Psalm 63:3-4 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

I learned these verses as a song very early in my exposure to the Charismatic Movement, and I’m grateful. However, that doesn’t mean I’ve grasped their full impact. In the first line, the song says, “Thy loving kindness,” the NIV says, “your love,” and the Japanese says, “your grace.” Any way you translate it, it’s the next line that’s the kicker: “better than life.” All the translations agree on that! David is declaring that knowing God and being in relationship with Him is better than physical life itself, and he didn’t have the New Testament assurances of eternal life through the cross of Christ! When we come to the position David expresses here, all sorts of things come into focus. Priorities and goals change, and we receive peace and joy that can be had no other way. The Japanese starts verse 4 with “Therefore.” When we really value God more than even physical life, we will indeed praise Him as long as we have that life. The last line of verse 4 bothers some people, because they aren’t comfortable with raising their hands in church. Actually, this doesn’t specify, “in church,” or even “in the assembly.” The Japanese actually says, “in prayer,” but I think that is an extension of “in Your name,” since that is how we are to pray. Japanese in general seem very hesitant to raise their hands in worship, but I have met several who have talked about how liberating it was when they finally brought themselves to do it. Raised hands can indicate many things, but I think two are primary: surrender, and offering ourselves to God. It helps to visualize a small child lifting their hands to Daddy, wanting him to pick them up. The wonderful thing is, Father God will indeed “pick us up” and wrap His loving arms around us, if we will stop resisting Him and instead yield ourselves completely to Him, to be and do what He has planned for us.

To me, this passage connects closely to Paul’s confession to the Philippians: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) I’d bet he identified completely with David’s declaration, and I have to say, I’m coming more and more strongly to that position myself. I’ve still got room to grow, because other things keep intruding as conflicting priorities, but knowing Christ and being found in Him is indeed better than everything in this world put together. The thing is, as a pastor I deal constantly with believers who aren’t really to that point yet. They have confessed Jesus as Lord and repented of past sins, but they have trouble lifting their eyes off of themselves and their circumstances and fixing them on Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2) I am not to look down on them, but speak the truth to them in love so that the Holy Spirit may take that truth and use it to set them free from the traps of the devil.

Father, thank You for the incredible privilege of knowing You by Your Son Jesus through the work of Your Holy Spirit. Help me be more and more useful to You in drawing others along with me closer to You, so that we may experience Your full salvation indeed, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!