Psalm 63

Artist: David Gerhartz

Verse 7...

    For You have been my help,
        and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.

This is such a precious psalm. It cries out in longing. I'm reminded yet again of C. S. Lewis and his writing on the idea of Sehnsucht (even if not by using the word itself): 

"...that unnameable something, desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of bonfire, the sound of wild ducks flying overhead, the title of The Well at the World's End, the opening lines of 'Kubla Khan,' the morning cobwebs in late summer, or the noise of falling waves."

But to David it was not an "unnameable something" for which he craved; it was God Himself. And even amidst his cries I hear his sighs of contentment. God can and does satisfy the longing heart.

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (C. S. Lewis)

May we sing for joy in the shadow of His wings today!