“My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips, my mouth will praise You.”  Psalm 63:5

There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction we felt after devouring yesterday’s Thanksgiving dinner. With our plates empty and our bellies full, we were ready for a tryptophan-induced nap on the couch.  

Yet, while it’s one thing for our stomachs to feel satisfied, it’s quite another thing for our souls to feel satisfied, especially amid the stress and strain of life in the real world.  

When David proclaims that his soul is “satisfied” in Psalm 63, he isn’t in the palace or in the temple having a worship service. He’s in the desert. The unbearable heat has left him famished and thirsty (Psalm 63:1). He’s isolated, anxious, and facing an uncertain future.   

David didn’t choose this inhospitable environment. Few of us would. The desert was forced upon him. His son, Absalom, had revolted against him and was trying to take his throne (2 Samuel 15-18). So, David fled to the desert to save his life. He had nowhere else to go.

Yet, in this arid wasteland…in this very challenging situation, David’s soul is fully “satisfied as with the richest of foods.”  The Hebrew word means “content, filled up, provided for in abundance.”

In such harsh conditions, how is David’s soul as stuffed as a stomach on a Thanksgiving afternoon?

Answer: He “earnestly seeks” God (Psalm 63:1). You see, David’s satisfaction in God didn’t just ‘happen.’  His satisfaction came as a result of seeking. David’s soul feasts on the Father whose “love is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). He recalls times in the “sanctuary” where he experienced God’s “power and glory” (Psalm 63:2). Though he’s far from those moments now,  David knows God is still with Him even in the desert.

But here’s the key- 

In the desert, David has no other options. He’s in the middle of a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). Everything he normally uses to quench his thirst, literally and figuratively, has been stripped away. It’s just him and God alone in a desert cave.  

And that, my friends, is a beautiful place to be. 

There’s no way I can know the reason why God might’ve allowed you to experience a ‘desert’ in your life, but perhaps one reason is so you’d be forced to depend on Him alone. If we allow it, the ‘desert’ can deepen our dependence on Jesus like nothing else.  

Here’s why:

Many of us, myself included, live our lives looking to the world to satisfy our souls. We think, “If only I had _____, then I’d feel satisfied. If only my circumstances would change, then I’d feel satisfied.”

But in the desert, we can’t look to other people, places, or things for satisfaction. They are inaccessible, nowhere to be found. We come face to face with the reality that Jesus alone is the “Bread of Life” who satisfies the human soul (John 6:35).  

Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of the Holocaust, once said, “You may never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”  

The truth is our circumstances may not improve overnight (or ever). We may never get the house, the job, or the relationship we think will satisfy us. 

We’ll most likely wake up tomorrow and still be stuck in the same ole ‘desert.’

But that’s okay.  

We have Jesus, and He is enough.

And like David, we can learn to praise Him with “singing lips” (Psalm 63:5), transforming our wilderness into a place of worship. 

Written by Jonathan Munson, Executive Producer, RFTH

DIG DEEPER

Read “No Difficulty is Stronger Than Jesus” by Bryant Wright