Seeking God Through the Psalms
08/15/2004 - Finding Rest for My Soul
He was born into a large family in a small country town, the youngest of eight boys, the last of the litter. He was at the bottom of the totem pole and the kid everybody picked on. His opinion mattered the least and his voice was hardly ever heard.
He was always the last to be chosen when it was time to play and when it was time to work, he always got the dirty jobs that his brothers refused to do. When he was a teenager he worked on his father's farm and took up music to fill the hours that he spent alone.
He didn't think that he would ever amount to much until one day someone that he looked up to told him that great things were in store for his future. He would be a leader someday.
Soon after that he went off to war and won a battle, single handedly, that made him a military hero. He earned a purple heart and the acclaim of his entire country. He became an instant celebrity. His picture was everywhere. Songs were even written to honor him.
In fact, his popularity was so great that he became a threat to the leader of his country who wanted to kill him. And so for ten years that leader pursued him, like a fugitive, making two attempts on his life. He was forced to flee from his home and at times even disguised himself so that he wouldn't be recognized.
Two times he had the golden opportunity to kill his pursuer, but on each occasion he couldn't bring himself to do it. Finally, the leader who wanted him dead was himself killed in battle. And so the young man, who was thirty now, became the new leader of the nation. Under his rule, that would last forty years, he unified a country that had been torn apart by civil war, expanded his nation's borders ten fold, and turned it into the one of the world's super powers.
Finally, everything was falling into place until one day he hit a midlife crisis that ended up in a tabloid affair. To cover it up he had the husband of his lover killed and then married the woman who bore him a son that died a few days later.
Not long after that another son, by a previous marriage, raped one of his daughters, whose brother then turned around and murdered him. Then that same son led a rebellion that forced his father to leave his palace and once again end up running for his life.
Famine and revolution rocked the nation until finally that son was killed and the rebellion was over. The leader, who was now seventy, turned his reign over to yet another son. Then he pulled the covers up over his head and died.
Few people have ever lived a life so full of adventure. In fact, a few years ago a best-selling author wrote a book about this man's life that had very little success. And Time magazine concluded that the reason it didn't sell well was because the novelization of this man's life couldn't be any spicier than the details we have recorded for us in the Bible.
The man's name is David son of Jesse and the diary of his action packed life is found in the book of Psalms. This morning we continue our series called Seeking God Through the Psalms with a look at Psalm 62 and a teaching I've called "Finding Rest for My Soul." If you have your Bible turn with me to Psalm 62.
Psalm 62 is one of the 73 psalms attributed to David and once again it offers a window into his soul. Some of you keep a journal to document your spiritual journey. Well this is David's journal. For him writing poetry was like spiritual therapy. It was a way of talking himself into faith when his spirit and his emotions were wavering.
David is someone that we can relate to. Not because we've experienced everything in life that he experienced, we wouldn't want to. But on the other hand, it's safe to say that David experienced most of the things, and all of the emotions that we experience in life. Like Jesus, he had his share of heartache and sorrow and grief.
He knows what it's like to be picked on as a kid. He understands the monotony of feeling stuck in a boring, dead-end job. He's experienced what it's like to be given a dream that takes decades to fulfill. He's felt the sting of slander and the fear of running for his life for years. He's wondered many times why God just doesn't make it stop and all go away.
He knows what's it like to live in the lap of luxury, surrounded by servants that cater to his every whim, and what it's like to be homeless, holed up in a dark, smelly cave, all alone. He's seen his baby die, his sons killed, his daughter raped and his empire ripped out of his hands. And through it all God calls him "a man after my own heart."
And we wonder why? Because he was perfect? No. Far from it. Instead, he's called a man after God's own heart because through it all he intentionally involved Jehovah, the God of Israel, in every detail of his life. He thought about God a lot.
Author Philip Yancey puts it this way, "Throughout his life David believed, truly believed, that the invisible world of God, heaven, and the angels was every bit as real as his own world of swords and spears and caves and thrones. The psalms form a record of his conscious effort to subject his own daily life to the reality of that invisible world beyond him."
And in Psalm 62, the psalm we're looking at this morning, we see David doing that once again. Follow along as I read Psalm 62. For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David. My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. 3 How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down - this leaning wall, this tottering fence? 4 They 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. 5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I shall not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah. 9 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. 10 Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. 11 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, 12 And that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.
Scholars believe that David wrote this psalm while he was under attack from his own son, Absalom, who was trying to kill him. He was leading a rebellion against David, which forced him to abandon his plush palace in Jerusalem and escape to a walled city called Mahanaim. The story is found in 2 Samuel 17.
The psalm naturally breaks down into three parts of four verses each. In verses 1-4, David encourages us to rest in God when enemies attack us. Then in verses 5-8, he urges us to trust in God at all times. And finally, in verses 9-12, he reminds us that God will reward each person according to what they have done.
At a time when David could have been frantic inside with everything that was going on outside he's able to say, "My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from him."
How can he say that? What's his secret? What is it about God that can give our souls rest even when our whole world is caving in? David's not writing this psalm sitting in a beach chair at the Jersey shore on a two-week summer vacation, "My soul finds rest in God alone!" No. This isn't "Miller Time" for David. He's under attack. His life could be over.
Some of you are going through seasons of attack right now. You feel like your whole world is collapsing. There are things going on in your life that have you frantic inside. It's hard for you to even concentrate on this psalm. But you want so much to find rest for your soul. And you can, even before the crisis is over, even before the problem gets solved.
The key is how you view God. Throughout the psalm David uses four images of God that bring rest to his soul. In verse 2, he mentions three of those images. He calls God my rock, my salvation, and my fortress. Then in verse 7, he says God is my refuge. Each one of these images is pregnant with meaning and brings rest to his frantic soul.
During my travels to Israel and Greece and Turkey over the years I've noticed something about almost every ancient city. And that is that they were all built on the top of a mountain and surrounded by a wall of protection. In this psalm "the rock" that David is referring to is not a stone that you skip across a creek or even a rock that you dig out of the ground to plant your garden. It's a mountain. And the fortress is a city whose walls make it secure from its enemies.
In fact, when you watch the Olympics this week and see the majestic site of the Acropolis rising 500 feet above the city of Athens with the Parthenon standing proudly on top think of God being your rock. That's the image that gives rest to David's soul. Nothing can shake him, not even death, because he knows death will only serve to usher him into the presence of the God he loves so much.
God is his rock. He is his fortress. He is the one who will save him and the place where he finds refuge from the storms of life. Now that doesn't mean that David makes it easy for his enemies. He doesn't. He still runs and he still hides and he still gathers an army around him. There's nothing wrong with that. Faith is not passive. Faith takes action. But that's not ultimately what gives his soul rest. Instead, he feels safe and secure because he knows that God is in control of the outcome of his life no matter what happens.
In verses 3-4, he continues the analogy by saying, How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down - this leaning wall, this tottering fence? 4 They fully intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. Selah.
When an enemy would attack a city they would take a battering ram and start smashing a gate or if that was too heavily guarded they'd start ramming a wall again and again until it would start to bulge and then lean and then totter and finally collapse.
David feels beat up. Just because his soul rest in God alone, doesn't mean that he hasn't taken his share of shots. He's been hurt deeply. After all, this is one of David's favorite sons, Absalom, who hates him and wants to humiliate him, take his throne and take his life. That will do a number on you. Most of us know what it feels like to be lied to and to have people smile to our face, but curse us behind our back. It hurts.
I was talking to a guy last week who was telling me how insecure he feels at work right now. He has well a paying job and all the perks that go with it. In fact, back in the spring he got a nice promotion. But now the company is struggling a bit and business is off and he had to fire two people who worked under him. And that was tough to do. And afterwards his boss gave him the assurance that his job was secure. But he told me, "You know what? I don't believe her. The two guys I fired this week thought their job was secure. You can't trust anybody in my company. It's all about the numbers and if they're not there, you're gone!" He's afraid and when I'm around him I hear him talking to others about what they do for a living and whether they feel secure in their jobs. Our soul will never find rest in a vocation or in a career, only in God alone.
In verses 1-4, David encourages us to rest in God when we're under attack. In verses 5-8, he urges us to trust in God at all times.
Notice the repetition in verses 5-7, Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I shall not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
All four images of God are found again in those verses. But then there's a shift in verse 8. David moves from encouraging himself to encouraging us and all those who would one day read his journal. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah.
When people come to me and share their crises I often encourage them to do two things. First of all, to talk to God about it. Pour out your heart to him. And when I say that I'm not talking about praying some memorized, sanitized, spiritualized, "now I lay down to sleep" kind of prayer. I'm talking about pouring your heart out to God. And those kinds of prayers aren't always polite and they're not rehearsed or memorized. Instead, they're kind of messy and filled with emotion.
Some people have a hard time voicing them and so they prefer to write them out in a journal or a diary, which is what David's doing here. And usually those kinds of prayers aren't prayed in a group. They're usually prayed when you're alone, driving in the car, out for a walk, in a thick walled, padded room where nobody else can hear you. Some have found it helpful to set up two chairs, facing each other. Sit in one and imagine God in the other and tell him how you feel. Tell him everything that's going on, you're not going to shock him or lose the friendship. He wants to hear everything on your heart. Trust and prayer go together.
When you're in a crisis pour out your heart to God. And then tell somebody else. Tell somebody who you know walks with God. It's interesting that all through this psalm David says, God is my rock, not a rock, God is my fortress, not a fortress, God is my refuge, not a refuge. This man has a portfolio of experiences where his back has been up against the wall again and again and he has seen God come through. Talk to someone who's been there. Who has a bit of a history walking with God and has endured some of the heartache and the grief of life.
And if you're that person that someone comes to. Listen. Listen more than you talk. And when you do talk. Don't instruct. Don't minimize the situation or the pain. Pray. Pour out your heart for them. And then, if it's appropriate, share a bit of your story and the times when you have experienced God as that rock and that fortress and that refuge. Our faith experiences, like David's, are meant to help others put their trust in God at all times, good and bad.
In verses 1-4, David encourages us to rest in God when we're under attack. In verses 5-8, he urges us to trust in God at all times. And finally, in verses 9-12, David reminds us that God will reward each person according to what they have done.
Four times in this psalm David makes the point that he is trusting in God alone. In verses one, two, five and six we read the word "alone, alone, alone, alone."
David had learned something over the years. He had been betrayed so many times, by so many people, poor and wealthy, that he learned that you can't ultimately put your trust in people.
Look at verse 9, The lowborn are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath.
You can't ultimately put your trust in people, but neither can you put your trust in wealth. Look at verse 10, Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
During the course of his lifetime David had done both. Early on he had trusted in Saul, the former king of Israel. Saul loved David. David was his favorite musician and helped him through some pretty rough times. Saul's son, Jonathan, was David's best friend. But then Saul grew jealous of David's fame and popularity and turned on him. He became obsessed with killing David and chased him all over the country for ten years. That was a wake up call for David. That was the first time he realized that you can't trust everybody.
David had amassed a huge amount of wealth in his lifetime. He had everything money could buy. But now his money was no good to him. He'd been forced to leave his "White House" and all his possessions behind and 2 Samuel 15:30 tells us he fled the city in bare feet.
There's nothing wrong with people. There's nothing wrong with wealth. They're just not worthy of our ultimate trust. They cannot be our rock and our fortress and our refuge in a time of storm. Only God can be that to us.
Look at verses 11-12, One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, 12 And that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward everyone according to what they have done.
The only one worthy our ultimate trust is God alone, the God who is both strong and loving and will reward everyone according to what they have done.
Shortly after David wrote this psalm his son, Absalom, was killed in battle and the rebellion was over. David moved back to the White House and finished out his reign as king. God had once again saved him.
But when he heard the news of Absalom's death he wept and cried out in 2 Samuel 18:33, O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you - O Absalom, my son, my son!
David loved his son and didn't want to see him killed even though he had done a horrible thing. David had learned the lesson that we all need to learn when going through painful experiences and that is to let God have the last word. Let God take care of it. Let God make things right one day. We can't. But he will. He will reward everyone according to what they have done.