Stuck On You – Stuck Like Glue!
There is such beautiful imagery in the Psalms – the only songbook authored, illustrated, and in-breathed by the Holy Spirit through the pen of David, Moses, Asaph, and a few others.
In the title of Psalm 63, we discover where the psalmist David was:
“A psalm of David. When he was in the Wilderness [Desert] of Judah.”
David was a fugitive, running for his life from the demonized King Saul and hiding in the desert caves of southern Israel. Though hot and thirsty, instead of complaining, he turned that desperate situation into a vertical relationship with God. See how this Old Testament lover of God used every detail of his circumstances to directly relate to his personal passion to know God.
Psalms 63:1-2 (NKJV) 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.
Then, after a few verses of heart-filled worship, he gives this unique illustration of how he saw himself following after God:
Psalm 63:8 (KJV) “My soul followeth hard after Thee.”
Here is how other Bible versions render it:
(NKJV) “My soul follows close behind You.” (NASB & ESV) “My soul clings to You.” (AMP) “My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You.” (TPT) “With passion, I pursue and cling to You.”
I have always enjoyed how it comes out in the Spanish Bible:
(RV 1960) “Está mi alma apegada a Ti.”
“Apegada” means “stuck” or “clingy,” and it is related to the word “pegar” which means “to glue.” So perhaps we could translate this verse like this:
“My soul is SUPER-GLUED to You!” Amen!
Then, in the very next breath, David says:
“Your right hand holds me up.”
It‘s kind of like this: A child in her father’s arms sees a barking dog approaching. She instinctively wraps her arms around her daddy’s neck, grabbing tightly to any piece of his clothing. Her legs wrap around his waist while pushing up on his belt and pants with her feet as if to climb higher. Yet all the while, her daddy is holding her safely in his arms.
Or we can consider it as a little child running on ahead of their father down a path through a dark, dense forest. She does this several times and turns around smiling to see her daddy coming up behind her. She does it one more time, but this time when she turns around, her daddy is not there. At first, she laughs and frolics around looking for him, but when she cannot find him, her laughing quickly becomes a scared cry. Just then, her daddy steps out of the woods and scoops her up into his arms. The little girl confidently (yet holding back a tear or two) declares, “I found you, Daddy!”
The question is: Who is holding on to who?
Of course, it is all God’s hand and grace and not our “clinginess” that holds us close to Him. Nevertheless, our passionate pursuit of Him and our longing to even be “super-glued” to Him is always pleasing and sweet on His heart!
So often, we read psalms like this and then step back and say something like, “Wow, David sure loved God.” But the Word of God is alive! These words are not merely 3,000-year-old, antiquated sonnets. These are living Words that the Holy Spirit wants to breathe within our entire being!
Oh, how taking these Psalms into our heart and letting them pass over our lips in prayer and worship must be so precious to our Heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus!
Listen to our Bridegroom’s words as He hears us vocalizing the Word of God:
Proverbs 23:15-16 (NIV)
My son, if your heart is wise,
then my heart will be glad indeed;
My inmost being will rejoice
when your lips speak what is right.
The Passion Translation renders verse 16 like this:
“And when you speak anointed words, we are speaking mouth to mouth!”
Father, thank You for these wonderful Words of eternal life. O Holy Spirit, thank You for having authored and inbreathed these beautiful verses.
Jesus, thank You for Your precious Blood and redemptive work on the Cross by which the New Covenant has been established wherein You promised us, saying, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts…for they all shall know Me” (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:8-11; Heb 10:16).
So we give You full sway to do it, dear Lord! Write Psalm 63 upon our hearts and minds and let them overflow through our lips –all praise and love to You! Amen.
