Psalm 63 is one of my favorite Psalms and it’s a prayer. I don’t want to just read it and then talk about it and pray according to it, I want us to actually pray it to together. I’m just going to read the first eight verses that are a prayer, and then flowing from that, just pray according to the leadership of God’s Spirit, based on this Spirit-inspired prayer. Psalm 63:1–8. Let’s just pray this together from each of our hearts.
Oh, 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 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 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. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me.
– Psalm 63:1–8
Oh, God. We want Psalm 63 to mark us, to characterize, to reflect our hearts in every way. God, we pray that you would help us to earnestly seek you above all things, just as you taught us Jesus. Help us to seek you first, your kingdom, your righteousness, and to trust you with everything else. God, we say today, we want to seek you above all. Of Psalm 27, one thing I’ve asked the Lord, this one thing I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life beholding you and your beauty and your glory.
We want to see you more. God, we want to know you more. We want to worship you more because we know you are the one who alone can satisfy our souls. And you are the one who is worthy of all of our worship. Your steadfast love is better than life. You who have all power and all glory.
Psalm 63:1–8 leads us to confess our need for God’s help.
We praise you for your love for us, and our lips will praise you. Help us to praise you before others today. Help us to tell others how great you are, to bless you with the way we live today, with the way we speak today, with the way we worship you. And God, as we lay our heads on our pillows, help us to meditate on you through the watches of the night because you are our help. We praise you as our help. And we confess our need for your help in so many ways today.
And we praise you for your promise to help us. You are our help. And in the shadow of your wings as we prayed, we sing for joy over the refuge and the security you are for us. Our souls cling to you, oh, God. We cling to you and we praise you for upholding us right now with your righteous, sovereign, all-powerful, all-loving right hand.
Oh, Jesus, we praise you for making this kind of love relationship with you as God, possible for us. And we pray that you would help us to lead others to relationship with you in our lives, with our resources, and all the world.
Prayer for the Bahna People
God, we pray today for the Bahna people of Pakistan, for 200,000 Muslim Bahna men, women, and children who don’t know what it’s like to be satisfied in you through the steadfast love of Jesus who died on the cross for them. Lord, we pray that the Bahna people would be reached with your love that’s better than life so that their lips might join in the chorus of those who are praising you and enjoying you. God, please may it be so. We pray all this according to your word in Psalm 63. May this song mark our lives. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
