May 12, 2019 :: Psalm 62
We’re going to elongate our little break from the action in the Gospel of Matthew and take another quick dip into the Psalter together.
Last week, we looked at Psalm 103. This week, we want to look at Psalm 62. Another of the Psalms of David.
When Anita, and Amy Jo and I got together this week to plan our Mother’s Day worship service, I asked them what song they would want to sing, as mothers, on Mother’s Day.
And Amy Jo said, “I’d like to sing ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness.’ That’s what I need to hear on a Sunday singing about being a Mom. That our God is faithful.”
And I thought, I’m sure that all of the moms need to hear that and sing that, too.
And that got me thinking, maybe I should find a good psalm with that message to preach it, too. A song about God’s faithfulness.
We looked at one last week with Psalm 103. What if we stuck with that theme?
So I decided that the next day, I would go looking for one.
And the next day, I got up in the morning, made my Trader Joe’s coffee, poured it into my favorite ugly mug, and sat down on the couch before anybody else woke up to do my daily devotions in the Psalms, and what do you think was the very next Psalm for me to read?
Psalm 62.
And I read it, and then I read it again. And then I said, “This is the Psalm for Mother’s Day.”
It’s not your normal Mother’s Day text. It’s not Proverbs 31 or something like that.
And it’s from a guy’s perspective. It’s written by King David.
But you know what? Being a Mom is, I think, a lot like being a king.
Because you know what I think the hardest part of being a king is?
It’s being responsible.
It’s probably great to have sovereignty and authority and power.
But a great king is greatly responsible.
And that’s what Moms are, right?
Moms, do you feel the weight of responsibility?
And kings are often under attack. David was, at least.
Do Moms feels attacked?
The Psalms exist to give a prayer language to people under great stress.
Any moms under great stress?
Well, Psalm 62 is about a person who is under great stress but is trusting God and finding in God the peace that they need.
In fact, the psalmist says that they will quote, “never be shaken.”
Let me read the first two verses to you.
“For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David. My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
Here’s my title for today, “Unshaken Moms.”
Mothers who are unshaken and virtually unshakeable no matter what gets thrown at them.
Sound good?
Of course, this is true for more than just moms.
This is a song for all of us to sing, to ourselves, to others, and to God.
But I want to provide some particular application to Moms because this is Mother’s Day, and because I want our church family to be full of unshakeable Moms.
Let’s read the first two verses again.
What I love about them is that they are so confident.
David comes out of the gate singing a loud anthem of confident trust in the Lord.
“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
I like that song!
It’s positive and encouraging. It could be on K-Love!
And it sounds so good. I want that for myself.
The words “my soul finds rest” in some versions is translated, “my soul waits in silence” (ESV) or “I wait quietly” (NLT).
The Hebrew is literally, “my soul silence.” Or “My soul is silence.”
The idea is that David’s soul, his innermost being, is silent.
Now, obviously, he’s making noise here.
He’s composing and singing a song for his worship leader Jeduthun to put into the rotation at worship at the tabernacle.
But his soul is not noisy. It’s not chaotic. It’s not frantic. It’s not frenetic and disorderly and loud.
It’s...silent.
It’s at rest.
It’s sitting there patiently waiting for God’s salvation.
“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.”
That salvation was from David’s enemies.
He was under attack. He was under stress. He was under duress. He was being assaulted.
But He was at peace.
I want that. And I want that for you. And I want that especially for our Moms.
The way to get there is to trust in God alone. V.2
“He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
You never know how much you appreciate a rock until you need it.
You never know how much you appreciate something solid and trustworthy and true and unshakeable until your life gets shaken.
God is a rock.
That doesn’t mean He’s dumb. He’s smarter than anything.
But it does mean that He’s immovable. He does not budge. He does not move. He does not drift away. He is solid and trustworthy.
God is not going anywhere.
Let me say that again. You can trust God because God is not going anywhere.
“He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress...”
David knew all about fortresses. They were places of safety, right?
If you run to the fortress. If you can just get to the fortress, you’ll be safe.
God is a fortress.
You’re safe if you’re in Him.
Do you see that? Do you feel that?
David says, “He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
Some versions say “greatly” shaken. You won’t be able to knock this guy over.
I don’t know about you. But I want that for myself.
I want to be able to say that and sing that and mean that.
But I don’t always feel that.
Well, here’s a little secret:
David doesn’t always feel it either.
Verses 1 and 2 are the goal and the end result, but they are not the whole story.
Look at verse 3.
David turns from confidence to complaint. V.3
“How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down–this leaning wall, this tottering fence?”
He’s not talking to God here. He’s talking in his song to his enemies.
He’s using some of the language of lament. That pregnant phrase, “How long?”
Which indicates that he’s had enough. He’s really feeling it, and he wants it to be over like now.
How long are you guys going to keep this up? How long do I have put up with this treat?
And notice how vulnerable he feels!
“Would all of you throw him down–this leaning wall, this tottering fence?”
David feels shakeable!
David feels vulnerable.
David feels weak and under attack.
He’s a leaning wall. And these guys are pounding on it.
He’s a fence that is tottering. And these guys are kicking it.
Does anybody feel like David right now?
I’ll bet there are some Moms right here who feel that right now.
Like you’re a fence ready to fall.
And there’s somebody, Satan if not other humans, who is pushing on the fence.
What I want you to see and hear and feel is that David is both Psalm 62:1-2 and Psalm 62:3-4. Both of those are true of David in that moment.
David can proclaim that he will never be greatly shaken, and he can feel vulnerable and shakeable at the same time.
Because he’s under attack.
And he knows it. He knows the score. Verse 4
“They [his enemies] fully intend to topple him from his lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. Selah”
That probably means to pause and take a break to let that sink in. Selah.
He knows his enemies two-faced schemes.
They want to take him out.
Topple him from being the king.
Remember Psalm 41? How they came to his sickbed and acted like they cared, but then they gleefully spread the word that he was going to die.
Moms, you have enemies, too.
The world, the flesh, and the devil.
And they are liars, as well, that want to see you go down.
It’s right to be fed up with it.
It’s right to call it out.
David wrote a song about it that he wanted other people to sing.
What’s not okay is to give in.
After taking the deep breath at the end of verse 4, David sings loudly to his soul. V.5
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
Three points of application this morning. Here’s number one.
#1. TELL YOUR SOUL TO TRUST IN GOD.
David’s talking to himself again!
Last week, he was telling himself to praise the Lord.
He was telling his soul to bless the Lord.
Here he’s telling his soul to get quiet in the Lord.
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone.”
It’s the same thing as verse 1, right? Just he’s singing it to himself now.
Verse 1 said that this is what he does. His soul finds rest in God alone.
Now, he’s saying to himself, “Don’t forget to do what you do, David!”
Tell your soul to trust in God.
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone.”
See it doesn’t always just happen. We have to talk ourselves into it sometimes.
“Remember Who God is!”
“Remember what we said in verse 2?”
“Sing that to your soul again in verse 6.”
“He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
And here, David drops the “greatly.”
“I won’t just be not greatly shaken. I won’t be shaken at all!”
Tell your soul to trust in God.
That’s how to be an unshaken Mom.
It’s simple. I’m not saying it’s always easy. But it is simple.
“Hey, soul. Don’t forget Who your God is!”
“They are coming at you with all they’ve got. And you know how weak you really are. Your Instagram looks great. You look like you’ve got this mothering thing all together. You are set to be mother of the year.
But you know what it’s really like inside your home and even worse inside your heart.”
A leaning wall. A tottering fence.
Sing this song to your soul.
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
Verse 7. “My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.”
#2. TELL OTHERS TO TRUST IN GOD.
In verse 8, David turns outward. He had been turned inward, talking to his own soul.
But now his song changes to a song for other people to hear and to follow. V.8
“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah”
Stop and pause and think about that!
God isn’t just David’s refuge. He is the people’s refuge. He’s everybody’s refuge that runs to Him.
“Trust in him at all times, O people;”
In all circumstances.
No matter what is going on.
Trust in Him.
Here’s what a godly Mom does all day long.
She’s constantly pointing her children towards the Lord.
And urging them to trust in Him.
I’ve seen that so many times as I watched Heather Joy in action as a Mom.
And notice that David urges prayer.
Not just faith but faith focused upward in prayer.
“Pour out your hearts to Him.”
That’s what a godly mom does. She prays.
And she encourages her kids to pray.
And she encourages other people to pray.
Moms encourage other Moms.
Everybody encourages everybody.
“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”
In verse 9, David contrasts what we are supposed to trust with what we aren’t supposed to trust. Basically people and money. People in verse 9 and money in verse 10.
“Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath.”
Top to bottom and bottom to top, people can’t be trusted and don’t have that much true weight.
Not trust in an ultimate sense. Don’t look to people for your validation as a Mom.
Don’t look to people for your salvation.
Don’t expect people to fill that God-shaped hole in your heart.
They can’t and they won’t.
If you have one, don’t expect your husband to fill that hole.
Don’t expect your kids to fill that hole.
And don’t expect money to do it either. Whether you by it legally or otherwise. V.10
“Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”
David is singing loudly, isn’t he?
He’s singing to whoever will listen to his song that you can’t build your life on people or money.
They are not a rock.
They are not salvation.
They are not a fortress.
They are not a refuge.
Only God is.
“Do not set your heart on them.”
We need to tell people that.
And then David changes again. He goes from singing to himself, to singing to other people, to all of a sudden singing straight to God.
In verse 11, Psalm 62 becomes a prayer.
“One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.”
That’s a poetic device there in verse 11 that we call X+1. He says something and then adds something to it.
“One thing God has spoken [X], two things have I heard [X+1, listen up to both. They add up to something awesome]: that you, O God, are strong [powerful, sovereign, a rock, a fortress], and that you, O Lord, are loving [hesed, faithful love, steadfast love, trustworthy love]. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.”
He is saying that God is just!
God is full of power and love and justice.
That’s just the kind of God that we need!
And unshaken God!
God is unshaken!
God is unshakeable!
He is strong.
He is steadfast.
He is just.
And that’s exactly what David prays back to God.
#3. TELL GOD YOU TRUST IN HIM.
You’ve heard who God is and you are putting your faith in Him.
That’s what makes an unshakeable Mom.
That’s what makes an unshakeable King.
That’s what makes an unshakeable Christian.
When life gets tough, the tough get to singing.
They sing to their own souls: “Find rest, O My Soul, in God alone.’
They sing to their friends and neighbors and their own children, “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”
And they sing to their God, “You are strong. You are loving. You are just. You are faithful.”
“Great Is Your Faithfulness.”
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