Better than Life

Psalm 63:3 “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.”

What is life?

There are questions regarding what we know, see, touch, feel, or emotionally experience and they can be asked with a thought towards the way people experience life. Many people live their lives with no more than a thought for their next meal, they are driven by comfort and the focus on themselves leads to apathy concerning anything that is of God. There’s a distinction that can be made for someone who lives for the here and now versus the one who lives for the eternal and it is as broad as the sky.

The evidence for true satisfaction in life is found in those who know and have experienced true peace.

What would it take to make you comfortable?

Contentment is not found in what you possess, material things come and go, contentment is discovered by looking beyond what you acquire and seeing life from a godly perspective.

1 Timothy 6:6 “Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.”

The beauty of God’s Word comes by seeing life from the perspective of others who have had meaningful encounters with God and how God changed their view of life. This view is not formed overnight, it comes by way of consistently trusting and watching God work through each challenge that comes along the way and with each obstacle the focus remains the same.

With each trial comes understanding.

The product of growing in understanding is peace–not the kind of peace the world is looking for but a peace that exists within the heart. Within the spectrum of godly peace lies joy, happiness, contentment, and ultimately a perspective of life that is rare in this world.

Why is peace so rare?

To see life from God’s perspective is to be lifted higher than our circumstances and to have an eye towards the eternal.

The more you encounter Jesus in your everyday life, the more you will want to know Him.

We can see what it looks like from someone who has encountered God…

Psalm 63:1-2 “O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.”

Do you hear the yearning for more? The search for meaning to life is as dry and barren as a desert wasteland in a world of hopelessness. The world and its philosophies are enemies to God’s holiness as are those who seek their own fulfillment, placing themselves on the throne while looking for meaning in a world that is perishing.

The product of trusting God is to see His goodness.

Psalm 63:4 “Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.”

Worship springs forth from the lips of those who know Him. Like a good meal the soul rests satisfied, because the love of God is what it needs. The Lord contains everything the heart yearns for, He holds it in His hands, waiting for those who seek Him. He gives joy freely, and His love He does not withhold. To look elsewhere is to only find empty promises that lead to unfulfilled dreams.

Psalm 63:6-8 “When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.”

What is it you meditate upon?

What is it that fills your mind when you sit quietly? Is it the affairs of this world, the changes you’ve witnessed in your culture, or the uncertainty of life as we know it?

When we meditate on the precepts of God, we meditate on His unchanging love. He doesn’t shift with the cultural winds nor is He affected by the thoughts of things to come. He knows the future from the past and He holds eternity in His hands. When we look to His help, His strength becomes our guide. When we grow weak, He upholds us and leads us on. His love is unfailing.

Psalm 63:9-10 “But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
They shall fall by the sword;
They shall be a portion for jackals.”

Why should believers fear the enemy when they have no authority but that which is given?

The soul that is kept by God is kept by His power. The believer in Christ need not fear the threat of uncertainty when God holds him in His hands. We don’t need to take vengeance upon those who show hatred when their fate is sealed by the King of kings. The vengeance of God is to restore those who have gone astray, not to destroy them. If you are in God’s hands, your enemies are His enemies. The ideology of the world ends in fire. It will be consumed by the hatred from which it was born. The very means by which the world attacks will be the means by which it falls.

Psalm 63:11 “But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.”

Who is this King? When a person follows Jesus, He elevates them into a position they could not attain on their own.

“To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

The kingship of Christ has become His people’s reward. They have received the gift of grace that He purchased by HIs royal position. He raises them up from their lowly state and makes them kings and priests in His court.

God’s people don’t deserve His love, He graciously lavishes it upon them freely as they come in humility. His people receive His gift of grace because Jesus gave His life for them, therefore He accepts them just as they are.

Can you hear the song of the redeemed? For those who have partaken of His love, worship arises. The lovingkindness of God is better than anything this life can afford—because It is life.

This is what life is all about, once you taste the goodness of God, nothing else will do.