Deserts and Loneliness
The Desert of Judah (a place I’ve never been) is rugged and lacking in moisture, and its landscape includes deep canyons, steep cliffs, and dry riverbeds. It has very little vegetation, though it is not devoid of life. The Sonoran Desert in Arizona (a place I have been) teems with life. From the many varieties of cacti, including the iconic saguaro cactus, to the stunning landscapes and unique wildlife, this vast area is fascinating and terrifying at the same time.
Even though I’ve never been to the Judean Desert and the desert I have been to is quite different from it, I still understand the barren, empty, desolate feelings being in a desert space evokes. Even though deserts vary extremely, they are all characterized by low rainfall, extreme temperatures, and specialized plant and animal life. They can each be considered a “barren wasteland,” “empty expanse,” “desolate landscape,” and “void of activity” in comparison to the places most of us are used to roaming even if in very different ways from one another.
Deserts lack life or vibrancy compared to what most of us are used to seeing, and this is precisely why each of us can relate to the mindset of David when he wrote Psalm 63. Even if we’ve never been to a desert or have been to one very different from what David experienced, we understand how deserts represent the struggles people often face in life.
Deserts represent isolation because of their vast, empty, lonely spaces. They represent the scarcity we feel in tough times through their extreme temperatures and lack of resources. Deserts represent times of endurance and survival that build strength, make us more adaptable, and teach us to be resourceful. Deserts represent the journey all of us go through toward transformation and growth because while they are extreme and stark, they have a profound beauty that can only be found in these tough environments much like the transformations each of us have experienced and that could have only come through a desert journey.
David was either fleeing from his rebellious son Absolon or King Saul when he wrote Psalm 63, also experiences none of us have likely faced. Yet, we still understand the loneliness he must have felt because we, too, have felt loneliness. Loneliness is like a desert, after all. Just as deserts vary drastically from one to another, they’re still all called deserts because of what they have in common. So, too, with loneliness.
While each of us experiences loneliness very differently from one another – it’s unique to the person and even within the seasons of a person’s life – we still understand one another’s loneliness because of what loneliness consists of.
Sadness. Despair. Anxiety. Negativity. Overthinking. Self-doubt. Social withdrawal. Isolation. Lack of motivation. Desire to escape. Fatigue. Poor sleep. Physical pain and discomfort. Lack of connection. Detachment. Depression. Low self-esteem. Increased stress.
Maybe not every one of these every time, but none of these are strangers to any of us because each of us has experienced loneliness in some form probably more than once in our lives. Our knowledge of deserts and loneliness helps us not just relate to what David writes in Psalm 63 but also connect it to our own experiences with desert loneliness. Most importantly, though, we can find direction within loneliness instead of letting it consume us by reading how David refocused himself in Psalm 63 during his desert loneliness.
Finding Focus in the Desert
David focuses on God in his loneliness. He does this by remembering what God has done as an indication of what he will do. His focus is deliberate and does not come through willpower but from meditation on God’s power and glory. In both words and posture, David chooses to direct his attention – his focus – to God instead of on his situation.
David focuses by seeking God and praising him, by clinging to God and finding his joy in God. He trusts God to support and protect him, and he trusts God for justice. He ends the Psalm by extending his focus throughout time to anyone who chooses to focus on and glory in God.
Desert loneliness has too often led me inward to focus on my feelings. When I do this, I am unable to see anything very clearly. Through that unclear lens, I then try to view my world but only see that which confirms and amplifies my loneliness. It’s only when I choose to focus on God – to follow the example that David sets here in Psalm 63 – that my desert loneliness doesn’t consume me. Only through the lens of who God is do I then find what he offers during times of desert loneliness.
This is one reason why regularly reading my Bible is so crucial. Without it, my focus falls to my feelings and my circumstances. With God’s word as my daily compass, though, my attention is continually reoriented.
