So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
PSALM 63 The following psalm cannot so properly be said to consist of prayers as of a variety of pious meditations, which comforted the mind of David under dangers, anxieties, and troubles of a severe description. It contains the vows too which he made to God in the distress occasioned by the alarming circumstances in which he was placed.
Commenting on Psalm 63:1-11
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. He longed not so much to see the sanctuary as to see his God; he looked through the veil of ceremonies to the invisible One.
The title tells us when the psalm was penned, when David was in the wilderness of Judah; that is, in the forest of Hareth (Sa1 22:5) or in the wilderness of Ziph, Sa1 23:15. 1. Even in Canaan, though a fruitful land and the people numerous, yet there were wildernesses, places less fruitful and less inhabited than other places.
Commenting on Psalm 63:1-2