Psalms 63:1

Psalm 63 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ² 

63:1 O God, you are my God! I long for you! ³ 

My soul thirsts ⁴  for you,

my flesh yearns for you,

in a dry and parched ⁵  land where there is no water.

Proverbs 8:17

8:17 I love ⁶  those who love me,

and those who seek me find me.

Matthew 6:33

6:33 But above all pursue his kingdom ⁷  and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Mark 1:35

Praying and Preaching

1:35 Then ⁸  Jesus ⁹  got up early in the morning when it was still very dark, departed, and went out to a deserted place, and there he spent time in prayer. ¹⁰ 

¹ sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.

² sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.

³ tn Or “I will seek you.”

⁴ tn Or “I thirst.”

⁵ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.

⁶ sn In contrast to the word for “hate” (שָׂנֵא, shaneh) the verb “love” (אָהֵב, ’ahev) includes within it the idea of choosing spontaneously. So in this line loving and seeking point up the means of finding wisdom.

⁷ tc ‡ Most mss (L W Θ 0233 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy mae) read τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ (thn basileian tou qeou kai thn dikaiosunhn aujtou, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”) here, but the words “of God” are lacking in א B pc sa bo Eus. On the one hand, there is the possibility of accidental omission on the part of these Alexandrian witnesses, but it seems unlikely that the scribe’s eye would skip over both words (especially since τοῦ θεοῦ is bracketed by first declension nouns). Intrinsically, the author generally has a genitive modifier with βασιλεία – especially θεοῦ or οὐρανῶν (ouranwn) – but this argument cuts both ways: Although he might be expected to use such an adjunct here, scribes might also be familiar with his practice and would thus naturally insert it if it were missing in their copy of Matthew. Although a decision is difficult, the omission of τοῦ θεοῦ is considered most likely to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.

⁸ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn The imperfect προσηύχετο (proshuceto) implies some duration to the prayer.