Psalm 62
Let’s hear from God’s word together.
This is Psalm 62, and the title says, to the choir master, according
to Jeduthun, a Psalm of David. For God alone, my soul waits
in silence. From him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly
shaken. How long will all of you attack
a man to batter him? like a leaning wall, a tottering
fence, the only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood, they bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. For God alone, my soul, oh my
soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is
my rock and my salvation. My fortress, I shall not be shaken. On God rest my salvation and
my glory. My mighty rock, my refuge is
God. Trust in him at all times, old
people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Those of low estate are but or
only a breath. Those of high estate are a delusion.
and the balance as they go up. They are together lighter than
a breath. Put no trust in extortion, set no vain hopes on robbery.
If riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken,
twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God and that
you, O Lord, belongs, to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love,
for you will render to a man according to his work. Amen. This is God’s holy word. It’s
for us. It’s for our encouragement and
our instruction. So we have just come through
the Reformation and we have studied the word alone. It’s been important. Scripture alone, faith alone,
grace alone, Christ alone, and the glory of God alone. And now
tonight in our psalm, we get to learn about trusting in God
alone. It may be a glimpse of trusting
in God for the first time for salvation is there, but this
is really the ongoing relationship of trust with God day to day
in the nitty gritty of life. And five times in the beginning
of Psalm 62, you will bump into the word alone or only. It’s very clear in the Hebrew
translation or the Hebrew rendering of Psalm 62, and it’s not so
clear necessarily in our English translations, but it gets the
point across that we are to trust in God alone, not God plus checkbook,
God plus personality, God plus pop psychology, God plus you
fill in the blank, but we are to trust in God only. Today,
I was talking with one of our ladies in the church, and she
reminded me of a wonderful Corrie Ten Boone quote, and I can’t
remember exactly what it is, but we trust in Jesus at all
times, but we really trust in Jesus when we have nothing else
to fall upon. And so this is a situation where
King David gets in such a bad difficulty. that every power
afforded to him as the King of Israel is stripped away. I mean,
he could call Joab, he could call his mighty men, he could
call his bodyguards, he could pull out his own large sword.
We know from his escapades in the life of the Philistine giant
with the beast out in the field when he was a shepherd in his
father’s flock, we know that David is able to handle difficulty. But here he’s in a place where
all he can do is trust and trust in God and in God alone. And so the thrust, the theme,
the oomph, the emphasis of this Psalm is that we trust in God
alone and in nothing else. All else is stripped away from
us. All we have is God. And that’s the proper place for
our trust. Now, what’s the problem? What’s
the problem that we face? Well, We’re good Calvinists. We trust God for salvation. I
mean, we believe that it’s God alone who saves. We got that
Sola Scriptura thing, the Sola Fide thing. We got the Sola Gratia
thing. We got the Solus Christus, the
Sola Dea Gloria. We got all that down pat. We’re
good Calvinists. We believe that Jesus saves. It’s not our works. We were dead. We were sinners
that we had to be made alive. We had to be brought from death
to life. We got all that. We’re good Calvinists. We believe
that Jesus plus nothing equals salvation. We’re good there.
But when it comes, and pardon my adolescent sounding voice,
with this cold, my voice may crack for the first time in 37
years or 27 years, but we believe when it comes to salvation, that
faith in Jesus is everything. But when it comes down to our
day-to-day living, we all of a sudden lose our Calvinism.
We lose our view of the sovereignty of God. And in our day-to-day
living, we somehow buy into Jesus plus my checkbook and I’ll be
fine. Jesus plus my ability to get
through problems, I’ll be fine. Jesus plus my circle of friendships,
I’ll be fine. Jesus plus the latest pop psychology,
and I’ll be fine. Or Jesus plus some retail therapy.
or maybe some Netflix binging, or a bucket of cookie dough. Whatever
it takes, we’ll be just fine. And we adopt mysticism, we adopt
pragmatism, we adopt the latest thing that gets published in
the Christian world. And all of a sudden, we who are faithful
Christians who believe in God alone for our initial salvation,
we become people who believe that God is not in control, and
God is not powerful, And we somehow maybe enter into that old world
from a little while ago where people were basically deist.
They believed that God made the world and everything in it. He
put the basketball globe on his finger, he spun it, got it whirling,
and he tossed it in the air, and somehow it’s still spinning,
but it’s not under his sovereignty. It’s not under his control. And
so Psalm 62 puts us back in our place and reminds us that God
plus nothing is all that we have to trust in. Now, why might we think in that
bad way which I’ve just described? Why might we get ourselves thinking
that God plus something will get us through the hardship? Well, if you look at the church
for the last maybe 50, 75, even 100 years, you have seen the
church move, and it’s been this way throughout the ages, but
largely in America, you’ve seen the church move from being God-centered
to man-centered. We’ve lost sight of the triune
God. We’ve lost sight of even a God-centered
worship where week after week we come in and we reorient our
lives back to what is good, right, and true, where God is at the
center, and His scripture is primary, and Jesus is our only
hope. We’ve even moved away from the
means of grace, which we believe in the Christian church have
historically been the word, the sacraments, and prayer. And so
we’ve moved away in the church in America to a church that is
some kind of song and dance show, and then a guy, as if he’s the
cuckoo in the cuckoo clock, pops his head out at 11.30 and goes
back in magically at noon, and then we all go home happy, having
been entertained and having had an inspiring message. And the
world, the church, has eaten it up. We watch it on TV, we
send in our money, we love this prosperity that is promised to
us. And so we wonder why we’ve lost
trust in God. Well, it’s because as one great
theologian has said, our man-centeredness has eclipsed God. You know what
happens when the moon is overshadowed? The moon is still there. It’s
still there in all its glory, but it’s been eclipsed. It’s
been covered over. And so we cannot see what is
there. And so we have to recommit ourselves
to utter trust in God and understand that God is at work in every
moment of every day. He’s in everything that we do. And so while the church, while
the church and while the modern American culture has betrayed
God, We have got to put ourselves in a position to understand again
what is good and right and true and what is in the Scriptures. One way to put this is we have
this grand house of the Scriptures. We have this grand house of worship,
and it’s a beautiful house once you enter in. But when we have
adopted all the trickery of the world, we’ve really put a rotten
porch on the front of a grand house. And what happens is we
make our way up those steps, and our weight goes down on that
wooden platform. is it causes us to sink. We fall
through and we never really enter into the true things about God
and the wonders that he is able to perform on our behalf. We go crashing through. And so
for us, according to Psalm 62, I do believe, we have to understand
that trusting God is plan A, B, C, D, and E. Well, it’s really just plan A.
It’s the only plan. And that’s to trust in God. And
so in a couple of neat little stanzas here, King David tells
us in one of the most difficult situations of his life, when
his own son Absalom has stolen his kingdom, has set up enemies
against David, and David can’t even live in the own city, not
only his own city, but the one he conquered and built. as a
place for the kingdom of God to exist on earth. He’s in a
bad spot. So look at verses one through
four. He says, for God alone, my soul waits in silence. You’ll
see that pop up again in verse five. And then he speaks of two
things in the rest of verses one through four. He asked a
question and then he makes a statement about his enemies. First, he
expresses confidence in God, then he asks a question, and
then he makes a statement about his enemies. He says of God,
for God alone my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly
shaken. There’s the confidence. And then a question. How long
will all of you attack a man to batter him like a leaning
wall or a tottering fence. You know, you fellas, maybe you
grew up playing outside. You know what it’s like to find
something rotten, like a tree. Maybe some of you gals did this
too. Boys are more destructive. But we find something that’s
nearly broken. It’s nearly gone. And what do we want to do? We
want to push it over. And that’s what the enemies of
David are doing to him. They see that he’s teetering,
that he’s weak. Something has entered into his strength, his
son Absalom, and so he’s a tolerant wall and they want to push him
over. How long will you attack a man? And then he makes a statement
about his enemies there, verse four. They only plan to thrust
him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. And then there’s that wonderful
little mysterious word, selah, which we believe means pause
and think about it. Think about God. Think about
your enemies. And then think about your walk
with God and how he’s so faithful and that you can trust him. Now
in the second stanza, verses five through eight, you’re gonna
hear some of the same things we heard in verses one through
four, but it’s gonna take a little bit different of a theme. He’s
gonna express confidence in God, but instead of asking his enemies
a question, like, how long are you gonna go on with this attempt
to destroy me? He’s gonna speak to the covenant
community, to the church. Notice what he does. He says
in verse five, just like he does in verse one, for God alone,
or only, my soul waits, I wait in silence for my hope is from
him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress, I shall
not be shaken. On God rests my salvation, my
glory, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. And then he speaks after
saying his own personal confidence. He speaks to the congregation,
trusting him at all times, O people, pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. And then there’s that Selah,
stop, think about it, ponder it, dwell on it, write it down
in your journal, tape it to the bathroom mirror. This is really
important. And so twice we have David express his confidence
in God, twice he addresses somebody, first time it’s the enemies,
now it’s the covenant people. and there’s some repetition there,
but notice what he teaches in verse eight. Trust in God at
all times. Here’s not only the king of Israel,
but in a sense, the prophet of Israel saying to us, he’s saying
to the church, you know, you can put your trust in chariots,
you can put your trust in Abner, you can put your trust in your
checkbook, your pot of gold, you can put your trust in your
ability to be healthy, you can put your trust in all kinds of
things, but it’s better to put it in God and in God alone. He’s speaking to us. He’s speaking
to the church and oh how sad it is that the church in America
is now the peddler of pop psychology. It’s a peddler of Came up with
this myself today, I’m really proud of it. Microwaved Norman
Vincent Peale. Some of y’all know who that is,
right? He was that guy from the early 1900s that people ate him
alive. He had people eating out of his
hands, but he said nothing to them. He’s a lot like one of
our smiley-faced white-teeth fellas on TV today. But we just
love that stuff, and so we’re microwaving it, and we’re passing
it around, and people eat it up like it’s the greatest spiritual
food. but it leaves us empty, it leaves
us with nothing. But King David has great words, trust in God
at all times. Pour out your heart before him,
for God is a refuge. And then notice how in verses
nine through 12, he speaks in general about mankind, he speaks
in general about his enemies, but he gets very specific about
God. And I want you to think about something as we move in
this last little stanza. Are you at a place in your life
Where, when trouble comes, you just look to God. And you don’t
say, I’m gonna go here, and if that doesn’t work, I’m gonna
go there, and if that doesn’t work, I’m gonna go back here.
Your first response is to say, I’m gonna grab hold of God, and
I’m gonna hang on to him. I’ve tried the other, it doesn’t
work. The scripture tells me what’s true, and I’m just gonna
go there. That’s where David is. That’s
where David is out of experience and out of the work of the spirit
in him. He’s in a place of settled trust in God and God alone. Remember, he’s the king of Israel.
Remember, he’s the one that slain ten thousands. He’s the one that
has acquired every horse and every chariot and every ramparts
and every piece of battle equipment that the world can offer. He
is the king of Israel at its height, when its borders had
gone to the great lengths and distance that they could go.
He’s the king of Israel. He needs no help. Well, he does,
and he needs the help of God. So as you look at verses nine
through 12, you have to understand that about David. And so he says
in verse nine, those of low estate are but a breath. They’re only,
that’s the other only. You’ve got a translation of they’re
but a breath, but it’s only or alone a breath. Those of lowest
state are but a breath. Those of highest state are a
delusion. In the balances, they go up and
they’re together lighter than a breath. Here’s a little philosophical
David. Everybody comes to the same end,
more or less. Put no trush at extortion. Set
no vain hopes on robbery. If riches increase, set not your
heart on them. I don’t know, I’ve felt pretty
good this year. You know, it’s all Donald Trump, right? He’s
made the stock market go up. There’s a really good article
the other day, it says, if Hillary had become president, what would the stock
market have done? And the article’s conclusion was pretty much the
same thing. I don’t know if I buy that completely. But you know,
we all might be feeling pretty good about our earnings this
last year. What does he say about that?
Don’t trust in it. Don’t set your heart on it. What
about people of high estate? People with a big name? People
with a big net worth? They’re a delusion. What about
people of low estate? They are but a breath. He’s speaking
of the brevity, just the vapor of life, nothing
that we put our trust in. will be there. So put no trust
in these things. Then he says something that he’s
learned. Once God has spoken twice, I have heard this, that
power belongs to God, that you, O Lord, to you, O Lord, belongs
steadfast love, and you will render to a man according to
his work. So what two things has David learned? Well, he’s
learned that God is sovereign, God is strong, God is powerful,
but God is also a God of steadfast love. He’s just affirmed that
man is nothing, he’s a vapor and he’s a delusion and so are
his riches, but he’s sure of this, God is powerful and God
is the God of steadfast love. And we have to think of Romans
chapter eight here. What does Romans chapter eight tell us?
It tells us a lot of things, but very specifically, it said,
if God is for us, who can be against us? If God did not, how
does it go, spare his only son, how much more will he give us
all things? And so why would we go put our
trust in something, in something that cannot deliver, something
that cannot rescue, something that cannot, deliver us from
our difficulties. God is strong. He is steadfast.
He is for us and therefore who can be against us. I want us
to end tonight with this challenge. Maybe do a inspection of your
life, an analysis or a what do we call it an audit. And say I trust in God plus. And you fill in that blank. And
you fill in that blank based on what you would do if you got
a health scare. Fill in that blank based on what you would
do if the economy tanked. What you would do if you lost
something you love dearly or everything you love dearly. I
trust in God plus, and you fill in that blank. And you know the
way to pass that test, don’t you? Is to put nothing in that
blank. Or if you have something in that
blank, because you’re honest, You get out your eraser. And
as you erase, you say like David, in God alone, my soul waits in
silence. In him alone, he is my rock and
my salvation. Amen. Let’s pray together. Our
Lord, our God, we pray that our trust would be like David’s.
And we know that by your spirit, you can do that in us. And we
pray that we would take our eraser And from that piece of paper
where we would write things in God, plus whatever we trust,
we pray that by your spirit, we would erase the things that
our fingers cling to. Oh Lord, we love our money. We love our health. We love our
ability. We love our strength, our power. We love our blessings. And they are good things. They’re
from you. They’re gifts. But Lord, while the going is
easy, help us to take our trust off of them so that when the
hard things do come, and they will, we might be like Job and
stand on the cusp of death, but look into the heavens and say,
I know that my Redeemer lives. Help us, give us grace to see
this and to believe this, and help us to speak these words
of encouragement to others when they fall upon hard times to
trust in you and you alone. This we ask in the name of Jesus,
our great brother and our great helper. Amen.