The past few days, my heart has been meditating on Psalm 63. I have been praying it, about it, contemplating it, asking Adonai to open my heart to the deeper meaning behind David’s words. There was a line that jumped out at me, that while not tying directly to our word for praise, shabach (shaw-bakh), it still made me take notice. In verse 11(10) it reads “May they be given over to the power of the sword.” While David was indeed crying out for the destruction of his enemies, my heart saw life and not death in this sentence. My heart saw, “May they be given over to the power of the sword, the Word.” The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. May those that seek ill for us be given over to the power of His sword, His Word, and may they see His salvation and love and be saved if they are not. May we truly pray for our enemies as Yeshua instructed us to, because in truth, they are not our enemies as there is only one who fits that description. May we see others the way that Adonai sees them, and may we love them as He loves them.
Psalm 63 are words from the depths of one of the greatest poets to ever live. The praise that welled up inside of David that poured from his heart are breathtaking and are words that should describe the longing in each of our souls. This type of hunger and desperation for Adonai is my desire. I want to be this enamored and eager for God’s presence as David was.
1(0) A psalm of David, when he was in the desert of Y’hudah:
2(1) O God, you are my God; I will seek you eagerly. My heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a land parched and exhausted, where no water can be found. 3(2) I used to contemplate you in the sanctuary, seeing your power and glory; 4(3) for your grace is better than life. My lips will worship you. 5(4) Yes, I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 6(5) I am as satisfied as with rich food; my mouth praises you with joy on my lips 7(6) when I remember you on my bed and meditate on you I the night watches. 8(7) For you have been my help; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice; 9(8) my heart clings to you; your right hand supports me. 10(9) But those who seek to destroy my life – may they go down to the lower parts of the earth. 11(10) May they be given over to the power of the sword; may they become prey from jackals. 12(11) But the king will rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will exult, for the mouths of liars will be silenced.
I had thought about breaking this psalm down line by line as I was drawn to the first line, but I came to realize that an in depth study of that kind is more for personal study and reflection as I have listened to teachings and read other devotionals tied to it several times over the past couple of days. It is a call to change something in my own heart, to get more serious about seeking Him and spending time with Him. It does however have strong connection to the focus verses of this post found in the middle of the psalm as we will see.
5(4) Yes, I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 6(5) I am as satisfied as with rich food; my mouth praises you with joy on my lips. David did not hold back when it came to praising God. As he cried out in desperation, he lifted his hands, and his praise was loud.
Brown Driver Briggs explains shabach as properly, to address in a loud tone, i.e. (specifically) loud. It means to commend or to boast. David was saying that he was going to loudly boast in joy about his God. If you have ever felt like you wanted to shout from the rooftops and tell everyone and anyone about how great Adonai is, like the woman at the well, and let that praise come forth from your lips, then you have experienced shabach.
This is a great explanation of the word, but I wanted to dig a little deeper, and so I decided to check out the word “loud” in the Hebrew as well. I was a little taken back when I looked up loud, because there are nine different words meaning loud and they are all in a different context. It then became the process of elimination as I looked up each word to see which fit the context of shabach. Oz (oze), spelled Ayin (ע) and Zayin (ז) means might or strength in various applications including force, security, majesty, and praise. It is boldness and power. Bold, loud praise that boasts with all one’s might in the greatness of God. Loud love. Oz has a numerical value of 77, and another word with that value is baa. Baa means to seek out, swell, boil up, to bubble, well up, long for, to seek, inquire, to search out and to desire earnestly, which is what we see in verse one of Psalm 63. Oh God you are my God; I will seek you eagerly. Here we tie back to the beginning of David’s declaration of love, showing that out of eagerly seeking, strong and bold praise welled up within him that he could not contain, and he had to shout with joy and rejoice.
When we look at the opening of this psalm, we see that it was when David was in the desert that he boldly praised Adonai. How often when we are in the desert do we complain? How often do we look across the Jordan and think, "if I were just in the Promised Land, then I could praise Adonai loud and bold as David did"? How often do we take for granted that it is in the desert that we are totally dependent on our Father, and it is then that we can draw so close to Him? It was in the desert that His glory went before the Israelites day and night. It was in the desert that He tabernacled with them. It was in the desert they saw the miracles of the manna and quail and their clothing and sandals did not wear out. It was in the desert that they received the Torah. It is in our desert that we are refined, that we are molded and shaped. It is in our desert that we can press in and draw close to our Creator and be still and KNOW that He Is God and that He will provide all our needs according to His riches in glory.
Perhaps you are in the desert. Perhaps you are in the promised land. No matter where you are at in your life, no matter what is happening, seek Him eagerly, praise Him loud and joyfully. Nehemiah said, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” and David said, “my mouth praises you with joy on my lips”. Be a David, and let your love be loud!
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