is the chaza of the lamb or the goat. You put the chaza, you put the chest on the altar.
So when you think about that, the chest, where the heart is, that goes on the altar, but chaza, chest, also means to envision God. We find this word a number of times in Scripture in interesting ways.”
“Let me give you just a few examples. In Exodus 18:21, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law is instructing him and says, look for chaza, able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.
Why did he use this word chaza? Because he’s saying, Moses, I want you to look into the characters of the men who are under your authority. Now I want you to chaza, I want you to look into the hearts of men, find men who hate bribes, who don’t live for money, but men who fear God, no, honorable people.
Another example is in Exodus 24:11. This is when Israel is at Mount Sinai and God invites Moses and Aaron and Nadav and Avihu and the elders to come up to the top of the mount. And it says that they had a meal, a covenant meal with God.
In Exodus 24:11 it says, and he, God, did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They chaza God, they beheld God and ate and drank.”
“This would indicate that maybe they didn’t see God with their eyes, for no man can see me and live. But somehow in a very deep way, they could envision him in a deeper way that was better than just using your eyes.
Because when you use your eyes, the impulses go into your brain. But somehow when they could chaza God, it went right into their soul and their spirit. They beheld him in a more deep and abiding way.
So, anyways, interesting words that David uses here for these two opening verses. He says, I have chazad you, I have envisioned you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.”
“While I was in South Africa, I did a series up in the north in Cattu, which is way up there, a beautiful area in the desert. And wonderful, beautiful group of people.
And they had asked me to do a series on the tabernacle. So I did eight teachings on the tabernacle. Hopefully those will be up soon on the internet, and then we’ll make links for them to our website.
But on the very last meeting, it was on a Sunday, after finishing the study of the tabernacle, we just took about 10 or 15 minutes in prayer, and we prayed our way through the tabernacle, beginning with the altar. Praying about what the altar means to us. It’s a place where we become living sacrifices. We give ourselves up to God.
We come to the laver, where we experience his cleansing and his refreshing. And then stepping into the holy place with the menorah, the light of the menorah on the left, and the table of showbread on the right, the altar of incense in front of us.
We prayed through each of these objects, and what they mean spiritually. And asking God just to minister to us, spiritually, through what these objects represent. And of course, finally, to step right into the holy of holies, and to take some time just to hear God speak to us.
Because he told Moses that there, above the ark cover, within the frame of the wings of the cherubim, says there is where I’ll speak to you, from that empty space that’s framed by the cherubim’s wings. And we just took time just to be still and quiet, and let God speak to our hearts.”
“When we were done, and people opened their eyes again, you could almost feel like we’d all just kind of come up out of the water, like we’d been underwater holding our breath for 10 minutes.
And every time I’ve done this with a group, that’s the kind of experience that we have. And I don’t think it’s coincidental that we’re in this Psalm today. Because this appears to be exactly what David did.
So I have envisioned you in the sanctuary. Here’s what’s interesting. David was from the tribe of Judah. He was not a Levite. He was not a priest. He could not go into the sanctuary.
So what did he do? He did what we did here 3,000 years later. And we envisioned God in his sanctuary. We envisioned entering in as David would have had to do while he’s in the wilderness.
So when we do that, to some degree, we do get to behold his power and his glory. Beholding your power and glory.Isn’t that what we want to do?”
“Verse 3, for your steadfast love or your chesed, your loving kindness would be a better translation, is better than life.
My lips will praise you. Now this is another interesting word. The word for praise is the word hallel, where we get halleluyah, praise yah.
But that’s not the word used here. The word for praise is the word shavach, shavach. It’s only found, I think, 11 times in the Hebrew scriptures, and seven of those times is in Psalms.
And this is the first time the word shavach appears in the Psalms. But it means to praise, but also means to be calm, quiet and restrained. In other words, there’s a praise that we do that’s exuberant.
But there’s also another kind of praise we need to learn to practice, and that’s the praise that’s kind of quiet and restrained. And probably in the wilderness where Saul has his spies everywhere, loud exuberant praise wouldn’t have been a smart idea.
So David is practicing shavach, which is calm and restrained.”
“An example of how this word is used elsewhere in the scriptures. If in Psalm 89:10, it says, You control the raging of the sea. When its waves rear up, you shavach them, you calm them.
Proverbs 29:11, A fool gives fulvent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. And the word there is shavach.He shavachs his spirit.
And in two more Psalms, in Psalm 65:1, we’ll come to the verse that says, to you, silence is praise, O God. To you, silence is praise.
So praising God exuberantly with a shout, and with song, even with dancing, and music and loud instruments, wonderful. But I think we can lock ourselves into a corner to where we think that’s the only way to praise God. There’s also a quiet, constrained kind of praise.”
“I remember being in a conversation many years ago with somebody who was trying to encourage everybody during the praise service to get up and shout and raise their hands and act exuberant and all of that, which is okay if that’s what people want to do.
But I was getting rebuke because I didn’t enter into all of that carrying on as much. And he says, he said to me, he says, when you go to a football game or a basketball game and your team is winning, don’t you stand up and shout and scream and wave your hands?
And I said, well, actually, I don’t. I don’t do that. He says, well, when you’re at a concert and the music’s going, don’t you clap and shout and yell and all that?
I said, actually, no, I don’t. And I could see he was frustrated with me, because I’m not that personality. And there may be some of you listening to me who just don’t feel comfortable being loud and exuberant in praise.
And if that’s not who you are, it’s not who you are. God doesn’t want us to put on some mask and act like something we’re not. If you want to praise exuberantly, God bless you, do that.
But if you want to praise quietly in silence, God bless you, do that. He accepts all of those as praise. So don’t judge yourself harshly or others if the way you praise or they praise is a little bit different. It’s all good.”
“So anyways, we’re gonna move more quickly through the rest of this. Verse four, thus I will bless you while I live. In your name, I lift up my palms, not my hands, my palms.
A palm is lifted up when you’re just waiting for somebody to put something in them. Raising your hands is like this. Raising your palms is like this.
And Lord, whatever you want to put in my hands, I’ll receive it from you. If it’s life and deliverance, wonderful. If it’s death at the end of my enemies, then my times are in your hands.”
“My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my lips will sing praises to you with a joyful mouth.
I recall you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night. You know, that verse is one that I can really identify with. Because so many times when I lie down at night, my body is calm. My mind becomes very active.
And that’s when I can just seem to communicate with God and hear from him and in the watches of the night. It’s also, if there are worries and stresses, that’s when those also come to the surface.”
“Verse 7, for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy.
In the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy. Knowing that you are above me, knowing that you’re watching over me, hovering over me, protecting me, I can be at peace even though I have enemies who are pursuing me to take my life.”
“My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me.
That is a beautiful, beautiful statement. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me. And of course, the right hand is the spiritual. And God does uphold us with his mighty right hand.”
“And then the closing verses. But those who seek to destroy my soul, now the word destroy there is the word Shoah.Coincidentally, tomorrow, which is April the 24th, is Yom HaShoah. It’s a Holocaust Remembrance Day. Because HaShoah is the Hebrew word that’s used to refer to the Holocaust, when six million Jews were killed. And so Yom HaShoah, the Day of Remembrance, Holocaust Remembrance Day is the day when people gather in synagogues and all kinds of places around the world to remember the six million who were slain, to pray the Kaddish, and also to pray that such a thing never happens again.
May they go down to the depths of the earth. In other words, just let them die. Instead of living to bring misery, let them die and let us have peace. May they be given over to the power of the sword. May they be a portion for jackals. And all of these are referring to physical death.
In other words, if they’ve invested their life only in attacking what you love, only in working against your program, God, and if they’re not going to repent, if they become so callous, so hardened, so perverse in their hearts, then as an act of mercy, just take their lives away. Take their lives away so they don’t do more damage. For their own sake and for ours, take their lives away.
But the king shall rejoice in God. Who’s the king? David’s the king. The king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped. And even as David prays these things, they sound harsh against his enemies. He’s not praying them because, God, they’re doing this to me. But it’s almost as if he’s saying, God, they hate and attack what you love. They hate and attack what you love, so Father, silence them. For their sake, for the sake of the world, silence them and remove them.”
“So, yeah, David sometimes prays that because David being a foreshadowing of Messiah, he was a lion as well as a lamb. You know, I meet with believers of every stripe through the week, and some of them are more lion-like and some are more lamb-like. But each one is an extreme, if we don’t hold both of those together.
Because if you only see Messiah as a lamb, and so you become a pacifist, you just roll over, and anything that seems harsh, anything that seems difficult or just seems just too mean, that’s not what Jesus would do. On the other hand, there are people who are so militant, it’s just like God coming to wipe out all the bad guys, wipe out the believers, and that’s not who he is either.
Yeshua was this perfect blend of the lamb and the lion. And we saw his lamb nature prominently on display in his first coming. We will see his lion nature prominently on display at his second, when he will rule in Jerusalem with a rod of iron. He shall break into pieces. He shall shatter those things that stand against him. And yet, when he does that, there’s still a heart of love there.
And even as a lamb, he could call 10,000 angels out of heaven to deliver him, but he didn’t. He knew exactly how to hold these together and how to manifest both of these. So we need to learn how to have both natures. The tough thing is to know when to manifest one or the other. That’s always the struggle for me. Is this the time to be a lamb or to be a lion? And if we can get that right, we’re doing well.”
“Anyways, this short 11 verse Psalm to me is beautiful by virtue of the fact that David is running for his life. He doesn’t know if he’ll live to see another morning.
But it’s not deliverance, not rescue he’s seeking in the Psalm, just God, my soul thirst for you. I earnestly seek you. I just want to know you.
And David had been through a lot of suffering by this point. And here we see the result of that. So don’t let your suffering be wasted. Come to the place where not just always seeking escape, but seeking God.
So until next time, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah
1-2 O God, you are my God. I earnestly seek You. My soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have envisioned You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power and glory.
חזה (chazah) = “envision, perceive, behold”
שחר (shachar) = “dawn / black / seek”
3-8 For Your lovingkindness is better than life. My lips will praise You. 4 Thus I will bless You while I live, in Your name I lift up my palms. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my lips will sing praises to You with a joyful mouth. 6 I recall You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the watches of the night. 7 For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy. 8 My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.
שבח (shavach) = “praise / to calm, restrain”
9-11 But those who seek to destroy my soul – may they go down into the depths of the earth. 10 May they be given over to the power of the sword. May they be a portion for jackals. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God, all who swear by Him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
שואה (sho-ah) = “destruction”
REFERENCES:
Superscription
Hebrews 13:13-14 Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
Verse 1
Exodus 18:21 “Moreover, look for (חזה, chazah) able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.”
Exodus 24:11 And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld (חזה, chazah) God, and ate and drank.
Psalm 42:1-2 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
“ ‘Shachar’ (שחר) is the search for an object which is not spatially distant from us but which we cannot see because it is still dark.” (R’ Samson R. Hirsch)
Verse 2
Exodus 29:26-27 “You shall take the breast (חזה, chazeh) of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it for a wave offering before Adonai, and it shall be your portion. And you shall consecrate the breast (חזה, chazeh) of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests’ portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron’s and his sons’.
Leviticus 7:30-31 His own hands shall bring Adonai’s food offerings. He shall bring the fat with the breast(חזה, chazeh), that the breast (חזה, chazeh) may be waved as a wave offering before Adonai. The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast (חזה, chazeh) shall be for Aaron and his sons.
Verse 3
Psalm 89:10 You control the raging of the sea; when its waves rear up, You calm (שבח, shavach) them.
Proverbs 29:11 A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back (שבח, shavach).
Psalm 65:1 To You silence is praise, O God…
Verse 9
Proverbs 3:25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin (שואה, shoah) of the wicked, when it comes.
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