This psalm purports to be a "psalm of David," and there can be no just ground of doubt in regard to the correctness of the title in this respect. DeWette indeed supposes that the way in which mention is made of the "king" in Psalm 63:11, seems to indicate that the psalm was not composed by David himself, but that it was written by some friend of his, who was his companion in the troubles which he experienced; but it is not necessary to resort to this supposition, for it is not very uncommon for an author to refer to himself in the third person, as Caesar does everywhere. The psalm further purports to have been composed by David "when he was in the wilderness of Judah." The "wilderness of Judah" was that wild and uncultivated tract of country lying on the east side of the territory of the tribe of Judah, commonly called "the wilderness of Judea" (Matthew 3:1; compare the notes at Matthew 4:1), lying along the Jordan. David was repeatedly driven into that wilderness in the time of Saul; and the general structure of the psalm would accord well with any one of those occasions; but the mention of the "king" in Psalm 63:11, as undoubtedly meaning David, makes it necessary to refer the composition of the psalm to a later period in his life, since the title "king" was not given to him in the time of Saul. The psalm, therefore, was doubtless composed in the time of Absalom - the period when David was driven away by the rebellion, and compelled to seek a refuge in that wilderness. It belongs, if this view is correct, to the same period in the life of David as Psalm 42:1-11; Psalm 43:1-5; Psalm 61:1-8; and probably some others.
The psalm consists of the following parts:
I. An expression of earnest desire to see the power and glory of God again, as he had formerly done in the sanctuary, Psalm 63:1-2.
II. His sense of the goodness of God, and of the value of the divine favor, as being greater than that of life; and his purpose to find his happiness in God, and to praise and bless him in all situations, especially in those moments of solemn meditation when he was alone upon his bed, Psalm 63:3-6.
III. His remembrance of former mercies, and his conviction that God still upheld him by his right hand, Psalm 63:7-8.
IV. His firm belief that all his enemies would be destroyed, Psalm 63:9-11.

David's soul thirsts after God, while absent from the sanctuary, and longs to be restored to the Divine ordinances, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 63:2. He expresses strong confidence in the Most High, and praises him for his goodness, Psalm 63:3-8; shows the misery of those who do not seek God, Psalm 63:9, Psalm 63:10; and his own safety as king of the people, Psalm 63:11.
The title of this Psalm is, A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judea; but instead of Judea, the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, several of the ancient Latin Psalters, and several of the Latin fathers, read Idumea, or Edom; still there is no evidence that David had ever taken refuge in the deserts of Idumea. The Hebrew text is that which should be preferred; and all the MSS. are in its favor. The Syriac has, "Of David, when he said to the king of Moab, My father and mother fled to thee from the face of Saul; and I also take refuge with thee." It is most probable that the Psalm was written when David took refuge in the forest of Hareth, in the wilderness of Ziph, when he fled from the court of Achish. But Calmet understands it as a prayer by the captives in Babylon.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 63
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. This psalm was composed by David, either when he was persecuted by Saul, and obliged to hide himself in desert places, as in the forest of Hareth, the wildernesses of Ziph, Maon, and Engedi, 1-Samuel 22:5; all which were in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:55; or when his son Absalom rebelled against him, which obliged him to flee from Jerusalem, and go the way of the wilderness, where Ziba and Barzillai sent him food, lest his young men that were with him should faint there, 2-Samuel 15:23. The Septuagint version, and those that follow that, call it the wilderness of Idumea, or Edom, as the Arabic version; and so the Chaldee paraphrase,
"in the wilderness which was on the border of the tribe of Judah;''
as Edom was, Joshua 15:21; so the Messiah, David's son, was in a wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil, and where he was hungry and thirsty in a literal sense, as David was here in a spiritual sense, as the psalm shows, Matthew 4:1; and the church of God, whom David sometimes represents, is said to be in a wilderness, where she is fed for a time, and times, and half a time, even during the whole reign of the antichristian beast, Revelation 12:14; and, indeed, all the saints are, at one time or another, in a desert condition, and while they are here are in the wilderness of the people, Hosea 2:14.

(Psalm 63:1, Psalm 63:2) David's desire toward God.
(Psalm 63:3-6) His satisfaction in God.
(Psalm 63:7-11) His dependence upon God, and assurance of safety.

Morning Hymn of One Who Is Persecuted, in a Waterless Desert
Now follows Psalm 63:1-11, the morning Psalm of the ancient church with which the singing of the Psalm was always introduced at the Sunday service.
(Note: Constitutiones Apostolicae, ii. 59: Ἑεκάστης ἡμέρᾳς συναθροίζεσθε ὄρθρου καὶ ἑσπέρας ψάλλοντες καὶ προσευχόμενοι ἐν τοῖς κυριακοῖς· ὄρθρου μὲν λέγοντες ψαλμὸν τὸν ξβ ̓ (Psalm 63:1-11), ἐσπέρας δὲ τὸν ρμ ̓ (Psalm 141:1-10). Athanasius says just the same in his De virginitate: πρὸς ὄρθρον τὸν ψαλμὸν τοῦτον λέγετε κ. τ. λ. Hence Psalm 63:1-11 is called directly ὁ ὀρθρινός (the morning hymn) in Constit. Apostol. viii. 37. Eusebius alludes to the fact of its being so in Ps 91 (92), p. 608, ed. Montfaucon. In the Syrian order of service it is likewise the morning Psalm κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν, vid., Dietrich, De psalterii usu publico et divione in Ecclesia Syriaca, p. 3. The lxx renders אשׁחרך in Psalm 63:2, πρὸς σὲ ὀρθρίχω, and באשׁמרות in Psalm 63:7, ἐν τοῖς ὄρθροις (in matutinis).)
This Psalm is still more closely related to Psalm 61:1-8 than Psalm 62:1-12. Here, as in Psalm 61:1-8, David gives utterance to his longing for the sanctuary; and in both Psalm he speaks of himself as king (vid., Symbolae, p. 56). All the three Psalm, Psalm 61:1, were composed during the time of Absalom; for we must not allow ourselves to be misled by the inscription, A Psalm, by David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah (also lxx, according to the correct reading and the one preferred by Euthymius, τῆς Ἰουδαίας, not τῆς Ἰδουμαίας), into transferring it, as the old expositors do, to the time of Saul. During that period David could not well call himself "the king" and even during the time of his persecution by Absalom, in his flight, before crossing the Jordan, he tarried one or two days בערבות המדבר, in the steppes of the desert (2-Samuel 15:23, 2-Samuel 15:28; 2-Samuel 17:16), i.e., of the wilderness of Judah lying nearest to Jerusalem, that dreary waste that extends along the western shore of the Dead Sea. We see clearly from 2-Samuel 16:2 (היּעף בּמּדבּר) and 2-Samuel 16:14 (עיפים, that he there found himself in the condition of a עיף. The inscription, when understood thus, throws light upon the whole Psalm, and verifies itself in the fact that the poet is a king; that he longs for the God on Zion, where he has been so delighted to behold Him, who is there manifest; and that he is persecuted by enemies who have plotted his ruin. The assertion that he is in the wilderness (Psalm 63:1) is therefore no mere rhetorical figure; and when, in 2-Samuel 16:10, he utters the imprecation over his enemies, "let them become a portion for the jackals," the influence of the desert upon the moulding of his thoughts is clearly seen in it.
We have here before us the Davidic original, or at any rate the counterpart, to the Korahitic pair of Psalm, Psalm 42:1-11, Psalm 43:1-5. It is a song of the most delicate form and deepest spiritual contents; but in part very difficult of exposition. When we have, approximately at least, solved the riddle of one Psalm, the second meets us with new riddles. It is not merely the poetical classic character of the language, and the spiritual depth, but also this half-transparent and half-opaque covering which lends to the Psalm such a powerful and unvarying attractiveness. They are inexhaustible, there always remains an undeciphered residue; and therefore, though the work of exposition may progress, it does not come to an end. But how much more difficult is it to adopt this choice spiritual love-song as one's own prayer! For this we need a soul that loves after the same manner, and in the main it requires such a soul even to understand it rightly; for, as the saintly Bernard says, lingua amoris non amanti barbara est.