Session 19 · Psalm 63:1-5
My Prayer: Better Than Life
The love that gives you God himself
Book reading: Chapter 10 (My Prayer)
This is the last session, and the book ends with a prayer, not a list. Piper dwells on Psalm 63, where the psalmist says God's steadfast love is better than life. He pairs it with Paul's words in Philippians 1 that departing to be with Christ is far better. And he argues that the most loving thing about God's love is that it brings us to God himself.
Picture where the psalmist is standing. He says his soul thirsts and his flesh faints "as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." Now ask what a thirsty person needs. A mirror will not help. Neither will someone telling him he is valuable, even if it is true. He needs water. In that picture, God's love is not a pat on the head. It is the well, and it is God himself who is the water.
That is why Piper warns about a particular habit. After decades of hearing that love means lifting people up, many have made God's love a testimony to their own worth. It is a quiet shift: the love of God becomes a way of looking at me. Psalm 63 turns the head the other way. "So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory." The psalmist's eyes are on God. Then comes the line that carries the whole book: "Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you."
Notice the order. The love comes first, then the praise. And the praise is not a duty squeezed out of him. The psalm closes this section with a meal: "My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips." Satisfaction and praise land in the same place. This is the same pairing you have followed all through the book, God's glory and your joy together.
And it explains why the book can ask for risk. If God's love is better than life, then losing a little life for Christ is not the worst loss. The worst loss would be to get a long, comfortable life and never taste the water.
If you feel dry and numb right now, and that has gone on a long time, that is not a failing you must fix alone. Please talk with a pastor, counselor, or trusted friend. The psalmist felt it too, and he still reached for God.
Piper prays that none of his readers will say at the end, "I've wasted it." Make that prayer yours in your own words.
Key idea
God's steadfast love is better than life because it gives you God himself, the water a thirsty soul needs, and not just a sense of your own worth.
Questions to consider
- Piper warns that many have made God's love a testimony to their own worth. Where do you notice that tilt in how you think about God's love?
- Psalm 63 puts the psalmist's thirst in a dry land. What are you thirsty for, and what are you tempted to drink instead of God?
Journal prompt
Write your own closing prayer in a few lines. Tell God where you are thirsty, what you want to risk for him, and what you hope to be able to say at the end of your life.
Practice
Pray for ten minutes. 1. Read Psalm 63:1-5 aloud once. 2. In your own words, tell God where you are thirsty and thank him that his love is better than life because it gives you himself. 3. Ask him for one specific way you will spend your life for Christ this year, and write it down.