Trust in God Alone
Study Scripture: Psalm 62
Background Scripture: Psalm 62
Devotional Reading: Jeremiah 17: 5 – 11
Lesson 9 October 26, 2024
Key Verse
My soul, wait in silence for God alone, For my hope is from Him.
Psalm 62:5
INTRODUCTION
David was arguably Israel’s greatest and most venerated king, yet this man had as many enemies as friends. The ‘king to be’ learned very early in life even as a youngster that God alone watches, is trusting. God”as his ‘Rock’, his salvation, and his fortress.
Our Study Psalm is placed after a Psalm where David is crying out for help when his heart is overwhelmed, and so in his hope he cries out for rescue. He writes that he is crying “from the ends of the earth” thus using a metaphor which means he is at the end of strength and resources and his human understanding cannot understand what is happening to him.
His ability and endurance is coming to an end and he therefore is in despair, and feels he is spiritually at some distance away from God.
He needs a “rock” and so he prays, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I”.
This is a man in adversity
David is going to be wiped out, and destroyed. That is the hope of his enemies. One writer states
“his enemies are treating him as if he were a leaning, tottering wall. And they are doing everything they could to push him over.
Yet in spite of their hostility in this psalm David is not worrying about them but rather is trusting God. That is probably the most important thing to be said about the psalm”.
David was not born into royalty and even though his father appears well-to-do, one could not know this from David’s home situation. The last of eight sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite, he was made the ‘shepherd’ of his father’s sheep but it was while in this lowly if not neglected position that the
youngster learned of God’s favor on him.
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a sheep from the flock, 35 I went out after it and [w]attacked it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth; and when it rose up against me, I grabbed it by its mane and struck it and killed it.36 Your servant has [x]killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The Lord who saved me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, He will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” 1 Samuel 17:34-37.
Let us not underestimate the works of those who are jealous and envious of those appointed by God to do His work. David was anointed by God and yet these enemies in Israel did not care about that, for they wanted power and wanted to destroy what God intended.
While few of us have been the target of a murder plot, this was the experience of David a number of times in his life.
It is your experience many times in your life also, for people who profess to be in the kingdom will not hesitate to destroy you, even if they cannot do the appointed work of God better than you. Satan is always working to thwart the plan of God.
Satan does not care about you so we learn from David’s experience that once you are directed by the Spirit of God, you are to steel yourself against the attacks of Satan, and run to the Rock that is higher than you. He will protect you.
Do not forget that you exist in the sphere of spiritual warfare. You are dealing with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.
Sadly, believers tend to live casually and not recognize the dangers that are always there.
Many have heard empty threats on their lives and they do not seem to realize these threats are real. But the only difference between you and David who was a king and who was the one through whose line the Messiah would come, the threats were immediate, real, of a monumental nature, and a present danger for long periods.
It was against such a background David penned Psalm 62.
The attendant circumstances of the Psalm are unknown, however, regardless of the situation, the mindset and response of the King was one buttressed by a long record of God’s faithfulness, love and care for His Servant.
The sufficiency, faithfulness, willingness and power of God were such that the psalmist was at peace in himself and declared ” … He alone is my rock and my salvation …”.
When the storms of life threaten, surely this must be the posture of the godly; there should be no equivocation, we look to God and Him only.
Do not make excuse for your behavior outside of and contrary to the commandments of God.
Stand up for Jesus, says the popular song.
Remember that you must trust in God alone.
Some trust in horses and chariots but you must trust in God alone. We sing glibly and ignore the word in the song, Psalms 20:7-8 states:
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.”
The arm of flesh will not save you, you dare not trust your own. Proverbs 3:5 states, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths”.
The prophet Isaiah in 31:1 states
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD.”
The main theme of the Psalm is the right and wrong objects of faith. If we trust in God, as did the psalmist, we are secure. If we trust in men or in things, we are depending on that which is lighter than breath (vs.9).
Interestingly, even though David was in a life-threatening situation, the Psalm contains no prayer or plea for rescue.
“There is scarcely another psalm that reveals such an absolute and undisturbed peace, in which confidence in God is so completely unshaken, and in which assurance is so strong that not even one single petition is voiced throughout the psalm.”
Of course, David experienced this peace through prayer, and he exhorts God’s people to pour out their hearts before Him (vs.8).
All of us want to have this same peace that David had in this crisis. At the heart of his peace is his confident trust in God alone.
One commentator David Guzik, enlightens us on the value in examining the superscription that accompanies this Psalm, for this is addressed to those who though children of God, think lightly of themselves:
“The title of this psalm is ‘To the Chief musician, To Jeduthun, A Psalm of David’.
Jeduthun (mentioned also in the title of Psalm 39 and Psalm 27) was one of the musicians appointed by David to lead Israel’s public worship (1 Chronicles 16:41; 25:1-3).
Charles Spurgeon wrote regarding Jeduthun:
“The sons of Jeduthun were porters or doorkeepers, according to 1 Chronicles 16:42.
Those who serve well make the best of singers, and those who occupy the highest posts in the choir must not be ashamed to wait at the posts of the doors of the Lord’s house”.
Jeduthan might have been someone like a song-writing partner to David (David ruled 1010-970 B.C.)
Structurally the Psalm falls into three stanzas, the first two ending with “Selah.” The first section (62:1-4) we may label ‘composure in threatening times’. The second section (62:5-8) is ‘composure reaffirmed.’
The final section (62:9-12) is ‘contrast,’ where David shows us what not to trust in and whom to trust.
Some think that David wrote this Psalm in the context of Absalom’s rebellion, but we cannot know for sure. The attacks seem to have been prolonged, as seen by David’s cry, ‘How long …?’ The conspirators were plotting how to remove him from the throne by assassination. They were spreading falsehoods and used flattery, telling David that he was a great king, while inwardly cursing him.
Hopefully we will never have anyone plotting to kill us! But if we are in any kind of leadership position, whether in the church or in business, there will be times when we will be under attack.
Note, the Bible never promises exemption from such attacks. Rather, it shows us what to do when we are under attack.
As prayers and songs, the Psalms give worshippers a voice. Among other classifications, sometimes a Psalm is a voice of lament (Psalms 10; 13; 44; 77), and sometimes it is a voice of thanksgiving and praise (Psalms 66; 107; 148). Psalm 62 is neither a lament nor a thanksgiving hymn, though it contains elements of both.
Instead, Psalm 62 can appropriately be called a confidence psalm. It expresses trust and hope in God in the middle of distress.
Confidence psalms arise from an assured relationship with God. The psalmists are confident that God is their help and refuge. They trust in God’s power and goodness, and they hope in God’s faithfulness (Psalms 11; 23).
Note that specific hardships are alluded to in the superscripts of David’s psalms (see commentary on 62:3–4, below).
The power of poetry, especially set to song, is to allow not only the writer or singer to express themselves; fears, pain, trust, love….. but also to speak for an audience in attendance. Psalm 60 invited Israelites to join the song, and it still does for us today.
TEXT
Verse 1. Truly my soul waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation.\
The preferred translation from some scholars is:
“My soul rests in God alone,
My salvation is from him”.
One therefore when he examines the translation comments:
“The critical point is that David is trusting in God only, in God alone.
It is hard to see in the English text, because the Hebrew is almost untranslatable, but in the Hebrew text the word only or alone occurs five times in the first eight verses (in vv.1, 2, 4, 5, 6.), and once in verse 9.
The Hebrew word is >ak, and the reason its use in the psalm is almost untranslatable is that no one English word seems to be an adequate translation in all the six occurences.
“My soul finds rest in God alone (vs.1). He alone is my rock (v.2).
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone (v.5.), and “He alone is my rock” (v.6).
But in verse 4, the translators thought they needed to use the word fully (“They fully intend to topple him”), and in verse 9, they use the pale word but (“Lowborn men are but a breath).
So I repeat what I have been saying: The most important thing about Psalm 62 is that the psalmist is making God his only object of trust. He is not trusting something other than God, nor is he trusting God and something else, or God and someone else. His trust is in God only, and that is why he is so confident….
I think this is something Christians in our day especially need to learn. Our problem is not that we do not trust God at least in some sense. We have to do that to be Christians. To become a Christian you have to trust God in the matter of salvation at least.
It is rather that we do not trust God only, meaning that we always want to add in something to trust as well”.
Truly … its repetition throughout the psalm emphasizes the truth of each statement, lending a heightened sense of the sincerity for the psalmist.
My soul identifies the seat of a person’s commitments and loyalties. It is the “I” of personhood.
… waiteth … the waiting is restful, sometimes even silent. David was not an autonomous self but a dependent one. He entrusted himself to God because salvation comes from God, though we do not know for sure from what David required rescuing.
In this instance, salvation should not be thought of as a distant spiritual reality but as a present, physical rescue (Exodus 14:13; 1
Samuel 14:45; Psalm 35:1–3) as is often the case in the Old Testament.
The key thought here is submission. When difficult things happen to us, we can either angrily complain to God, or we can submit to Him, agreeing with His promises, giving supremacy to His Word, bowing before His sovereignty, and suppressing our tendency to grumble.
Job was such a man when God inexplicably took his possessions, his ten children, and his health; Job humbly proclaimed
“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21.
While the rest of the Book of Job shows how he wrestled through his pain and his complaints against God, by the end of the Book we find Job again in a posture of worship, bowing before God’s sovereign hand (Job 40:4-5; 42:1-6).
So, humbling ourselves “under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter. 5:6) is a key element in experiencing God’s peace when we are under attack.
Like David, we are wise when we entrust ourselves to the Lord and do not trust ourselves
(Proverbs 3:5–6). Completely trusting God is related to the covenant (Psalm 62:11–12)
If David trusted God completely based on covenants in Israel, how much more should we, given that we have received what Israel hoped for! (Hebrews 11)
Verse 2. He only is my rock and my salvation;… repeating the word salvation is another way David emphasized his confidence that he would find what he needed from the Lord (vs.1). Only God, the rock, can serve as the source of stability and rest.
When God was David’s defense, he could confidently and boldly profess that he could never be greatly moved—and so can we.
Grounded in God’s gracious salvation and protected by God’s power, we confess that nothing will shake us (Psalms 30:6; 46:5; 55:22; 66:9; 112:6; 121:3). Our feet will not slip or give way. The soul committed to God alone is stabilized by God’s saving work and protective care.
Verse 3. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? …. this verse and the next feature several contrasts between what has come before, to what will come after.
Ye shall be slain and the images of an unstable wall and fence contrast the transient nature of David and his enemies with the unchanging, faithful God, who is David’s “rock” and “defense” (vs.2).
The contrast highlights God’s power versus the ultimate powerlessness of any human as well as God’s integrity in His dealings with David against the unreliability of his enemies.
We do not know the specific nature of the mischief David’s opponents imagined, but we know that David’s life was full of situations that might fit the bill
Verse 4. … They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. In the opening of the psalm, God is the only ground of assurance. But David’s opponents lacked reverence for God, as evidenced by their total disregard for David, God’s chosen king (1 Samuel 16:7–12; 2 Samuel 7:8–9;
1 Samuel 24:5–7).
Speaking of himself in the third person, David suggested these opponents conspired to cast him down from his excellency, referring either to his position in Saul’s court or to the throne itself. Some examples come from before David became king while he was part of King Saul’s court or exiled from it (1 Samuel 18:10–11; 23:7–29; etc.; compare Psalms 57; 63; 142).
Another possibility occurs decades later when King David’s own son Absalom revolted against his father and tried to depose him (2 Samuel 15:13–14; compare Psalm 3).
These and other efforts revealed David’s enemies to be liars and hypocrites, willing to bless with their mouth while they curse inwardly (compare Matthew 23). They sought to undermine God’s chosen and unjustly attacked David.
Selah … no one is sure what selah means. Since the book of Psalms was used in Israel’s corporate worship and the psalms were frequently set to music. We can postulate that “selah” is a musical note, perhaps for a silent pause. This guess works well if the song leader wanted to invite the congregation to consider their own concerns as they prayed and sang the psalmist’s words.
Verses 5–6. My soul, wait thou only upon God; … these two verses form a sort of refrain, largely repeating what was expressed in verses 1one and two.
Wait is a form of “waiteth” that appeared in verse 1.
In Psalm 131:2, the same word is used, describing a weaned child with his mother. There as here, the image is of security, peace, and silence.
A literal translation would be, “My soul, be silent or immovable in God alone”.
This expresses faith in the God. The psalmist uses elohim (the generic word for a god or gods and when it is used here it is regarded as a “plural of majesty” of a God who is always faithful and delivers those who are faithful.
“for my expectation is from Him”(Hebrew tigwah).The Hebrew word used here means hope, a looking forward optimism.
“He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.(Hebrew: misgab) I shall not be moved.”
One writer advises us: A misgab is a fortress. It can have its roots in geography, such as a river or cliff that stands as a barrier to enemies. It can be something that people have built, such as fortified walls. It is a place where a person can feel secure. The psalmist says that God is his misgab –his fortress—his security.
The Apostle Paul expressed this kind of faith in his letter to the church in Rome. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
In other words, if God is for us, what does it matter who is against us—because in the end, God will prevail. When we have faith in God, we can indeed become rock-steady in the midst of a stormy world”.
“I will not be shaken” (Hebrew mot) (v.6b). The word mot means to be moved or to fall.
It carries the sense of wavering or weakness.
David vows not to allow his enemies to get the best of him.
He will not shake or tremble at the thought of them”.
Now, we know that when your enemies attack you relentlessly you might become afraid. But if you show fear or weakness you might be simply encouraging your enemies. So the best advice from the psalmist, which is good advice, is not to show fear or weakness.
David is solid as a rock because his God is solid as a rock.
He is determined not to allow his enemies to intimidate him.
Follow David’s advice. Do not fret about your enemies. God will deal with them.
Verse 7. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
This verse expands what is said in verses one, two, five and six. Here as there, God is the psalmist’s salvation, rock, and refuge.
The only new language here is of God as the psalmist’s glory. The word can also be translated “honor” (Psalms 26:8; 66:2; etc.).
The first example of God’s giving people glory is found at creation (Genesis 1:26–27; Psalm 8:5). We also think of Jesus’ honoring people by becoming fully human in order to minister among us and die for our sins (Philippians 2:6–11).
Remember that when God is your refuge you will find peace and quiet there.
Verse 8. So, “Trust in the lord at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us”.
Adopt the attitude of David and you will find his kind of peace, and you will find the blessing he found.
David cannot contain the joy of knowing God as his salvation, so he writes (62:8), “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”
What a wonderful verse!
David is telling us how he endured this terrible attack on his life by these fierce, cunning enemies. He trusted in God; he poured out his heart to God; he took refuge in God. He’s telling us to do the same. What God was to David in his extreme trial, He can be to you in your crisis.
How does pouring out your heart to God (62:8) fit with waiting silently for Him (62:1, 5)?
Obviously, they’re not contradictory.
Waiting silently for God only, as we’ve seen, is to put our hearts in submission to His sovereign love in the face of trials that seem to contradict either His sovereignty or His love.
It’s an attitude of trustful submission. Pouring out our hearts is to unburden ourselves in prayer, where we empty all of our anxieties and confusion and pain onto the Lord, while still remaining in submission to His sovereign love. As 1 Peter 5:7 puts it, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
David has shown us that we can be composed or at peace if God alone is our salvation and refuge. He has reaffirmed it, showing that it is usually a battle to get to this place and remain there in the face of difficult trials. He concludes with a contrast, showing us what not to trust and repeating again who to trust:
Verse 9. … To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
A stark contrast is drawn between God and men, whether of low or high degree. These contrasts are meant to be understood together, indicating all people (Psalm 49:2).
When compared to God, each person from least to greatest is vanity and a lie. The concept of vanity is familiar from the book of Ecclesiastes, which frequently uses this same Hebrew word to assert the meaninglessness observed in human life (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 14; 2:11; 3:19).
The word ‘breath’ or ‘vanity’ describes a mist that appears for a moment and then dissipates. In this way, anyone can be (metaphorically) weighed (laid in the balance) and found to be lighter than vanity.
For ancient people, balance scales were vital to commerce. Coinage would not be invented until sometime in the 600s BC, so transactions in David’s day (about 400 years earlier) and for centuries following his reign were done by weight (Genesis 23:16; 1 Kings 7:47).
An unbalanced or loaded scale could cheat people out of precious resources (Amos 8:5). The weight of goods was truly important. When weighed against God on a balance scale, there is no substance to us (Isaiah 40:15).
We can try with all our might, but we lack the power to do most of the good we would like. And we ultimately cannot trust ourselves or others who hold no power for deliverance.
Verse 10. Trust not in oppression and become not vain in robbery. If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
For the powerful, their success at oppression can feel like safety. The illusion of having control over not only one’s own life but also the lives of others creates a false sense of self-determination and influence over the world.
Jewish law prohibited oppression and robbery. But powerful Israelites frequently broke these laws, despite the frequent warning by the prophets of the consequences of such actions.
In truth, oppressors need fear God’s wrath and judgment for their sins, a lesson Israel (and Judah) would learn long after David’s reign ended (Amos 2:4–16).
In the Hebrew practice of poetic parallelism, robbery stands parallel to the oppression of the previous line in encompassing any number of financial or material crimes. It is an effective strategy for maintaining one’s power. But even riches obtained without extortion or other wickedness are not to be trusted, (1 Timothy 6:10, 17–19).
The edict in verse 10, “if riches increase, don’t set your heart on them”, is very difficult to obey. Men and women always tend to naturally rely on their wealth and less and less and less on God.
In short, no human resource can serve as a refuge from trouble. Rather than relying on creatures, David invites us to “trust in [God] at all times” (vs. 8)
Verses 11-12. God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this. … these two phrases poetically emphasize the efficacy of God’s speaking.
We might think of creation, when God had only to say a word, and what He said was created (Genesis 1).
For David to hear God’s speech twice might mean He repeated a particular message, or it could simply emphasize that David took what he heard to heart. The latter is certainly in view, based on the confidence David has expressed in the Lord.
The “once, twice” language is a common Hebrew poetic device. Here it probably means that God repeated the answer or impressed it upon David more than once to drive the point home.
One writer notes: “To some God speaks twice and they will not hear once; but to others he speaks but once, and they hear twice.”
God is powerful.
Second, He is loving.
Therefore, He will justly judge all of our enemies.
If anyone opposes God’s power and resists His love, he will know His justice.
Satan always attacks either or both of these truths when we face trials. He tempts us with the thought that if God is all-powerful, He could have prevented these trials. So, He must not love us.
This is where by faith we have to join Joseph, who told his brothers who had sold him into slavery (Gen. 50:20), “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good….”
By faith, affirm both God’s power and His love.
… For thou renderest to every man according to his work.
Paul alluded to this phrase in Romans 2:6 (Proverbs 24:12) and expressed a similar sentiment in 2 Timothy 4:14.
Some students propose that neither David nor Paul seems to have had the Last Judgment in mind when making this assertion. Instead, God’s conduct is appropriately contrasted with human conduct. Whereas we might act with a lack of integrity or with only selfish ends in mind, God acts out of His power and mercy.
CONCLUSION
Just as a song on the radio can feel like it was written for you at this exact moment in your life and expresses what you need to say, so too can the psalms.
Psalm 62 invites us to sing along with David and join him in his expression of confidence in God alone. Without identifying a specific situation in David’s life, the psalm becomes that much more accessible for any situation we might relate to the feelings it expresses. Whatever troubled David, we have our own troubles.
David models for us how to face our own struggles even though our troubles are different from his. We surrender every circumstance to God because we not only know God’s strength and love, but we also know He will deal with evil and hold human beings accountable for their actions.
Those who trust in God have nothing to fear; we fear neither God’s judgment nor the troubles that have swamped us. The God of power and mercy will do what is just and right.
Without any further details, we can say with confidence only that David found himself in a turbulent situation. In the midst of it, the king still expressed supreme confidence in God.
Sometimes joining David in song will mean singing praise to God, alone or with fellow believers. But other practices also nurture confidence in God, especially when misplaced faith in people falls apart.
One example of pouring our hearts out to God (Psalm 62:8, above) could be reading the psalm as our own prayer. While doing so, we reflect on what we need from God, whether that is a change of circumstance or to strength to endure.
We could also read the Psalm as a way to listen for God (Psalm 62:11). Listening for Him in all of Scriptures allows us to learn who He is, grasp what He desires for and from us, and build the relationship that He desires and we so desperately need.
We must constantly and consistently open ourselves to the Word of God through listening to the reading of Scripture in community, studying Scripture in family and private moments, and memorizing Scripture. We devote time to mulling over the language of Scripture in order to listen to the voice of the Spirit so that we might come to know God and become like God in our conduct.
Let us therefore remind ourselves of thei famous song by Martin Luther,
A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD:
A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, a-mid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side, The man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His name,
From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.
And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us;
The Prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure; One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers, No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours Through him who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever.