by Duane Maust
Psalm 62
January 25, 2009
When I was praying about what to preach about today, this Psalms kept speaking to me. I think these are good words for all of us today. We can get up tight with the stock market so unsteady. Many of us have more monthly bills then we have paycheck. In other words, the money doesn’t reach to the end of the month. Or maybe it is something else for you. The list can go on of things to get up tight about.
David wrote this Psalm for us today. David was a man that learned the meaning of these verses the hard way. David learned that he needed God’s help through the problems that he got into. David had an affair, he killed someone, his sons wanted to kill him. Things were not also so good for David. He was a very smart man. When he got in trouble, he knew where to turn.
I was going to start at verse 5 but I decided to include the whole chapter. The first 2 verses are repeated with verses 5 and 6. I think David repeated that for a reason. That must have been important to him.
God was always a place David could go to too find rest. God is that one solid thing that we can always go to. God is steady on the love and caring. What ever David got himself into, God was there for him.
Whatever we get ourselves into, God is there for us.
I like the way Barclay commentary puts it. “The Psalms speaks to a quietness of soul, an inner stillness that comes with yielding all fears and anxieties and insecurities to God in an act of trust.”
Verses 3 and 4 are a little hard to understand. In The Message by Eugene Patterson it says, “How long will you gang up on me? How long will you run with the bullies? There’s nothing to you, any of you-rotten floorboards, worm-eaten rafters, anthills plotting to bring down mountains, far gone in make-believe. You talk a good line, but every “blessing” breathes a curse.
Do you feel like there are people trying to pull you down? Do you feel like there are termites eating away at what you are trying to build up? Do you feel like things are just being stacked against you?
That is why I think David repeats verses 5 and 6.
(read them in the NIV)
God is there. God is always there. He is consistent and steady.
In Psalm 91:2 David says, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in him will I trust.” Can you say that also?
It is like David is saying that when we find ourselves in difficult situations, God is there to throw a lifeline to us to lift us out from our problems. Can you see him throwing that rope to you?
Read verse 7
Our self worth depends on God. Our self worth and what makes me tick is anchored to the rock. It helps us to be steady.
Where are you putting your trust? Is it in God? (Chevy- “like a rock,” will brake down at times)
Read verse 8
Spill your guts to God every day. He is there for us 7 days a week, 24-7. You can sleep at night, he is there.
God is our safe place from all of our troubles.
Verse 9 is talking about thinking that we are to important.
Read Philippians 2:3-4
When we think about who God is and then think about who we are, that helps us keep things in perspective. We are important to God, but only if we are connected to his power.
The Layman’s Commentary says it this way, “Ordinary people are only a puff of wind, and important people are but a delusion. Put both in the balance scale, and they go up “lighter than breath.”
Isa. 40: 6-8 “All flesh is grass, …the grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it… but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Verse10
Maybe another way to say it is, don’t trust in getting rich quick. Or maybe if it so to good, it isn‘t.
Verse 11 and 12a are clear.
God is strong. God is loving. What else do we need to know.
(Ecclesiastes 12:13)
Barclay- The psalms express this in a personal admonition, “When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds and be silent” (4:4), or again in the psalm of trust, “be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted” (46:10). Or in complaint against enemies, the psalmist can say, “In God I trust; I am not afraid” (56:3-4,11). This stillness is like “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding and will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil4:7)
Close by reading The Message.