Psalm 62

the dead in its entirety, so I will read simply the first five verses, but our reference will be the totality of the psalm. So let us look at verses one through five of psalm 62. To the choir master, according to Jaduthin, the psalm of David, 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. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? 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. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, where my hope is from God. May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Now, what I want to look at in this particular psalm, as we see it is a psalm of David, so we want to look at it along four lines where it's strapped four main things that sort of make up the foundation and the substance of this psalm. The first thing to note, which we see both in verse 1 and verse 5, David references his soul waiting for God. And the very fact that he acknowledged himself as waiting for God is itself indicative of a difficult and stressful situation. So, David is waiting for the Lord because obviously he is in a difficult or trying situation. Now, this is reinforced by what we see in verse 3. In verse 3 he refers to himself as being attacked, and he compares himself to a leaning wall and a tottering fence that's being battered. So, David is under derest. He is in a stressful situation, and he feels that he is being attacked, and it's as if his strength is almost to give out. But the second thing to note in this we see, especially in verse 4, not only can we see that David is under attack, and therefore he is waiting for God to deliver him from that stressful situation, but we see from verse 4 we can surmise three things. Three things about this attack. On the one hand, or first off we see that the source of his attack is apparently a conflict that is domestic rather than foreign. You see it seems if you look at the language and the wording in verse 4, it's not that he is under attack by enemies, but rather he says in verse 4, he says they plan to bring him down from his high place. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. So that indicates that he is under attack, not from a foreign enemy. This doesn't seem like the attack of the Philistines, the Amorites, the Moabites, or any of theites that he has dealt with in the past, where he has taken up armor and gone to war. This is coming from the Israelites, and the issue is, so it's always, it seems interesting when God's people, it's been said on a number of occasions by a number of different people, that the Christian army is the only one that warms its own wounded. In fact, we inflict the wounds, and then oftentimes we are the source of bringing them to their final demise. So therefore we can see from verse 4 that the source of his attack, the source of that which makes him feel like a fence that's being battered or leaning wall is not coming from without, but it's coming from within. The second thing that we can surmise from verse 4 is the nature of the attack. You see, the nature of the attack is, it seems as if it's a verbal assault. It's stuff that people are saying with their mouths. David is not under attack from the Philistines with their many swords and their shields and the Philistines were crafty and using iron, so it's not weapons of iron. That is a problem for David that makes him feel like he's being battered. That's not what's making him in a sense new sleep at night, where he's to the point where he feels that he has to wait on God. It's not the marching feet of an invading army. It's no one who's looking to bring down the empire from without. It's no one who's trying to claim the territory for themselves, but it's coming from those that David has given his life to serve. It's coming from those who are in his own camp, those that he is bound to by his covenant with God. He is bound to serve them and the very people that he is serving with his life, the very people that he is given of his heart and his soul with them. As a matter of fact, in ancient Israel, the kings went to war. So the very ones that he has led in battle are the ones that are the source of his distress. And again, it's not as if they are plotting assassinations because that would be bad enough, but no, the nature of their attack is verbal. Again, notice what he says in verse 4, he says, they bless with their mouths. And by the way, those are the sharpest darts that we endure. Those who bless with their mouth, but yet their hearts are full of curses. And so he, and it's obviously, and what he is addressing here is obviously a case of double face-ness or two face-ness. In other words, they bless him in, they say good things in his presence, but obviously they join the sewing circle of those who are participating in slander because he says they take pleasure in falsehood. And it's amazing thing when you, when in any position of leadership, whether it's political, whether it's commercial and corporate, or whether it's in the church, those who are in positions of leadership are easy targets. And it's easy to say, and sometimes people think that because of the position that you hold, that you are, therefore, well, you know, it doesn't matter, you're used to it, but we see that David is deeply affected by what the people are saying about him, not to the point that he's giving up, but David is deeply affected. So we see that the source of the attack are from those who are within. The nature of the attack is slanderous speech and falsehood that are heaped up against him. The third thing that we can surmise from verse four is the aim of the attack. The aim of the attack is bottom line. They just don't want David to rule. And so we see again, he says that their aim, he says, as the opening of verse one, verse four, they only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They either want to, now that could mean one of two things. That could mean that they think David and we don't know at what point in his life that this song is written. We don't know if this is shortly after he comes into office or we don't know if it's after a particular military campaign where David has been victorious. We don't know at what point in his life that this song was written, but so it could be on the one hand that people, you know, because sometimes people just, they rather, they love you when you're down. And when you're doing well, it seems like, you know, he thinks he's this and it's always amazing. You know, you think of junior high school girls when they say she thinks she's cute. And it's interesting how we think somebody else think and we think that we're justified in saying what they think. But we don't grow out of that junior high school stuff, do we? And so sometimes we will describe motives to what people do simply because we don't like it and we'll say, well, he thinks he's this. And so maybe David had come back from a particularly victorious or particularly definitive victory over his enemies. And maybe people were showing their gratitude and they said, well, he thinks he's this. He thinks he's that. Maybe that's what it is. They wanted to bring him down. Maybe, maybe the slander was aimed at just lowering him as they say, you know, lowering him a buttonhole or two, which is always interesting to me when sinful creatures think they have the right or the ability to humble anyone because we don't. Then maybe it's not just that they want to lower him. Maybe they think that David is thinking too highly of himself. Maybe he's getting too much publicity. Maybe people giving him too much credit. And you know how some people are as it's like if everybody is on this gravy train, if everybody is on this bandwagon, then you just got to be opposite. You just have to be the opposite. Oh, no, they're not that, you know, and I'm thinking now, you know, we're in the middle of the NBA finals and Golden State has won two consecutive championships and now they're down and it looks like they're going to get defeated. Some people jumped on the bandwagon and says, wow, that's my team. That's my team. Others didn't like them simply because everybody else did. Somebody might just be waiting to see just, I just want to see him bring, just want to bring him down. You know, they, and they say, oh, they just win too much. And, and I was, you know, I'm a big jeopardy fan, closet jeopardy fan. I love jeopardy and recently they had this guy that was just a dominant force. He won only 34 games in a row, but his earnings were within just a couple thousand of the highest earnings total on jeopardy. And the person that did it, Ken Jennings, he did it. It took him 74 games to win what this guy won in 34 games just short of a couple thousand dollars, but here's what was interesting. In the middle of his dominant win streak, I was reading comments from people like, I just don't even watch anymore. It's like, you know, so, so when someone does good, they just win all the time. No, they don't win all the time. No, they don't. Listen, I'm a Laker fan. I know that Boston Celtics don't win all the time. It just seemed like they did. But maybe David had havers because he was too victorious. And they just didn't like the fact that God was blessing him. Maybe it was that truly a case where people just wanted another king. It didn't. I mean, it wouldn't surprise us. Nothing that this doesn't indicate. This is after after David and Bathsheba. And maybe they were saying, well, you know, we can't have a king that goes around doing that. If that were the case, at least it would have been a principled argument. But if that were the case, David wouldn't say it's falsehoods. See, Bathsheba truly happened. But David says what they're talking about is falsehoods. It didn't happen. So it wasn't a matter of anything that he did, but God's people are just that way. In fact, look at the history of Israel. David is only the second king in their history. But in First Samuel, they first cried out, we want a king. And they said, we want a king so that we can be like the rest of the nation. Samuel felt that it was a rejection of his leadership of high priest and judge. And the Lord, and he took it to the Lord, even though by the way, and it should be noted that God in the mosaic law makes provisions for a king, but just not on the terms that the people wanted. And so later we see that when when Saul is taken as the first king, even then, now we are told that that Saul was head and shoulders above everyone. He was very handsome. He had all of the demeanor of a king. And then there was still some, this and all. No, he ain't the one. And even when he was victorious in his first battle, there were the naysayers. One of the things that God's leaders need to always be mindful of, doesn't matter if it's primary leadership as elders and pastors of a church, or doesn't mean, or doesn't matter if it's secondary leadership within the church. We have to have tough skin, and you have to have tender hearts. You can't give in to everything. You can't react to everything that people say, because there's someone that doesn't want you in the position that you are in. David understands that. And so he says, Lord, they're talking. And so we see that the source of that, which has battered him like a fence. And we see that the source that has caused him to be like a leaning wall. It's not an external enemy. It's not a foreign enemy. It's not a military threat. Rather, it's domestic. The nature of it is they just keep talking. And by the way, I think that we can say that maybe he's just too sensitive. But I think it should make us mindful of the weightiness of words that come from humans. A challenge people over the years to just do a cursory overview of the many different ways in which you can sin by speech. Just look at all of the different ways and then look at and then put them alongside of that. On the one column, just have all of the different ways that we can sin with our speech, whether it's lying, whether it's cursing, whether it's bearing false witness, whether it's swander or gossip, whether it's complaining or grumbling, whatever it is, list all of the sins that the different ways that you can sin with your speech. And then look at list on the other side of it, list all of the different things that God says about sinful speech. And what you find is that God has more to say about sins of speech than he does about sexual sins. And the language against sinful speech is pretty severe. As a matter of fact, we know that one of the reasons but one of the chief things that come up while the children of Israel are in the wilderness, all of those many years, we see them and we see them doing different things. We see them guilty of idolatry, guilty of sexual immorality, guilty of grumbling or guilty of rebelling against God's leadership, all of these different things, not trusting God, not trusting Him for the manner that He had given them. It says that they were supposed to gather a manner for six days and on the sixth day, get enough for the seventh day because then you will have enough on the seventh day and the Lord will make it last. And still somebody on the fourth the fifth day still tries to save some and it turned into worms. They didn't trust God but you know the one lasting description that the Lord gives of His people, the lasting impression sinful impression that He has against them is that they grumbled. We are told in the New Testament they didn't enter into the promised land because they complained and they grumbled. And so here David says that the aim of their attack is to either his removal of office or to lower him, to somehow bring him down. And that's just how God's people are because God's people are fallen people. So we see that David is waiting and the reason he's waiting is because he's under attack. But the reason he is waiting for God to deliver him from being under attack is because David is being attacked by his own brethren. But here's the third thing that we are to note and that is the main thesis of this particular Psalm. And the main thesis of this Psalm is that David says or he makes a resolution, he resolves to wait in silence for God alone to deliver him. I want to look at the resolution as it consists in three parts but before that I want to show you something that in verse one he says for God alone my soul waits in silence. But then notice in verse five he now speaks to himself. In other words he describes himself in verse one but in verse five he speaks to himself and he says for God alone oh my soul wait in silence. Slight difference, same emphasis, slight difference. The difference is he's describing himself in verse one and in verse five he's reminding himself. Let's look at the three parts of this resolution. Number one he acknowledges that God alone is the source of the salvation. God alone. The emphasis is God alone. We see it in verse one. We see it in verse two. He alone. We see it again in verse five for God alone. So he emphasizes God alone. Which is to say that David is not going to assume God's hand in things that would bring him relief but that are not according to his will. In other words he's not waiting for secondary help in this situation because probably because he is dealing with the people that God has placed over him. He is there are different ways that he could find himself out of this situation. In other words he is in power. He has the ability to silence his critics. I think this is what he's alluding to in verse 10. Verse 10 he says put no trust in extortion or are set no vain hopes in robbery or on robbery and if riches increase set not your heart on them. In other words what he's referring to is he could use a strong hand and silence them. He could you know pay off a few people, stroke a few egos and maybe people will shut up or he could just rest in riches. He could whatever it is that's making them uncomfortable. He could stop doing it and he would have comfort but David says no I'm not trying to help God. I'm going to wait for God. God alone is able to deliver me. In other words I think what David is saying is that he doesn't want to assume God's hand in a situation just because the solution that's being offered can give him temporary relief. This is a lesson that many Christians need to learn that just because you are hurting everything that will offer you relief is not necessarily of God. And so David says no it's God alone not God plus not God through this and what he is referring to by God alone in other words there must be a clear demonstration of divine power and how will we know that it is of God. That's one of the difficulties we have by the way in serving a God that we do not see because everybody claims to speak for him. And so we can say that if it is against whatever it is if it is against the will of God then it can't be from God. If it disrupts the fellowship and the harmony of the fellowship it can't be of God. If it doesn't edify but instead tears down it's not of God. God doesn't leave collateral damage when he deals with his people. So David is saying yeah there are some routes that I could take. I could use a strong hand. I could bribe a few officials and get people to shut up or I could just I could tax them and just get more money. That'll make them shut up but he says no no I'm not going to trust in anything vain. I'm waiting for God and God alone so that the ways of God are always consistent with the character of God and the end of any endeavor in the name of God must bring him glory and it must be for the good of his people. And if it's not for the good of his people then we we have to back up sometimes in thinking that it's a God. You see surely surely if you take a cannon it will kill that mosquito. It will do it but look at the damage that it'll cause is that cannon balls got a land somewhere. The brothers and sisters when God is fixing his people. David is saying listen I there are some things that I could do. I know how to get him to shut up. He did have the army at his disposal. He says no I'm not going to do it. I'm going to wait for God. We know that at one point yet J. Ab or Joe Ab as his right hand man and Joe Ab was quick to draw. He was what we would call a war hawk. This is no no I'm going to leave it alone. I'm going to wait for God not God and Joe Ab not God and a strong army. I'm going to wait for God on this one because we're not talking about Philistines. We're not talking about Moabites. We're talking about the people that God is loved with his own heart. So before I take any action I'm going to make sure it's God. His resolution is that it's confidence. It's not in man and we also see that he understands the the fleeting nature of his opposition. That's why he's waiting for God alone. Look at what he says in verse 9. He says those who are of low estate they are but a breath. And those who are of high estate are a delusion. In the balance they go up and they are together lighter than a breath. Now I don't think that necessarily just means the enemies who oppose him but even sometimes the bogus solutions out of the situation. Sometimes the wisdom of men seem like the solution but David says no I'm waiting on God alone the one who will outlast all of this because everything else by comparison it's fleeting and it's light and it's vain and it's void but second part of his resolution he says my soul waits in silence. My soul waits in silence. Well in silence could mean one of two things. It could on the one hand mean that I will wait and not say anything. Silence we think of not speaking and I don't think that's fully what it is but and so because we know that throughout different Psalms David is not he's not shy about pouring out his complaints to the Lord and we'll see later when we look at his exhortation to the congregation that he tells them that you can talk to the Lord. I think what it means is not it's a contentment. In other words David is saying that I know the situation is bad I know what people are saying I know what they want they either want me to act a particular way or they want me to not be empowered they just don't want me to be empowered but that's okay I'm not just not going to not say anything but I'm going to wait for God alone to resolve this situation and I'm going to wait for him in silence. In other words I'm not going to on the one hand I'm not going to join in slanderous language against those who slander me but I think more importantly what this indicates and we see it in the footnotes of the Reformation Study Bible they mentioned this contentment silence as in contentment. In other words rather than responding to what everyone else is saying David is saying that I'm not going to let what they say disrupt my contentment. In verse two he says I will not be greatly shaken. So in other words I will be confident in God being greater than my attack and I love that statement I will not be greatly shaken. It's similar to what's another portion of the Psalm where it says that he where the believer is compared to a palm tree and the reason for the palm tree is because the palm trees and I know there are a boy there are way more different types of palm trees than I ever imagined. In California you have the palm trees certain kinds of palm trees and Hawaii you have certain kinds of palm trees and I don't know how many different genres or types of palm trees there are in Florida but one of the characteristics of palm trees is that when strong winds and you really see it that we saw it last year in the hurricane season but when palm trees are attacked they they bend and if the hurricane is strong enough they will break we've seen them break but God's people are compared in other words we are in the storm and it's not that we are not affected by the storm that's why I like the statement we will I will not be greatly shaken. I know if it does hurt and we should be mindful of how hurtful our words can be and one of the things that we see by the way in the book of Ecclesiastes the warning is to not curse those who are empowered says not even in your in your in your pride in private and not even away and then it gives or not even in your in your bedroom do not curse them not even in your sleep he says and I think we're in your thoughts and so I think with that that means I was sharing this with someone last week that what Solomon is saying there is that when you have animosity because he then goes on and say because a little bird or a wing creature might take the thing to the person it doesn't mean by in saying that doesn't mean that there are some birds some some minor birds or some macaws or parrots that'll go back and take your words to them remember back on the Flintstones with their their idea of of of communication with say something into the bird would go and take it to the other person but no that's not what he means what he means is that if our animosity is in our hearts it won't stay there you see if it has a way of getting into our blood system so that when someone when you really have discord with someone you might not say it but but you might be nice nasty with it that's what David means when he says they they bless with their mouths but their hearts are full of curses and so David is saying that it does don't think that it doesn't have an effect it does have an effect and he says I am greatly shaken but here's what I know that the Lord I'm waiting I that's why he begins by saying that I wait in silence and then in verse five he says now oh so wait in silence in other words be content and confident that God alone will deliver you from this situation don't fight back trust that God will bring an end to this situation so therefore I think when he says that I will wait for God alone in silence my soul wait in my my soul waits in silence he's not just saying that he doesn't complain I think he is giving us a label for his quiet confidence confidence in God and contentment in God those two things are critical when it comes to serving a God who is eternal and who is not on this see God is not on the clock and that's that's one of our most frustrating things I've said this before that God is never late but he never hurries and we would sometimes you know if a person is late if you if you come in late to a meeting it's bad enough to be late but at least act like you were hurrying up at least like you act like you know come running through the door like oh boy I got caught in at least act like you were trying to get there God is never late but he never hurries because everything ultimately is under his control and is on his terms and so we call on God to act when we want him to act and he's always going to act according to what he has promised but your desperation is not going to make him speed up and so David says I'm going to wait in confidence I'm going to wait for the Lord alone and I'm going to wait in silence but the third part of his resolution David says that I will wait alone for God because he is confident that all of his salvation comes from God this is what he says at the end of verse one it says for God alone my soul waits in silence why from him comes my salvation he repeats it in verse five he says for God alone oh so my wait in silence why and then look in verses five through seven he enlarges on the fact that God is his only and soul salvation in verse beginning in verse five not only does he say all my salvation comes from him in verse one but he says for my hope is from him and notice that phrase from him in other words it's not just in him it's from him according to what God has promised and he says my hope is from him why because he's my only rock and he is my only salvation he is my fortress and therefore I will not be shaken God oh oh on God rest my salvation and my glory and that's the sum of it isn't it that's the that's the sum total of it really everything else all of our edge are in the basket of God's promise because in him and him alone is our salvation and in him alone if there's any glory for broken creatures like us all of our glory is in him so David's the three parts of his resolution is that in God alone that he will have confidence in he will wait for God alone in silence and then thirdly he makes it clear that in God alone is the source of his salvation well that brings us to the fourth and final thought that we see here and even though David's words throughout this kind of reverberates with that saying particular truth that's amplified in verses one and two but then we get something interesting in verse eight in verse eight because David writes this consciously as a song of praise or a song of worship he writes this to be sung publicly this isn't this isn't his own personal diary this isn't just what he penned and then someone founded he wrote it with the intention of being public and being public he has some directions for the congregation the interesting thing is that when there is discord within the covenant community it affects more than just the grumblers and just the one they are grumbling about others who are in the community have to deal with it because oftentimes when that is the issue people want you to take sides who side are you on and so therefore David speaks to the congregation in general and our final thought is his words of exhortation to the congregation which is found in verse eight and here's what he simply says just trust in him trust in him when at all times old people trust in him that's not just a trite little saying he's he's saying trust in him trust in him yes when we go and and perhaps one of the reasons he says at all times is because we know what to do when the Philistines are at the gate we take up arms against them what about when the enemy is from within and the weapons that they use are not made out of iron but instead they are simply words and so David's exhortation is this trust in him at all times the same one that delivered you from the hand of the physical enemy will deliver you from the tongues and the snares of those within yeah but I just don't like it when they say that when they say those and here's what he says trust in him but then he says not only trust in him but pour out your heart before him because God is our refuge whatever vengeance needs to be taken that they're his children and he'll discipline his children and if they're goat he'll expose the goats but trust in him trust and rather than you go tit for tat when people are saying different things just pour it out to him God has a great big old couch and he allows us to lay down and he allows us to just pour out our hearts and we can say yeah but they did it again and he just go ahead he he listens to us and then he'll say he'll he'll he'll remind us that your sins are forgiven as you know you're you're dirty too right you know that you're a sinner too you know that you're not innocent right okay now you got it out of your system let me tell you your sins are forgiven and everything there is nothing that they have said that takes away from what I have given there is nothing that they can plot there is nothing that they can plan that can take away from what I have promised so pour out your heart before God so that God can tell you my promises are still in place and I am your refuge I'm your refuge against the enemies at the gate and I am your refuge against the enemies within the camp I'm your refuge even if the enemy is in your own house I'm your refuge so David says God in God alone I'm not waiting for a good plan I'm not waiting for for anyone else in God alone my soul will silently wait I wait for him because in him is all of my salvation all of my salvation I love is from him and my hope is from him and my glory is in him so David says you can trust him at all time and when you are trusting it doesn't mean you don't have some stuff to get off your chest go ahead pour it out Peter says cast your cares upon him because he cares for you say go ahead tell him tell him what is on your mind and he will correct you and he will come to console and comfort you because the Lord the Lord alone is our only rock brothers and sisters it's important for us to know that the Lord and the Lord alone is our only refuge and what good is it for us to rest in God and then still have issues with others who are resting in him here's what he's saying you're in me and to all who come to me says Jesus I'll give you rest I'll give you rest for your soul I'll give you rest that you can't find anywhere else David says I'll I'm just going to wait and let God fix this doesn't mean he's not affected by what's going on and it doesn't mean that he is not courageous in the Lord the brothers and sisters some battles are not worth fighting and it's only when we are confident in the Lord when we will know when to put the sword down and just wait on the Lord and sometimes in calling upon him he corrects us let's pray a God and a Father we come to you and the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we come thanking you for the greatness of your salvation in him we thank you for taking us out of our troubles and putting us in your promises and so even though the winds may accel and even though the storms may rise and enemies may rise both within and without the promise that you have given us in Christ is our only hope and so we pray that what we are in him would be our everlasting hope and joy strengthen us when we endure afflictions so that even in our afflictions you would be glorified thank you Father for your grace in Christ thank you for coming and and being our Savior and the sole source of our salvation thank you for being our only rock and our only refuge so keep us in that promise so that when we rise from our knees when we go into our homes that we're not overly affected by unnecessary things that are said about us but rather we would be strengthened by those things that you have said to us let that be our joy and we ask this in Christ's name amen would you please stand