Verse 1
"A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah."
"When he was" tells us the moment; "the wilderness of Judah" is the barren, dry region where David hid during his flight from those who pursued him. This heading tells us the place from which the song was born — a place of distress, danger, and distance.
Verse 2
"O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You, in a dry and weary land without water."
"Earnestly I seek You" means I look for You from the dawn, before anything else. Both soul and flesh long for God. "A dry land" is parched ground; "weary, without water" is being exhausted by thirst. David paints a spiritual thirst through the body's thirst in the desert.
Verse 3
"So in the sanctuary I have beheld You, to see Your power and Your glory."
"I have beheld You" means I gazed upon You. "In the sanctuary" is in the holy Temple. David longs for the moments when he felt God's presence and saw His power and glory. Now, in the distant wilderness, that memory holds him up and gives him strength to keep seeking and believing.
Verse 4
"For Your kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You."
"Your kindness" is God's love and goodness. "Better than life" — God's love is more precious to David than life itself. A person who feels this is no longer ruled by fear, because he holds something greater than life. And so "my lips shall praise You" — his lips will never cease praising.
Verse 5
"So I will bless You while I live, in Your name I will lift up my hands."
"While I live" means all the days of my life. "I will lift up my hands" is the gesture of prayer, reaching upward toward God in longing.
Verse 6
"My soul is satisfied as with rich food and fat, and with joyful lips my mouth praises You."
"Rich food and fat" are rich, fine foods — a symbol of fullness and delight. "My soul is satisfied" — his soul is full from God's nearness, as from a rich feast, and lacks nothing. "Joyful lips" are lips full of song; and when the soul is satisfied like this, the mouth itself bursts into praise.
Psalm 63, Part 1, teaches that we can find God precisely in the dry and lonely place. When the heart truly thirsts and searches, the memory of God's nearness fills the soul with a joy greater than any wealth — the thirst becomes a spring of thanksgiving, and the longing becomes a song.