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So I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and glory.
Psalms 63:2 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory.
  • KJV To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
  • ESV So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
  • NKJV So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.
  • NASB So have I seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and glory.
  • NLT I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

David recalls beholding God's power and glory in the sanctuary. Past worship sustains his longing in the wilderness.

Overview

Far from the place of worship, David remembers seeing God's power and glory in the sanctuary. The memory of communion with God fuels his present thirst for him. For believers, the remembered experience of God's presence likewise strengthens faith during seasons of spiritual dryness.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 15

  • Ps 27:4One thing I have asked of the LORD; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and seek Him in His temple.
  • Ps 105:4Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.
  • Ps 84:2–11My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
  • Ps 96:6Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty fill His sanctuary.
  • 1 Chr 16:11Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.
  • 2 Cor 4:4–6The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
  • Exod 33:18–19Then Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.”
  • 1 Sam 4:21–22And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
  • Ps 145:11They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might,
  • Ps 68:24They have seen Your procession, O God—the march of my God and King into the sanctuary.
  • Ps 134:2Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the LORD!
  • Ps 73:17–18until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end.
  • Ps 77:13–14Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?
  • Ps 78:61He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.
  • Isa 60:13The glory of Lebanon will come to you—its cypress, elm, and boxwood together—to adorn the place of My sanctuary, and I will glorify the place of My feet.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 63:2YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 63:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.