Welcome to the notes from our midweek service of worship in our building in Panmurefield
Opening Scripture verses:
Truly my soul finds rest in God;
Psalm 62:1-2
my salvation comes from Him.
2 Truly He is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I shall never be shaken.
Opening praise: How Deep the Father’s Love
Opening Prayer:
Thank you Lord once more for this opportunity to gather in Your house to worship You. We know as King Solomon of Israel many centuries ago declared in I Kings 8:27-28:
But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain You. How much less this temple I have built! 28 Yet give attention to Your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying in your presence this day.
Lord unlike us You are not constrained by space and time and are able to hear and answer the prayers we bring to You today. We ask Your blessing on our time together in the wonderful and precious name of Jesus, Your Son, Our Saviour, in whose name we pray, Amen
Bible Reading:
Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from Him.
2 Truly He is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I shall never be shaken.3 How long will you assault me?
Would all of you throw me down this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
4 Surely they intend to topple me
from my lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from Him.
6 Truly He is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I shall not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honour depend on God;
He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in Him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to Him,
for God is our refuge.9 Surely 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.
10 Do not trust in extortion
or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.11 One thing God has spoken,
Psalm 62
two things I have heard:
‘Power belongs to You, God,
12 and with You, Lord, is unfailing love’;
and, ‘You reward everyone
according to what they have done.’
Intercessory prayer using Psalm 62
Heavenly Father as we come with our prayers of intercession today, we are conscious of so many needs within our congregation, community and country and that is before we come to consider the wider world. Yet we remember that the Scriptures ask us to offer our prayers with thanksgiving.
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him.2 Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I shall never be shaken. Lord, I want to thank You today for…
Our Father, we are very conscious of people or circumstances that for us or for others are very difficult. We are aware that for King David it was other people who had caused deep hurts to him. How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down – this leaning wall, this tottering fence? 4 Surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. Lord, I want to bring before You the person or people or the circumstances with which I am struggling today….
Lord, we come deeply aware that sometimes our commitment to You or to Your service is not as it ought to be. We remember David’s challenge to himself in Psalm 62:5: 5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. Lord, I am aware of my need to renew afresh my life into Your hands today, as David did long ago, in particular, I want to ask You to help me with…
Thank you Lord that our faith is a missionary faith and the needs of others to trust You will be on our hearts, week by week. David appealed to those not yet committed to God in His day to take that step of faith. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. I want to bring before the following names of people I want to see You bring to faith or bring back to You…
David reminded us of the shortness of life. Surely 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. Lord, we are currently concerned about the ongoing virus pandemic in our city and in other places. We want to bring before You the following Health Service or Social Care workers…
We also want to bring before You the following people who are unwell or who have been bereaved in the recent past…
We also want to bring before You these other needs… or particular personal needs ….
Thank You Lord for hearing and answering our prayers in Jesus’ name, Amen
Message from Psalm 62 ‘Trusting in God’
Introduction
This Psalm was written at the time of Absalom’s rebellion against his father King David with a view to taking the throne as the new King of Israel nearly 3,000 years ago (See II Samuel chapters 15-18 for more details). There was real uncertainty in the King’s household as to who had remained loyal to the aged king and who had sided with the young claimant in what became a short civil war.
At first Absalom in having the element of surprise had the upper hand. It seemed likely that had he made the right strategic decisions in the first few days that he would have been successful in this military coup. Even some of David’s closest friends and acquaintances sided with Absalom.
We won’t go into the reasons for that here as it would take us away from the point of this Psalm, but it asks the question to all of us – in whom do you put your trust? How many people do you know whose words you would trust 100%? How many individuals would you trust with the most personal and sensitive information about your life, of your strengths and weaknesses, your successes and your failures? This is a very hard question to answer.
Let us look here how in the most difficult of times David comes to terms with the very serious predicament he was facing of the possible loss of his throne and with it the danger of also losing his life as well.
1. Trust in God our choice despite adversity (Psalm 62:1-4)
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him.2 Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I shall never be shaken. 3 How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down – this leaning wall, this tottering fence?4 Surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse.
Who can you depend on when you need help? Whose presence with you gives you a sense of security and an assurance that things will be okay? When we were little children of course for the vast majority of us the answer would be our parents.
They were amazing people who knew ‘all the answers’ to sort out all the difficulties we were facing in our childhood. As we grow we come to a point where we know that our parents are not able to resolve all the problems we face or put right all the wrongs done to us. In fact, there are circumstances in many people’s lives that no other person can make right. It doesn’t have to be as extreme a situation as David was facing where he had a genuine fear of losing his life.
Can you say as David did here: Truly my soul finds rest in God (Psalm 62:1a)? All of us have our genuine worries and concerns in life, if not for ourselves then for other people around us. But worrying about something does not resolve anything, the situation remains as difficult as before and on top of that we may struggle to get adequate sleep; we may be unable to concentrate adequately at school, college or our workplace; it can rob us of pleasure and joy in the good things of life that we experience and give us nothing positive in return.
Worry or anxiety is a thief that takes from us our sense of wellbeing and if we remain in this state it will damage our emotional and mental health and sometimes even our physical health as well. David’s secret to the long life he lived was the revelation he shares here in this verse. Truly my soul finds rest in God (Psalm 62:1a). He also explains why he turned to God in the first place. My salvation comes from Him (Psalm 62:1b).
Have you put your faith and trust in God? There is no-one more able to save us than God. As a Christian I would add through faith in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour; the One who died in our place on the cross to take the punishment for your sins and mine so that instead of condemnation we might have a welcome into God’s family through His amazing undeserved kindness to us. The security of God’s love makes all the difference to His children. David goes on to say in Psalm 62:2L Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I shall never be shaken. Is God your anchor in the storms of life? Is He your reference point when you lose your sense of direction in life? He invites you and me to follow Him. If you have never put your faith in God the Father through Jesus, then I would encourage you to take that step today.
In Psalm 62:3-4 David turns to the people whose actions have caused so much distress for him. 3 How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down – this leaning wall, this tottering fence? 4 Surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless,but in their hearts they curse.
Are there people who have made promises to you and broken them? Are there individuals who betrayed your trust or who took advantage of your goodness to them? David now as an aged man acutely aware of his bodily weakness feels righteous indignation rising up within him. How could they do…? Sadly it happens all the time, but it doesn’t make it any easier to understand why someone would act in this way. Each of us will recall examples of this kind of behaviour. However, David’s point here is that even when other people are unaware of wrongdoing that God will see it and act in response to it.
Have you ever been falsely accused of doing something wrong? Or aware that another person has wrongly treated you? Never forget that God sees all these things. Therefore, says David, Truly my soul finds rest in God despite all the adversity that may come my way today or tomorrow or sometime in the future.
2. Trust in God brings a sense of security (Psalm 62:5-8)
5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. 6 Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I shall not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honour depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in Him at all times, you people;pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.
Notice how these words build on the earlier verses one and two. In Psalm 62:1-2 there is a statement of David’s practice. But here in Psalm 62:5 there is a personal exhortation to practise more seriously the message he proclaimed to other people. All of us know how easy it is to give advice to other people about how they should act in particular contexts. But do I follow my own advice in practice? We are familiar with the pattern in many of David’s Psalms. He has gone through some great trials with God’s help and afterwards writes a Psalm of praise and thanksgiving to celebrate answers to prayer. Somewhere in the Psalm he will invite or exhort the reader or hearer to do what he did in trusting God.
What can we learn from David here? I may have put my trust in God for the first time many years ago. I may have read the Bible, prayed and attended church for decades, but sometimes we can drift in our commitment to following Him. There are times when we need to come to God and ask Him to help us get back on track in our spiritual journey. We can have times of self-pity. God it is not fair. I have served You faithfully. I have been a good neighbour, a diligent worker and a person who helped others in need. This bad situation ought not to happen to me! Unfortunately life is not that simple.
We need to accept that there is much in life that we will never understand. Our ‘why’ questions may never get answered to our satisfaction; sometimes we need to stop and challenge ourselves not to be weighed down completely by the trials we face that we forget to keep our eyes on the Lord. Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him (Psalm 62:5). Actually, a more accurate translation of David’s words in verses 1 and 2 and here in verse 5 and 6 includes the word alone. Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I shall not be shaken.
God is not just a person to whom we turn in our times of crisis, but the One on whom we depend and with whom we seek fellowship in good times as well as tough ones. His sufficiency in our times of need is something we need to remind ourselves of on occasions.
Notice that whereas in the first few verses of this Psalm (Psalm 62:3-4) David feels the need to address those who had made his life so difficult, but in these next few verses his focus is entirely on God. The Bible in quite a few places challenges us to keep our focus on the Lord and on what He has called us to do. Jesus, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount said these challenging words in Matthew 6:31-33 to His followers when they were tempted to worry about the future.
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Are you, am I giving God the first place in our lives. In a time of the worst virus pandemic for a century it is no surprise that many people are worried about their health, or worried about their job or their business. God through David invites us to commit our day, our week and our future into His hands. The implication David gives if we don’t follow his advice is that instead of rest we will become increasingly weary and very vulnerable to feeling overwhelmed with all that we might have to face in times like these.
Therefore, in Psalm 62:8 David gives a challenge to us, his readers and hearers: Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. Notice he says at all times not some times. God is sufficient to meet our needs in every situation so that we can find a place of rest and peace of mind through Him. His words here are in effect a testimony of God’s goodness in helping him.
Never underestimate the power of your story. Your account of how you came to faith in Jesus or your memory of answered prayers. A person may disagree with your opinions on many subjects. However, it is so much harder to challenge lived experience. There are many people in country after country looking for a way to handle all the pressures that have come their way in the last six months. You might be the person God uses to speak a word for Him later today or later this week. Please pray for opportunities to share your faith story with others. Who might you want to share the good news with that God is our refuge?
3. Trust in God gives a right perspective (Psalm62:9-12)
9 Surely 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. 10 Do not trust in extortion or put vain hope in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. 11 One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard:‘Power belongs to you, God, 12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing love’; and, ‘You reward everyone according to what they have done.’
Have you ever been somewhere and got well and truly lost? I can recall car journeys over the years where it was incredibly frustrating, trying to find places because the road signs were inadequate for a visitor to the area. I have also been walking on a few mountains when the mist came down and visibility was almost non-existent for a while. It can be quite scary to be in that position. Here our author wants to remind us that trust in God enables us to have a right perspective on so many things. First of all is a reminder of our weakness. 9 Surely 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 (Psalm 62:9). Presidents and Prime Ministers come and go. Even dictators and tyrants who may not face general elections will eventually depart this life.
We ourselves will not be here for ever either. God knows the bigger picture. He knows how the pieces of the ‘jigsaw’ fit together. Our ultimate hope must not rest on, for example, which politicians are in office. They may try their best, but will rarely accomplish more than a fraction of what had been promised in an election campaign.
David also reminds us not to take integrity shortcuts when under real pressure in daily life. Do not trust in extortion or put vain hope in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them (Psalm 62:10). There are plenty of people who will falsify tax returns, or give misleading information about products they are selling to maximise their business profits. There are others who in hard times engage in theft or trade in stolen property. Don’t do any of these things and others that your conscience and mine has concerns about. Be known as a man or woman of integrity who cannot be bought and who always endeavours to the best of your ability to do what is right.
David then comes to his concluding remarks in verses 11 and 12: One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard:‘Power belongs to you, God, 12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing love’; and, ‘You reward everyone according to what they have done.’ What is his concluding advice to us?
Remember: (i) God is strong Power belongs to you, God… We at times are acutely aware of our weakness and inadequacy but He: is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21). There is nothing too difficult for you to do today with His help.
(ii) God is faithful … and with you, Lord, is unfailing love. Jeremiah reminds us in Lamentations 3:22-23: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. David understood afresh something of the character of God as he rejoiced in the faithful covenant love between God and His people. You may feel alone, but God will never leave you alone because He always keeps His promises.
(iii) God is fair You reward everyone according to what they have done. Paul reminded some fairly new Christians of this truth in Galatians 6:9-10: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.In our city in the last six months it has been great to see people coming together to serve their communities during this virus pandemic. However, I have been particularly pleased to see the number of churches that have stepped up to play their part as well. We have only one life to live here on earth and then after this life we will stand before the Lord to give an account of the way we have lived. May He help us to do what is right and live each day in a way pleasing to Him, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Closing Song: I will sing the Wondrous Story
Closing Prayer:
Thank You Lord for Your amazing kindness to us as Your people. We come with grateful hearts again and again to express our thankfulness to You. Help us at this time to rest in God alone, and not to worry about the issues that are beyond our control. Help us to commit our future to You, both individually as well as in our families and here in our church family, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Benediction
