On God my salvation and my glory rest

Psalm 62 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

My soul waits in silence for God only;
From Him is my salvation.
² He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.

³ How long will you assail a man,
That you may murder him, all of you,
Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?
⁴ They have counseled only to thrust him down from his high position;
They delight in falsehood;
They bless with their mouth,
But inwardly they curse. Selah.

⁵ My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.
⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
⁸ Trust in Him at all times, O people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah.

⁹ Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie;
In the balances they go up;
They are together lighter than breath.
¹⁰ Do not trust in oppression
And do not vainly hope in robbery;
If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

¹¹ Once God has spoken;
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God;
¹² And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord,
For You recompense a man according to his work.

The psalmist says:  On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.   These are common themes throughout the psalms. Trusting in God, taking refuge in Him, standing on the foundation, the rock of God’s strength and His love; these are all things which come through times of testing, times of difficulty. A person does not fully appreciate the value and security of a rock, unless they have experienced the raging waters of a flood.  We cannot fully know what it is to lean on and depend on the strength of God unless we have come to the end of our own strength. Romans 8:28-29 says:  We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.     God doesn’t cause the difficulties in our lives. As the psalmist says: How long will you assail a man, That you may murder him, all of you, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They have counseled only to thrust him down from his high position; They delight in falsehood; They bless with their mouth, But inwardly they curse.   Our troubles and difficulties happen at the hands of people or as result of living in a fallen world. God is not the cause of our problems, but He will cause them to work for our good.

The psalmist says:  My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.    The soul includes our minds, our will and our emotions. Even when our mind has believed and waits, even when our will is to do what is God’s will and to trust in Him; our emotions often do not remain silent and wait. We experience fear, doubt and anxiety. We become angry and frustrated. Often it is our emotions which cause us to be shaken. It is those things we feel in our hearts which shake us. Jeremiah 17:9-10 says:  “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?  I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”  The psalmist says:  Once God has spoken; Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God;  And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, For You recompense a man according to his work.

What then, are we victims of our own deceitful hearts? Is there no cure? Will we simply get what we deserve? Will we receive according to our work? Again the psalmist says:  My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken… power belongs to God;  And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord.     Even before Jesus came as Savior, the psalmist knew that only God could save, and that salvation was because of His love. Ephesians 2:4-9 says:  God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.     It may be true that the heart is deceitful and beyond cure. Yet it is God who created our hearts and our minds. He created us in His image and likeness. The psalmist knew the answer to curing the deceitful human heart. In Psalm 51:10-12 he says:  Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.    The same God who created our heart will also create a new clean heart within us. He will renew us and restore us to the way He intended from the beginning, to have a heart like His. The psalmist says: Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) Our hearts become realigned with God’s heart when we love Him and delight in Him. Jesus says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)  

The cure for our deceitful human heart is to love God with all of our heart. We are saved by grace because of His loving kindness. 1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.  Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John 3:16 says:  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.    We are saved, restored and renewed; given a new heart through Jesus Christ, because of God’s love.

Like the psalmist may our declaration and prayer be:  My soul waits in silence for God only;
From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Power belongs to God; And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord.  Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. Amen.