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Psalm 63:2
So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory.
1A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah. God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.
2So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory.
3Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.
4So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name.
Notice
The sanctuary appears in a song from the desert, where David's memory of seeing God's power and glory meets his present thirst for God.
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What, if anything, comes to mind when you read David's memory of the sanctuary?
Write on thisWhat might watching for God's power and glory look like in your next gathering for worship?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 84:10For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.Both texts turn toward God's dwelling: David recalls seeing God in the sanctuary, and Psalm 84 treasures a day in God's courts.
John 11:40Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”Seeing God's glory is the shared thread: David recalls having seen it, while Jesus speaks of seeing it through belief.
Psalm 27:4One thing I have asked of the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, to see the LORD’s beauty, and to …Both passages connect God's house with seeing him, naming his power and glory in Psalm 63 and his beauty in Psalm 27.
Psalm 105:4Seek the LORD and his strength. Seek his face forever more.Psalm 63 describes watching God's power; Psalm 105 urges seeking the LORD and his strength.
2 Corinthians 4:6seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face …Both passages speak of perceiving God's glory; Corinthians locates the knowledge of that glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 84:2–11My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.The sanctuary in Psalm 63 and the courts in Psalm 84 are places associated with longing for the living God.
2 Corinthians 4:4–6in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should …Both concern divine glory and sight, though Psalm 63 describes seeing and Corinthians describes minds blinded to Christ's glory.
1 Chronicles 16:11Seek the LORD and his strength. Seek his face forever more.David's attention to God's power shares a focus with the command to seek the LORD and his strength.
1 Samuel 4:21–22She named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because God’s ark was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.Glory is the shared word, though David recalls seeing it and Ichabod's naming marks its departure from Israel.
Exodus 33:18–19Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”Moses asks to be shown God's glory, while David speaks of having watched God's power and glory in the sanctuary.
Colossians 1:11strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy,Both name God's power and glory; Colossians connects them with strength for endurance and perseverance.
2 Chronicles 30:8Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the …God's sanctuary is the shared place: David recalls seeing God there, while Chronicles urges the people to enter and serve him.
Where this verse fits
Praise and worship. feeling distant from God.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
David speaks of God's power and glory from a dry land. His thirst remains real, and so does his memory of God in the sanctuary.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).