My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise [thee] with joyful lips.
David sang this line from the wilderness of Judah, a dry land with no water. Yet he speaks of rich food and of lips that never stop praising. Where does a man in a desert find a feast?
One writer traces how David's exile from the place where God dwelt among His people becomes a pattern for the believer.
The heading of the psalm gives its position. It is a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. He was cast out from the privileges of Israel, and shut out from all access to God as He dwells among His people. In this way he became the picture and the voice of a later remnant, cast out of Jerusalem while wickedness holds power in the city. That makes his position match the Christian's all the more closely. He too is in the wilderness, and longs after God, as revealed in Christ, in the place where He dwells. Substitute heaven for Jerusalem, and the believer now can adopt the language of this psalm with a fuller and deeper meaning.
The same writer shows what happens when a soul admits it has nothing here.
How long it often takes us to learn that the scene we are passing through is a dry and thirsty land! But we must grasp the lesson, and God uses all His discipline to press it on us. Only then do we know in any measure what God is in Himself: that He alone, beyond all the blessings He gives, is the portion of our inheritance and of our cup. The more we surrender everything here, and accept death upon all that might attract and chain us, the more we discover what boundless resources we have in God Himself... But the moment the soul can write "no water" over this scene, it becomes free to enjoy God. If it can honestly say, "I have nothing here," God will step in at once and say, "Now I will be everything to you."
The ESV renders "marrow and fatness" as "fat and rich food." One commentator ties this fullness to David's thirst, and asks what such satisfaction would do to onlookers.
Thirst like the psalmist's is bound to be fully met. So he speaks of his soul again in verse 5: "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness." This means satisfaction of a very full and abundant kind. David was in a dry and thirsty land without water, yet he was enjoying marrow and fatness. In the same way, we are to be full of satisfaction in the middle of an empty and dissatisfied world. This is what God desires and purposes for us all. If Christians everywhere showed a deep and lasting satisfaction, we think the men of the world would be more deeply impressed by it than by all the gospel sermons ever preached.
So the satisfaction does not come from the wilderness itself.
It is not that we are to be satisfied with the circumstances themselves. There can be no rest, let alone satisfaction, in circumstances that are full of sin and sorrow and death. We are to be satisfied in them by keeping in touch with Him who is the Source of satisfaction, even while they surround us. Then we are so satisfied that praise fills us. In the Psalm, expressions of praise surround the words "My soul shall be satisfied."
The second half of the verse speaks of joyful lips. One writer compares that with the praise we bring when our hearts feel heavy.
Satisfied — in the desert? Yes, that is the very place, because God Himself is his portion. "My mouth will praise you with joyful lips." Now we often praise when we are not very joyful, and there is a certain pressure on the heart. It is right to praise at all times. But here the heart is so full of the blessing that the praise is pressed out of him.
Which comes first — the satisfaction or the song? One writer settles the order, and follows it into the night.
A worshipping, praiseful soul is always a satisfied soul; for it is only when it is satisfied that it overflows in praise. So the Psalmist repeats that he will keep on praising, even by night. Songs in the night, when everything else was still, should mark him, as well as praise by day.
- Place — David sings from a wilderness, shut out from everything he valued. The believer stands on the same ground.
- Emptiness — write "no water" over this world, and the soul goes free. Say "I have nothing here," and God says He will be everything.
- Fullness — "marrow and fatness" means full, abundant satisfaction. God wants His people so satisfied that the world notices.
- Source — the satisfaction is not in the circumstances but in Him. The desert is the very place, because God Himself is the portion.
- Overflow — praise is the proof, not the cause. A satisfied soul overflows, by night as well as by day.
When I remember thee upon my bed, I meditate on thee in the night-watches
A man in a dry, waterless land wrote this song. He was far from anywhere he could worship, and here he speaks of the night. What fills the mind when the noise of the day stops and nothing is left to distract it?
Nothing in his circumstances has changed. He is still in the wilderness when he speaks of being satisfied and of praising.
The psalm opens with the longing of the heart for God. It is the longing of a God-fearing Jew, driven out of the land and far from the sanctuary… He rejoices in God. So he finds his soul satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and his lips filled with praise. And this is while he is still in a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water. What is more, in the silent watches of the night, when all natural excitement is quiet and the soul is alone, he will meditate on God.
The phrase points to particular hours — the ones nobody else claims.
"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips" (Psalm 63). And when and where? "When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night." That means the lonely hours of the night or daybreak. Everything around is silent, and the duties and cares of daily life have not yet begun to claim our attention.
The verse names two things, not one, and the order matters. Recalling something is only the first half of it.
Meditation and memory. Meditating on a thing has more sweetness in it than simply remembering it. The memory is the chest or cupboard to lock up a truth; meditation is the palate to feed on it. When David began to meditate on God, it was sweet to him as marrow (Ps. 63:5-6). There is as much difference between a truth remembered and a truth meditated on as between a medicine in a glass and a medicine drunk down.
Notice what he remembers. He does not lie there reviewing his past mercies or rehearsing his losses; the object is a Person. One writer draws out the contrast with another psalm where night-time recollection only deepens the ache.
His outward life was bitter. Yet he could bless God while he lived, because God's loving-kindness was better than life. More than that, his soul would be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. His mouth would praise Him with joyful lips, when he remembered Him on his bed. In all his loneliness he had this indescribable joy of feeding on and delighting in God. It was not, "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me," but "My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness … when I remember you," having no one else. So he was taught to be satisfied with God, to lean on Him, and to find his all in Him.
The same bed can be the place where trouble is felt and the place where God is remembered. What the night becomes depends on what the mind turns toward.
The bed of affliction becomes the bed of His remembrance — the place of sweet meditation. The sense of His protective covering sustains the joy of the soul.
Darkness has a use here. It hides everything else from view.
For himself he can testify to perfect satisfaction of soul. That satisfaction stands up to reflection in those quiet hours when the shadows fall on everything else. Then a person is away from all the influences that would hinder realizing the truth.
Meditation here is deliberate mental work, and it has ordinary uses beyond the night.
We exercise our minds when we use them for reflection and meditation. The Psalms are full of this, speaking of meditation on God Himself, on His word and His works (Ps. 63:6; Ps. 119:148; Ps. 77:12). It is often valuable to go over things again in our minds: the Scriptures we have just read, the main content of a message we have heard, or some experience we have been through. That way we make sure we have absorbed its special message.
- Place — He speaks in a waterless desert, far from the sanctuary. His setting is not comfort but need.
- Hour — The "watches of the night" are the lonely hours of night and daybreak. Everything is silent, and the day's demands have not yet started.
- Act — Remembering stores the truth away; meditating feeds on it. The sweetness comes from the second.
- Object — He remembers God, not the things that had happened to him. Having no one else, he learns to find his all in Him.
- Result — The bed of affliction becomes the bed of remembrance. The darkness hides everything else, so the soul sees what is true.