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Welcome to our look today at Psalm 62 in Drive Time Devotions.
The title of Psalm 62 says for Judeuthune. Who was Judeuthune? Well, we find out in the Bible
that Judeuthune was one of David's worship leaders. In fact, he was in charge of the worship
band. 1 Chronicles 16, 41 to 42 mentions him. With him, it says in verse 21, were Heman and
Judeuthune and the rest of those who were chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the Lord
for his love endures forever. Heman and Judeuthune were responsible for the sounding of the trumpets
and the cymbals and the playing of the other instruments for sacred song. The sons of Judeuthune
were stationed at the gate. So this psalm was written for a worship leader and it's a psalm
all about where your soul can find rest. Listen to verse one. My soul finds rest in God alone.
My salvation comes from him. So how does your soul find rest? There are four powerful truths
in this psalm. The first is obvious from the first verse. Number one, your soul finds rest
in God alone. I want you to notice how many times he says God alone in verses one and two and then
verses five and six. 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. And then verses five and six.
Find rest, oh 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. Now those words, I will not be shaken,
that means when you can feel that way, that means you've come to a place
where your soul has found rest. Your soul finding rest doesn't mean all the circumstances around
you are perfect. Many times they're not. But when you have this sense, no matter what,
I will not be shaken, your soul has come to a place of rest. One of the reasons that we can
start to feel shaken is when we drift from trust in God alone. And most often for us it's God plus
something else. So instead of God alone as your rock, you begin to try to stand on two rocks.
You stand on God and your finances, or you stand on God and other people's opinion of you,
or you stand on God and your most recent success. You have one foot on God as your rock,
but you've got your other foot on that which can easily be lost. So of course you're shaky.
You've only got one foot on solid ground. Now this is so important. Let me just take this a bit
deeper because it's where a lot of us are living, myself included. It's not that we're standing on
the wrong rock. It's that we're trying to stand on too many rocks and life gets out of balance
when too much becomes too important. You ever walk into a grocery store and you're just going
to buy like two items so you don't get a basket, but then you see one more thing you need. Oh,
and you're out of that and you better get this. And before long you're in the checkout line and
you've got a loaf of bread under one arm and you've got a bag of broccoli in your teeth.
Too much became too important. Often, most often for our soul to find rest, we've got to reduce
the busyness so that we can focus on the only rock that can give us the rest that we need.
You stand not on God plus something. You stand on God alone. And when that plus something,
your finances, your successes, when they start to let you down, it's a reminder not to try to stand
more solidly on them, but to take your foot off of them as your trust and put both feet solidly on
that place of trust in God. He is the rock. Your soul finds rest in God alone. That's the first
truth in this psalm. The second truth is your soul finds rest in silence. In verse one, the word
rest that's used in the Hebrew language, it actually has the idea behind it of stillness or
of quiet or of silence. In fact, ESV translates it, "For God alone my soul waits in silence.
From him comes my salvation." Now, this truth that rest and silence are tied together,
I don't think it's a surprise to any of us. We've all experienced our stress level going down when
things get quiet. But for real soul rest, this psalm is telling us we need something more than
just silence. That real rest comes when you invite God into that quiet place. You sit with him.
You walk with him in that silence and you let your soul soak in that true rest.
There's a third truth in this psalm about how our souls find rest. Number three, my soul finds rest
in pouring out my heart to God. Verses seven and eight, "My salvation and my honor depend on God.
He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people.
Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."
So in verse one, silence is important. And in verse eight, pouring out your heart to God is
important. So which is it? Well, it's both. Sometimes you need silence, but there are other
times when you just need to unburden your soul. And maybe it's loud. You need to unburden your
soul before God by pouring out your heart to him. You tell God exactly how you feel,
even if it's that you feel nothing. "God, I'm not feeling anything right now and I don't know why."
Notice it says here, "Trust him at all times and pour out your hearts to him." There's no time
that it's not the right time to pour out your heart to God. So you pour out your heart to God
in appreciation, in praise, but also in sorrow and in disappointment, in victory and in defeat.
Listen, when you pour out your heart, then God pours into your heart.
He pours in grace and peace and confidence and understanding and forgiveness and love.
But it only happens when you pour out your heart to him. When you pour out your heart to God,
you are opening your heart to what God wants to pour in. And that's where the rest comes from,
when God pours in. Well, there's a fourth truth in this psalm about the rest that God wants to
give you and I in everyday life. Number four, my soul finds rest in reminding myself of God's
character. Listen to verses 11 and 12. "One thing God has spoken, two things I have 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."
When our soul is restless, we often find ourselves focusing on who others are or focusing on who we
are. When our soul is restless, we start to focus on who others are, maybe the ways they've let us
down or maybe the ways that we need them maybe to lift us up right now. Or maybe you're like me and
more often you find yourself focusing on yourself when your soul gets restless. And we focus on
ourselves when we have a restless soul and the ways that we've let ourselves down. If I just hadn't
done this, if I just didn't do that. And we get caught up with the if onlys of life. You know
that it's self-defeating to always be condemning yourself, but you just can't seem to get past
these constant negative feelings about yourself or get past these constant angry feelings towards
another person. How do you find rest for your soul? To find rest for your soul, you stop focusing
on what others are like or on what you're like and you focus instead on the character of God.
And look, look at these three truths about God's character in just verses 11 and 12. The Bible is
filled with descriptions of God's character. In verses 11 and 12 we're told that God is strong,
God is loving, and God will reward. So you need rest for your soul right now.
Let me remind you of these truths about who God is. God is strong. God is strong enough to give you
the rest that you need. He is stronger than the circumstances around you that are giving the
confusion or the person who has disappointed you. He is stronger than anything in this world. He's
stronger than Satan and his temptations. He's stronger than any failure that you've faced.
God is strong and the strength of his character can give you rest. Let me also remind you from
these verses that God is loving. You need rest for your soul and God wants to give rest to your soul.
He loves you. He wants you to find that rest. He's not looking down from heaven at you saying,
"Well, I hope you do okay. I hope you make it. I hope you can figure this one out."
He's using these verses and other verses to pour this truth into your life
that he is more than willing and able to show up in your life in this time and he loves you more
than you can imagine. And then this third truth about God's character in these verses, God will
reward. Often our souls are restless because we feel like life isn't working out like we expected.
And it is true. In this world often things are unfair and often it feels like the scales are
unbalanced. And why do the evil succeed and those who are faithful seem to fail?
But God's character is that God will reward faith. We may not see it in this world,
but we will see it in eternity. I have no doubt about that. Why? Because I know who God is.
Not based on my promise, but the promise of his character. And your soul might feel restless
today because of the loss that you've had or the unfairness that you faced. In the end,
God will reward your faith. God will reward the faithful. God is strong. God is loving.
God will reward. Focus on that today. In fact, let's do that together right now.
Lord, as we bring our restless souls to you, we want to do what this psalm has invited us to do.
We want to trust in you alone. Forgive us for trying to stand and trust on other things that
are shaky. We want an unshaken soul, so we've got to stand on an unshakable God. God alone.
And Father, we want to pour our hearts to you in those times when there's just so much to say.
Help us to not just say it to others, but also and especially to say it to you.
And we want to be silent before you in those times when you just need to speak to us in that
silence. And we want to remember who you are. We choose to remember who you are.
In fact, particularly today, remember that you are strong. You are loving. You are a
God who rewards our faith. We remember this together in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Join us tomorrow. We're going to talk about how to quench your deepest thirst.