Psalm 63 · a question people ask
When was David "in the desert of Judah"?
The title says only this: "A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah" (63:1). It names a place and no event, and the psalm's own words name none either, so these notes don't match it to any one account in the books of Samuel. In Hebrew the place is midbar Yehudah, and the Hebrew Bible has those two words together in one other verse, where the WEB has "into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad" (Judges 1:16). The psalm's "dry and weary land, where there is no water" (63:1) comes in its prayer, and the psalm doesn't say whether that land is the desert of the title. These notes don't say it for the psalm.
The verses
“A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah. 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.”
“The children of the Kenite, Moses’ brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people.”