LORD, ARE YOU WITH ME?

Psalm 63:1-11

In his book, THE GOD YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, Bill Hybels says that God passionately yearns to be in a relationship with us. He may not be the god we want, but He is the God we need. It may be a matter of semantics, but it is a creative play on words. His idea is that almost everybody looks for God. Almost everyone wants to find someone beyond themselves. And only God who revealed Himself, who knows our every thought, who is always gracious, who is always committed to us, and who is always there, can satisfy our longing for Him.
In order to find God, Hybels writes, we must first put aside the “…caricatures, the fears, the lies, and the misconceptions that have been gathered over the centuries about who God really is.” We must be willing to meet God as He really is and not make Him over in our own image.

In Psalm 63 David expresses a healthy concept of God and gives us seven elements of search for God.
I. OUR SEARCH FOR GOD WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH. (v.1a) “O God, you are my God, earnestly will I seek you…”

David has no doubts about the fact that he knows God. However, when he writes this psalm, he is at a point in his life when times are tough for him. He is King of Israel. But his own son, Absalom, has turned against him and is trying to take the throne from him. He is even trying to kill his own father. David is hiding out in the desert near the Dead Sea. Life for him is really out of balance.

“My God” is the same Hebrew term that Jesus used when He was on the cross. This is a term that means “awe” and “strength.” It indicates the intensity with which he is calling on God to be present with him in that place and in that situation. He is asking God to give Himself totally to one individual. He knows that God can do that for all of us. “Be with me here and now.” “Help me to deal with this crisis.” “Show me how to deal with the relationship with my son.” “Preserve my life.” “Save my family.” “Protect the nation.” “You are my only hope.”

When you are going through a tough time and you call on God to be present with you, He will give Himself totally to you as if there were no one else alive. But often in times like this we feel far away from God and we have to seek his presence. The Lord promises that we shall find Him when we seek Him earnestly.”

The second element of our search for God’s presence is”
II. OUR SPIRITUAL THIRST WHEN WE ARE IN THE DESERT. (v.1b) “…my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where is no water.”

Thirst is that insatiable longing for one of the most vital necessities of life. There is no dealing with it, no forgetting it, not trying to have a positive attitude about it, and no way to get free of it except by drinking water. The thirst of the soul is similar. There is no way to satisfy it with are or music or entertainment or pleasure or travel or money or friends or human love. Our thirst for God can only be quenched by God’s presence with us.

A great many people are trudging through the spiritual desert and are seeing mirages that they hope will quench their thirst; but when they get to them, they evaporate and they are even more parched in their souls. But the believer has only to seek God and call on His name and all the power that is becomes present and available.

Our search for God remembers:
III. OUR WORSHIP EXPERIENCES WHEN THINGS WERE GOING WELL. (v.2) “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.”

One of the heaviest burdens for a Christian is to lose a consciousness of God in one’s life. We tend to live on remembrances of past worship experiences. Even though they might have thrilled our souls back then and affected us deeply, those times are of little help now. God is always the great “I AM” which means that He is always the God of the present. If we are not allowing Him to be active in the present, we are missing faith’s great benefit.

What about your life? Are you trying to live today on some past religious experience and finding it to be wanting? You have known God’s presence in the past, but do you know Him in the present? Has it been a long time since you knew that God was with you? David had a passionate desire to see God’s power in his life presently as he had seen His power in the sanctuary in great worship experiences when things were going well.

Our search for God is based on:
IV. OUR SPIRITUAL FEASTS WHEN WE EXPERIENCED GOD IN THE PAST. (vv.3-5) “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”

In a time when what you have is meager, you remember the days when you sat at the great banquet feasts and had the best that life had to offer. David is now living on the barest necessities but he has been used to the blessings of the feasts prepared for the king. These contrasts provoke in his soul a time of praise and adoration for the way that God has been with him in the past and for the way that He will come to him now and meet his present needs.

Do you wonder whether God will be with you now in what you face today? Look at your past. Can you spot the mountain peaks that dot your yesterdays and exclaim, “God was with me back there.” Can you remember how he brought you through and met your needs? Then lift your soul in praise that He will come to you now. God has never denied any thirsting soul who called on Him in faith for the water of life. He will not deny you now that which you need.

Our search for God occupies:
V. OUR THOUGHTS IN THE NIGHT WHEN WE CANNOT SLEEP. (v.6) “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.”

Perhaps we have no truer thoughts than those we have when we are awake during the night. The essence of who we are is spilled out before us. The deep hungers of our souls are magnified. In the darkness it is just us and God. More real praying goes on during those sleepless hours than during the day. David found that when sleep would not come, God would. They met each other in the darkness and glorious light came into his life.

God’s presence makes everything different and causes:
VI. OUR HEARTS TO SING WHEN WE HAVE FOUND HIM AGAIN. (v.7) “Because you are my help, I will sing in the shadow of your wings.”

David has found God’s presence again. He knows that God will help him for God is now with him. He does not feel alone anymore. The future is brighter. The crisis no longer looks insurmountable. He is no longer afraid. God has come to the rescue! He can face tomorrow. He is under the wings of God. Now he can sing again as the sweet singer of Israel. There are songs in the night.

Wouldn’t you love to have your old song back – or even a new song? When you meet God you can sing again because you are not alone and you can rise up and face whatever you must.

God’s presence gives us:
VII. OUR SPIRITUAL SECURITY WHEN WE THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE. (v.8) “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

It is as if David is saying, “I’m never going to let you go again. I’m never going to wander away to the desert again. I’m going to cling to you. You can hold me up and keep me from falling.”
It is a great thing to feel whole again. That is what the cross of Christ does for us when we meditate on what God has done for us in Christ.

George Bennard was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1873. He made an early commitment to follow Christ at a meeting sponsored by the Salvation Army. When he was sixteen, George’s father died, and he assumed the responsibility of providing for his mother and four sisters. Later, he became an evangelist for the Methodist Church and conducted revivals in Canada and in the northern and central United States.

During a difficult time in his ministry, he reflected on Galatians 6:14: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

George Bennard realized that the cross was not just a symbol of Christianity, but the very heart of our faith. As he thought about this verse, the words “the old rugged cross” came to his mind, and a melody ran through his head. He tried for weeks to compose words to go with that tune but he could not. He asked God to give him the words. Soon they began to flow and the hymn was born. It is one of our favorites today.

“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross
Where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Oh, that old rugged cross so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.

In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see;
For ‘twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true
It’s shame and reproach gladly bear;
The he’ll call me some day to my home far away
Where his glory forever I’ll share.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it someday for a crown.”

There is nothing that gives us a sense of God’s presence like the cross. It is through the cross that we can know forgiveness of our sin and receive the free gift of eternal life. Have you been saved? Do you know that your estrangement for God is forgiven? Are you sure that you have eternal life? You can never know God’s presence until you can answer “Yes!” to these questions. Then God presence is available to you always.

Praise Be To His Name!