Fathers

Psalms 63

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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. So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches. For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings. My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up. But those who seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 63:5

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"So I will speak good of You in my life, and in Your name I will lift up my hands" [Psalm 63:5]. Now in my life which to me You have given, not in that which I have chosen after the world with the rest among many lives, but that which You have given to me through Your mercy, that I should praise You. "So I will speak good of You in my life." What is "so"? That to Your mercy I may ascribe my life wherein You I praise, not to my merits. "And in Your name I will lift up my hands." Lift up therefore hands in prayer. …

Exposition on Psalm 63 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

Now let us turn our attention to the characteristic of fatness or richness of which David speaks intelligibly when he says, "Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness." Before that he had said, "And may your whole burnt offering be made fat." By this he means that the requirements for a sacrifice are that it be fat or rich, that it be glistening and that it be weighted with the sustenance inspired by faith and devotion and by the rich nourishment of the Word of God. …

On Cain and Abel, Book 2, Chapter V ↗