Only God

Psalm 62. Last week, we we looked at what it means to be patient with one another. And, and today, we're going to be looking at patience with the Lord in Psalm 62. So, if you have a worship guide with you, that's the translation that I'm going to be reading from. It's a translation, by a Hebrew poetry scholar, named Robert Alter.

And so, it might be different than what might be in your bible. I'm gonna be using that translation, it's there for you in your worship God. But let's turn our attention to Psalm 62. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Only for God, my soul waits in silence.

From him is my rescue. Only he is my rock and my rescue, my stronghold. I shall not stumble. How long will you demolish a man, to batter him, like a leaning wall, a shaky fence? Only from his high place, they plan to shake him. They take pleasure in lies. With their mouths they bless, and inwardly they curse. Only for God, oh my soul, wait in silence. For from Him is my hope. Only he is my rock and my rescue, my stronghold, I shall not stumble.

On God rests my rescue and glory. My mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in Him at all times, o people. Pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Only breath, humanity. The sons of man are a lie. On the scales altogether, they weigh less than a breath. Do not trust in oppression or theft. Have no illusions.

Though it bears the fruit of wealth, set not your heart upon it. One thing God has spoken, 2 things have I heard, that power is God's, And that yours, O Lord, is steadfast love. For you requite a man by his deeds. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Father God, our rescue rests on you alone. You are our solid rock, our stronghold. So will you speak your peace into the chaos of our souls this morning? And, Jesus, will you come for us, and spirit strengthen us?

We ask that you would speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen. When I was in college, I read a book on spiritual formation. It was about fasting, which encouraged the discipline of finding something to give up for an extended period of time, for 40 days.

And I wanted to pick something to fast from that would be meaningful. Something that would actually disrupt my day to day living. The aim of the fast, as with all the spiritual disciplines, is to disrupt our regular rhythms and direct our attention to the Lord. In short, by disrupting my standard rhythms of daily life, I wanted to direct my thinking to the presence of the Lord. So I picked something that filled most of my waking hours, and at times, some of my sleeping hours.

It's something that was precious to me. I picked music. So, you see, I I always have music on. Whether it's in the car, in the office, at home. But for 40 days, I didn't listen to music. Not in the car. Not in my bedroom. Not in the background while studying. Not while cleaning or doing laundry, which in college, would have happened at least once or twice during the 40 days. But, no stereo. No radio. No records. No discman. Nothing. Now, live music was permitted.

I could go to church services and participate in the singing. I could go to concerts. I could still play guitar. But, no hitting play to disrupt the silence. It was awful. I had no idea how often I kept music going. The air was constantly full of noise. Constant noise. And during those 40 days, I had to ask friends that I was riding in the car with to turn off their radio. And they had to either talk to me or sit in silence.

And they didn't like it. I couldn't pop on headphones at a coffee shop when someone sat down next to me and they started having discussion that either I did not want to listen to, or I really wanted to listen to and should not listen to. I I couldn't do that. I I, for 1, I I don't like to sit in that silence. And at first, this facet really drove me crazy.

Have you ever been somewhere where the silence was so silent that it was distressing to you? It was uncomfortable? Like, if I go into a restaurant or to a store, and there's not some background music going on, I can't take it. If I go to someone's home for a dinner, and let's say that it's a group of people that don't know each other very well, and there's not any music on, I get so uncomfortable. The silence is like nails on a chalkboard.

And I understand that that's a crazy sentence. But but that silence was just so unnerving. And it takes a lot of effort to make things silent. To sit still and be silent. Noise is easy, but silence is difficult. Psalm 62 is a hymn attributed to King David. It has a number of elements that are very typical of a David hymn. There are 73 prayers. Psalms. Psalms.

Psalms. Attributed to King David in the Psalter. Often, we read of David, writing prayers in distress. Psalms and hymns about being attacked and pursued by enemies. We we know a lot of the contexts, a lot of the the stories and situations that David is in, whenever he's writing these psalms because of the biography, the narrative biography that we find about David in 1st and second Samuel.

And so, Psalm 62 follows this theme of distress. And a helpful way to start processing what a psalm is really about is to consider, who is being addressed? What is the audience in the psalm? And in Psalm 62, there are 4 different audiences that David addresses at different points throughout the psalm. The primary audience is the people of Israel.

The hymn was written with them in mind, because it would later be used for private and public worship. At another point in the Psalm, David speaks directly to his enemies, those who are oppressing and attacking him. Then David addresses himself. He speaks encouragement and direction to his own soul. And then at the close of the psalm, at the end, David addresses the Lord.

Verses 12 offer an introduction, really, to the hymn, with these key declarations for David's soul to wait in silence for the Lord alone. Look with me at verse 1. Only for God, my soul waits in silence. From Him is my rescue. Only He is my rock and my rescue, my stronghold.

I shall not stumble. See, David, 3 times is going to focus on, essentially, this this refrain, this hook that he puts at the very start. He declares these things at the beginning. He's gonna say them again in the middle, and then he's going to restate it one last time at the end. That God is his rescue.

That God is his rock. That's the theme. The trustworthiness of God. In verses 3 and 4, David describes his crisis. He describes the actions of his enemies, by addressing them and asking them these questions.

He asks, How long are you going to keep trying to tear me down and demolish me? To demolish me like a tottering wall, a fence that's about to crumble? How long are you going to plan for my destruction? How long will you go on delighting in lies and in cursing me? How long are you gonna do this?

And that's David's problem. He has enemies who are actively trying to bring him to ruin. And the rest of the psalm is full of instructions of David speaking to himself and to others on how to respond in times of great distress. And David also offers an explanation as to how is this response that he's going to move into, how is that response even possible? And the psalms are a really unique part of the bible.

Written in ancient Hebrew, this Hebrew poetry, it often utilizes a lot of different poetic devices. And one that's very strongly present in Psalm 62 is parallelism, where an image or a concept is introduced, and then a corollary or at times contradictory image is brought up after that. And this back and forth goes throughout. Stumbling, demolishing, leaning, battering, tottering. Those are all words to describe this torment and this distress.

But then, parallel to that, David describes God as mighty, his rock, his rescue, refuge, and stronghold. These concepts, these parallels occur frequently in the Psalms. Have you ever been in a situation where you're trying to remember a a particular psalm, and maybe there's a phrase, and you're like, oh. Maybe it's a phrase in a song that you hear, and you're like, I I think that that's from a psalm. And it turns out to be from, like, 8 different psalms.

Right? Because there's so many phrases and images that are used throughout. Different phrases that you could find in lots of different psalms. That's pretty typical of David. There are lots of elements in this particular psalm that seem familiar. But there's one aspect in particular that I think is unique. One particular section that has to do with instruction. Where David is teaching us something. He's teaching himself, and he's teaching, the people of God, something distinct. And it's this.

1st he addresses his own soul to teach these things, but then he teaches us this. This is his instruction. In silence, wait only for God. He's teaching his soul to wait only for God. The ancient Hebrew word, most often translated soul, is nephesh. It bears with it, this connotation of breath. You can almost hear it in the word itself, nephesh. Sometimes, nephesh is translated as neck. Why is this? So, because at that time, people understood that the neck, that's where life was.

You know, think about it. If someone were to be cut deeply on the neck, or if their neck was constrained in some way, cutting off oxygen, life would cease. And therefore, since air and blood passed through the neck, the breath and the blood of life rested in the nephesh, the soul. Consider your typical response to a threat, to danger, to crisis, to fear. Your heart begins to race.

Your breathing becomes frantic. And depending on the threat, your voice might rise in volume and in emotion. All of that happens in the nafesh. Panic and the worry is felt in the soul. So then, what does it mean for a soul to be silent?

In the face of his enemies, men who loved lies and were cursing him, David. David was facing this threat of being torn down from his high place and utterly destroyed. David, in all of that, does not lash out at his enemies and command them to be silent. No, he commands his own soul to be silent before the Lord. So what does a silent soul do?

What can a silent soul achieve? What can it change? Well, externally, I suppose nothing. But internally, what's being achieved deeply on the inside is very powerful. It evidences something.

It strengthens something. You see, fear and panic must be addressed if they're actually going to stop. If they're going to cease, they have to be addressed. You know, fear and panic can subside briefly if we start thinking about other things, positive thinking, if we try to get distracted, if we just reach for our phones and decide, well, now's a good time, to start checking in on people that I don't really know or care about, now's the time to start reading news that maybe I've already read through, a few times earlier today. Maybe I should check my email again.

And we try to distract ourselves from the things that are actually painful. The worry, the fear, the stress. We consume ourselves like that, but that's only going to work for a little bit. If it's going to go away, the fear, the anxiety, it has to be addressed. And David is displaying, in this psalm, how they are addressed in the silence of his soul.

David's teaching us that silence is powerful. Have you ever been overwhelmed by silence? Startled? Even stunned by silence? The first time that I visited the Abbey of Gethsemane, Gethsemane, a monastery in central Kentucky, I was driving along these back roads, through the rolling hills of the bluegrass, and listening to music, rather loudly, and probably driving those windy roads rather quickly.

But I got to the parking lot, and I cut the engine, and I opened the door, and I was overwhelmed by the silence. Not long after that visit, I was plead pleased to read in the autobiography of Thomas Merton, who lived at that abbey for a number of years. His, autobiography, The Seven Story Mountain, he describes in that book his first visit to the abbey of Gethsemane when he was a young man before he entered, as a monk. And I'd like to read you a a brief portion of his entry. Quote.

I stepped into the abbey, as if into an abyss. The silence, with people moving, it was 10 times more gripping than the silence had been in my own empty room. I was now inside the church. How did I live through that next hour? It is a mystery to me.

The silence, the solemnity, the dignity of the worship service, the overpowering atmosphere of prayers so fervent that they were almost tangible. They choked me with love and reverence and robbed me of the power to breathe. I could only get the air in gasps. Oh, God. What might you sometimes choose to use to lead a man's soul in your immense lessons?

Here, through only ordinary channels, came to me a grace that overwhelmed me like a tidal wave, Truths that drowned me with the force of their impact. End quote. The gospel of Jesus. The good news. God the Son, taking on flesh to dwell with humanity.

To be crushed according to the will of the Father. To bring reconciliation and forgiveness to our souls for our sins. This news of Jesus, who was raised to life for our justification. The news that he has accomplished our rescue. Change, and not also the presence of God, then this good news is incomplete.

Theologian Fred Sanders talks about this in his book The Deep Things of God, when he says, quote, A gospel that is only about the moment of conversion, but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ, is too small. A gospel that rearranges the components of your life, but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small. End quote. We cannot be silent before the Lord if we are not in his presence. Merton and I weren't simply startled by the silence of the abbey, we were startled by the presence of God.

And it often takes silence to recognize and pay attention to the presence of God. Throughout the Psalms, there are times when David, in his soul, he cries out to the Lord. Times when his soul is rejoicing and he's shouting in his soul with thanksgiving. But here, David tells his soul to be still and quiet before the Lord. David needed to go before the Lord, to be present with God, and be quiet in his presence.

He didn't need to just forget about his worries and think about better thoughts. And we should notice that he isn't silent in anticipation for God to tell him how to conquer his enemies and persevere. David tells himself to be silent in the presence of God. Not to gain some insight or wisdom or even a better attitude, but to be with God and to know that God was with him. David says to himself, I'm waiting for God alone.

I'm not waiting for an army to rescue me. I'm not waiting for money to help me escape my troubles. I'm not waiting for my enemies to tire or change their minds. I'm not waiting for revenge. I'm not waiting for my circumstances to change. No. I'm waiting for God. And as I wait for God, I wait with God. Being in God's presence with an unassailable confidence in who God is. There are things that David knows about God.

Things that David loves about God that permits him to wait. In my hometown of Paducah, Kentucky, we had one of those, those big department store malls. The indoor kind with the food court, and the fake marble, and the big potted plants, and all of that. Sorry. It's like it's like if you walked into an Amazon.

Like, if you could walk into Amazon, and then you leave with the thing, like, right then. You don't have to wait. It's incredible. But I would go there a lot with my grandparents. My grandmother, Mary Elizabeth, she would do her shopping. And I would sit with my grandfather on one of those marble benches, next to all the ferns. And we would sit there. And there were other older men that were waiting on their wives as well. And we would sit. No one would talk.

No one brought a book. I didn't even have my Game Boy. I just sat there with my grandfather. Sometimes it would be 10 minutes. Sometimes it would be over an hour. You just waited. My grandfather would never get impatient, never frustrated. He sat there and waited for however long it took. And when my grandmother would come back out over to us with her shopping bags in hand, he would always ask the same question. Did you get what you need?

And if she said yes, then he would stand up and motion for me to come along, and we would walk out to the car. And that was that. See, it was his love for my grandmother that made my grandfather content to wait for her for as long as it took. And David had to know and love, deeply know and love, the Lord his God. To wait only for him in silence.

To not just want what God could give him, but to want and know and love God himself. The ability to wait in silence, Not in impatience or irritation or despair, but sitting in satisfied, confident silence. That takes tremendous resolve, tremendous strength. So where does that strength come from, especially in times of chaos and confusion, times of worry and anxiety? Well, in verse 5, David substantiates his directions to his soul in saying why he was going to wait in silence.

Look at verse 5. Only for God, oh my soul, wait in silence. For from Him is my hope. David is able to wait in silence because his hope comes from God. Verse 6. Only He is my rock and my rescue, my stronghold. I shall not stumble. The silence of the soul waiting in the presence of the Lord, It both expresses it evidences, it expresses trust in God's power to save. And it also strengthens that trust. It expresses trust, and it strengthens trust.

Trust in God's power to save. When we are silent before God, we aren't simply being quiet. We are resting in confidence. Verse 7. On God rests my rescue and my glory. My mighty rock, my refuge is God. David's salvation, not only in that circumstance of his day, but in his eternal salvation, his rescue rests on God. Think about that. Follow what David is saying here. The weight of salvation, the heavy burden of eternal rescue rests on God Himself.

David does not feel the weight. He does not feel the burden of rescue. God does. God is the mighty rock and the refuge for David. So David can say boldly, I will not stumble. I will not be shaken. Not because I am strong, but because God is. If your salvation, not only your current circumstance, but eternally, if your ultimate rescue rests on God, then your salvation is certain and sure. That is how David can say to himself, wait in silence for the Lord alone. And this is not an easy task.

At my very best, I wait impatiently. I wait with grumbling and complaining. We should make no mistake. Sitting in silence is very difficult. In 1960, the artist Yevs Klein produced a symphony.

A symphony entitled, The Monotone Silent Symphony. The performance included an orchestra and a large choir of vocalists who collectively, at the conductor's direction, began to sing a single note. Began to play a single note for 20 minutes. It was a D major, for all of you music nerds out there. At the conductor's direction, they began this note. One note. For 20 minutes. And then at his direction, it stopped. And for 20 minutes, they sat in silence. That was the symphony.

There was a performance a few years ago of the symphony held in San Francisco. For 20 minutes, a 1000 people sat and listened to a full choir and orchestra, standing on this stage in a grand cathedral, playing one note for 20 minutes. And then, 20 minutes of complete and total silence. For 20 minutes, 1,000 people sat and watched a full orchestra sit and hold their violins and their trumpets and their cellos and play nothing. How would you have done at that?

How would you have done sitting there those first 20 minutes for one continuous note, and then for 20 minutes in total silence? What if for 20 minutes of this sermon, I just repeated the same word over and over again, and then for 20 minutes just stared at you in silence? I thought about it. Trust me. Most of the time, performance halls, sanctuaries, theaters, they sit empty.

They sit silent. This space, here, all week, I'm here, and this room is empty. And it's silent. And that's what I'm used to. It's actually startling most Sundays, when all of a sudden I come in here and there's a bunch of people walking in, and it's loud.

I see this place most often in the state that it most often is, which is empty and silent. So what is so bizarre? What's so noteworthy and so different when we're here together and it's silent? What's so different of that performance hall, with those musicians and the audience sitting there for 20 minutes of silence? I think that what's so remarkable is is really because of one thing.

And that's presence. The presence of the people, the audience, the choir, the orchestra, us being in this space together, they make the silence completely different. It's not just a quiet room anymore. It's not just a room without noise. It's a room full of silent people.

And when there is both silence and presence, something very unique happens. Something is still being communicated. It's what the artist Climb, who wrote the symphony, called an audible presence. So what does that have to do with Psalm 62? The silence of David's soul before the Lord. That silence is speaking something. That silence is communicating something. It's reverberating. A deep and resilient trust in God. The God upon whom His very life and rescue rests.

A gospel that does not lead us into the presence of God is too small. The gospel is not only about going to heaven. The gospel is not only about the forgiveness of sin. The gospel is also, and I'd say even more so about you being in the presence of God. That is what heaven is, and that is what forgiveness of sins are for.

That forgiveness is for the presence of God. Heaven is the presence of God. David turns his attention now to the people of God, to encourage us to do as He He is doing. Look with me at verse 8. Trust in him at all times, o people. Pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge. Again, David's connecting, trusting in the Lord with the presence of the Lord. And David describes for us what this trust and presence looks like. He says, it's it's like pouring your heart out before him.

The 16th century theologian and pastor John Calvin reflected on this verse. And he wrote this. Quote, what David advises is all the more necessary, considering the mischievous tendency which we have naturally to keep our troubles pent up in our chests, till they drive us to despair. David could not have suggested a better expedient than that of this burdening our cares to God, and thus, as it were, pouring out our hearts before him. Calvin goes on.

Usually, indeed, we show much anxiety and ingenuity in seeking to escape from the troubles which may happen to press upon us. But so long as we shun coming into the presence of God, we only involve ourselves in a labyrinth of difficulties. End quote. He's saying that we have both this anxiety and ingenuity. We're very creative with how we can avoid God and just think about our own troubles.

We're good at it. Calvin is saying that it's deep in our fallen nature to hide our griefs and ruminate upon them, rather than finding relief for our souls by pouring out our hearts in the presence of God. In the loud chaos of our souls, we become consumed more and more with our own distress. And in Calvin's words, we merge into this state of hopeless despondency. And our inner monologue of worry and fear and anxiety becomes louder and louder, and grows into this cacophony of noise.

And we circle around and around, lost in this labyrinth of our problems. So how do we escape the labyrinth? How do we get out of that maze? David says, pour out your heart to the Lord. In the words of the apostle Peter in first Peter chapter 5, Peter says, we cast our cares upon Christ because he cares for us.

The Greek word that Peter is using there for casting is used one other time in the New Testament. It's used by by Luke. Luke in his gospel, gospel according to Luke, he is giving this account of Jesus coming in with triumphal entry on holy week, for the Passover. The week that Jesus would be crucified. He's making that triumphal entry.

The way he does that is on a donkey. And when Luke is giving this description of how they got the donkey ready for Jesus, It says that the disciples got the donkey, and they took off their cloaks, and they cast them on the back of the donkey. That's the picture of casting. Casting your cares onto Jesus. He cares for you.

Because he cares for you, he says, bring to me your worry and your fear and your anxiety. Bring you bring me your confusion and your questions, your anger and your sorrow. Cast them on me. Throw them on my back, and I will carry them for you. Pour out your heart before me because I care for you. The burden of your salvation. The burden of your worries. They can rest on Christ alone. Pour out your heart to Jesus. Let your soul be silent.

Let it be calm and at peace in the presence of God, your savior. After giving this description of the character of God as the mighty rock and the mighty refuge, David then draws that parallel of the finite and frail humanity. Look at verse 9. Only breath, humanity. The sons of man are a lie.

On the scales, altogether, they weigh less than a breath. Here, like the writer of Ecclesiastes, David is describing life of humanity as a vapor, as air, as a breath. David offers this illustration. He says, if you took all of humanity, if you took everyone, all of history, if you took all of humanity, and you put them on a scale, on one side, humanity on the scale. And on the other side of the scale, if you put air, if you put breath, that breath would weigh more than humanity.

He's giving this picture of the fleeting nature of life. David warns the people of God not to trust in oppression or in stealing, ways that they might think they can get what they want, the promising satisfaction through these material things that if you oppress these people, if you take advantage of these people, or if you steal and and you get these possessions, then you're going to be satisfied. He says, that's that's an illusion. That's a lie. And set not your heart upon it.

And then David goes to close the psalm with one last plea to trust in the Lord. And here he substantiates this trust with the core of what he believes about God. Verses 11 and 12. Let's look together. One thing God has spoken. 2 things have I heard. That power is God's. And that yours, O Lord, is steadfast love. For you were quite a man by his deeds. David says here, I've heard from the Lord.

He has spoken to me and He's told me 2 things. First, power belongs to God. And secondly, steadfast love belongs to Him also. What does that mean? Why does David go here? It's because everything that he has said in this prayer stands on this central truth. All power and all love, they belong to God. He is perfect in his might. He is perfect in his mercy. David can look at his enemies and trust in the perfect power and justice of God.

Because not one sin in all the generations of humanity, not one sin will go unpunished. Think about that. Not one sin in all of history will go unpunished. Judgment will be carried out on every sin. David knows that God is coming with this justice And that he can watch his enemies prevail today because he knows God's perfect justice is coming.

And David can take comfort that he is rescued out of that judgment, because that judgment will be placed. And for us, we now say it has been placed on Christ the Lord. That Jesus, in his body, bore those sins to be our rescue. God's might and God's mercy are the foundation, the very basis of this resilient silence in David's soul. David can endure his enemies and pour out his heart before the Lord.

Because power and love belong to God alone. Practicing silence before the Lord requires strength. More strength than we have on our own. We need the strength to recognize and confess our need. We need the strength to pour out our hearts before the Lord.

We need the strength to rest. Strength to believe in the salvation that rests on Christ, that he holds us secure. We need strength in our souls. So let's not forget that the Holy Spirit delights in affirming and confirming these truths in our souls, and strengthening us in Christ. So the question comes to you.

So so will you dare to be silent in your soul before the Lord? Will you dare to let the noise fade out and to not reach for the next distraction? Will you dare to sit and linger with the Lord without objectives, without expectations of productivity? Will you dare to make space for stillness with God without agenda? Will you dare to receive the gospel that is greater and bigger than you've likely ever imagined.

And today, this week, dare to wait on the Lord. Dare to wait with the Lord. And dare to wait humbly and only for the Lord. And in that confident and content silence of your soul, may you know Christ's perfect might and endless mercy. Because he cares for you, and that care changes everything.

Let's pray. Lord, I recognize that sometimes it's hard to believe that you care for us. And so, spirit, we ask that you would strengthen our belief, strengthen our confidence and resolve. That you do care for us. Would you lead us into your presence?

Would you lead us to be still before you? Would you help us to put those distractions down, to pour out our hearts before you, to cast our cares upon Christ, and live, not just nodding our heads in agreement that you care for us, but but live in that care in this very moment. We pray these things in the name of Christ, our King. Amen.