1 A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. God, you are my God; I seek you early. My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, in a dry and weary land without water.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "God, my God, unto You from the light I watch" [Psalm 63:1]. What is to watch? It is, not to sleep. What is to sleep? There is a sleep of the soul; there is a sleep of the body. Sleep of body we all ought to have: because if sleep of body is not taken, a man faints, the body itself faints.
Maximus of Turin · AD 465 Therefore God gave us a pattern of fasting in this deed, so that having a desert, as it were, at the time of fasting we may abstain from feasts, pleasure and women, and so that Eve may not be joined with us so as to subvert us from chaste observance by her alluring persuasion. For he who fasts and is chaste at the time of the 40-day fast seems somehow to dwell in the desert.
Thirsting for God 2 So in the sanctuary I have gazed on you, to see your strength and your glory.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "My soul hath thirsted for Thee" (ver. 2). Behold that desert of Idumaea. See how here he thirsteth: but see what good thing is here, "Hath thirsted for Thee." For there are they that thirst, but not for God. For every one that willeth anything to be granted to him, is in the heat of longing; the longing itself is the thirst of the soul.
3 For your loyal love is better than life; my lips will praise you.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Thus in a holy thing I have appeared to You, that I might see Your power and Your glory" [Psalm 63:3]....Unless a man first thirst in that desert, that is in the evil wherein he is, he never arrives at the good, which is God. But "I have appeared to You," he says, "in a holy thing." Now in a holy thing is there great consolation. "I have appeared to You," is what?
4 So I will bless you in my life; in your name I will lift up my palms.
5 As with fat and richness my soul is satisfied, and with lips of ringing cries my mouth praises,
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Now let us turn our attention to the characteristic of fatness or richness of which David speaks intelligibly when he says, "Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness." Before that he had said, "And may your whole burnt offering be made fat." By this he means that the requirements for a sacrifice are that it be fat or rich, that it be glistening and that it be weighted w…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "So I will speak good of You in my life, and in Your name I will lift up my hands" [Psalm 63:5]. Now in my life which to me You have given, not in that which I have chosen after the world with the rest among many lives, but that which You have given to me through Your mercy, that I should praise You. "So I will speak good of You in my life." What is "so"?
6 when I remember you upon my bed; in the night watches I murmur of you.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Why do we forget about wickedness? It is due to our remembrance of good things, due to our remembrance of God. If we continually remember God, we cannot remember those things also.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "If I have remembered You upon my bed, in the dawnings I did meditate on you [Psalm 63:6]." His "bed" he calls his rest. When any one is at rest, let him be mindful of God; when any one is at rest, let him not by rest be dissolved, and forget God: if mindful he is of God when he is at rest, in his actions on God he does meditate.
7 For you have been a help for me, and in the shadow of your wings I sing aloud.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Because Thou has become my helper." For unless God aid our good works, they cannot be accomplished by us. And worthy things we ought to work: that is, as though in the light, since by Christ showing the way we work.
8 My soul clings after you; your right hand upholds me.
Philoxenus of Mabbug · AD 523 Pure prayer such as is worthy of God, O disciple of God, is not uttered by means of compound words. Prayer that is worthy of God consists in this: that one gather in one's mind from the entire world and not let it be secretly bound to anything; that one place it entirely at God's disposal and forget, during the time of prayer, everything that is material, including one's own se…
Bonaventure · AD 1257 For the Lord rejoices in the right. "The delights at your right hand forever." At the left are passing riches, glories and consolations. We must indeed adhere to the right. As the Psalm says, "Your right hand upholds me," Lord. Hence the rewards dispose towards the third act of grace.
9 But they themselves seek my life for ruin; they will go into the lowest parts of the earth.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "But themselves in vain have sought my soul. They shall go unto the lower places of the earth." Earth they were unwilling to lose, when they crucified Christ: into the lower places of the earth they have gone. What are the lower places of the earth? Earthly lusts. Better it is to walk upon earth, than by lust to go under earth.
10 They will be poured out by the hands of the sword; they will be the portion of foxes.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They shall be delivered unto the hands of the sword" [Psalm 63:10]. In truth, thus it has visibly befallen them, they have been taken by storm by enemies breaking in. "Portions of foxes they shall be." Foxes he calls the kings of the world, that then were when Judæa was conquered. Hear in order that you may know and perceive, that those he calls foxes.
11 But the king will rejoice in God; everyone who swears by him will boast, for the mouth of those who speak a lie will be stopped.