Your lovingkindness is better than life
Psalms 63:3-4 Don’t feel ashamed to raise your hands in praise when you feel blessed!
“Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”
Psalms 63:3-4 NASB1995
Lovingkindness. The word isn’t used much in everyday conversation, but it describes God’s love for His people so well. In ancient Hebrew, the word was חֶסֶד (ḥeseḏ), translated most often as mercy, but also as goodness, kindness, or faithfulness — all attributes of our God toward those who are faithful, who worship Him, who study His Word and follow His precepts.
In this psalm, David states that God’s lovingkindness is better than life, and he has many reasons to make that statement! David Guzik from Enduring Word comments that the psalmist “both knew and experienced something of God’s lovingkindness that many believers today do not know and experience.
People regard life as natural; David regarded God’s great love as natural.
People enjoy life; David enjoyed God’s great love.
People value life; David valued God’s great love.
People will sacrifice to live; David would sacrifice for God’s great love.
People want to give life to others; David wanted to give God’s great love.
People despair without the sense of life; David despaired without the sense of God’s great love.”
David had lived a blessed life, and nothing was more important to him than to bask in God’s love for eternity. The great Bible commentator Charles Spurgeon1 made several observations about this verse:
“To dwell with God is better than life at its best; life at ease, in a palace, in health, in honour, in wealth, in pleasure; yea, a thousand lives are not equal to the eternal life which abides in Jehovah’s smile.”
In reference to David’s promise to praise God, Spurgeon said:
“May I ask a question of every professed Christian? Have you spoken with God this morning? Do you allow a day to pass without converse with God? Can it be right for us to treat the Lord with mute indifference?”
Spurgeon also states that we shouldn’t just praise God when we are feeling particularly blessed, but at all times:
“Even when our heart is rather desiring than enjoying we should still continue to magnify the Most High, for his love is truly precious; even if we do not personally, for the time being, happen to be rejoicing in it. We ought not to make our praises of God to depend upon our own personal and present reception of benefits; this would be mere selfishness: even publicans and sinners have a good word for those whose hands are enriching them with gifts; it is the true believer only who will bless the Lord when he takes away his gifts or hides his face.”
The last part of this psalm sounds a little odd coming from David — how can one of God’s creations bless God? Guzik explains this: “David meant this in the sense that it blessed and honored God when His creatures praised Him and thanked Him appropriately.”
Psalm 63:4 ends with the words “I will lift up my hands in Your name”. In the church I grew up in, and also in the Lutheran church Barb and I attended many years later, nobody lifted their hands in praise. It was a bit of a shock when we started attending a church where raising one’s hands high during praise and worship was not only tolerated, but expected!
Lifting up one’s hands was a common prayer posture for the ancient Hebrews and therefore appropriate for praise. From Guzik, “It displayed the anticipation of gracefully receiving from God, and the sense of surrender to Him”.
So don’t feel ashamed to raise your hands in praise when you feel blessed — or even when you don’t! You’re just showing your appreciation for God’s goodness!
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, thank You for the verses in Your Word hat remind me day after day that You keep your promises to those who love You — a gift of Your mercy that is greater than life itself. May all I do and say be to Your praise and Glory, AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org.
Commentary from Enduring Word used with written permission of the author.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon "The Treasury of David: Volume 2" (Psalms 58-110) (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1988)