May 25, 2008 Second Sunday after Pentecost
Sermon Title: “God Alone”
Series: None
Text: Psalm 62:5-12
Dr.
Delivered on May 25, 2008
“For God alone
my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my
salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.”
Psalm 62:5-6
God Alone
While visiting with one of our members last week I learned she’d had a series of appliances break down recently and needed repairs done in her home. Home ownership may be the American dream, but when something goes wrong it can quickly turn into a nightmare. My conversation with her ranged from how often troubles seem to run in threes to how it seems harder and harder these days to find reliable people to make needed repairs. It’s easy enough to get on the Internet and search for local firms to fix your stuff; plenty of companies are willing to repair your dishwasher or replace your roof. The question is; can you trust them to come when they say they’re going to? And will they do the job right the first time? And will they clean up after themselves, or will they leave a horrible mess behind? And if the appliance can’t be repaired and needs replacing can you trust them to treat you right on the replacement or will they take you for a ride? Let me ask you, if you go home this afternoon and discover something broken or in need of repair, who are you going to call?
The Psalm we read this morning, Psalm 62, is really an answer to that question in the spiritual realm. When something goes wrong, not in my house or with my car, but in my life; when I experience difficulty or face trouble, when I am tempted to run and hide in fear, or to pull out my hair in despair, who should I call and can I trust them? I suspect there are several folks here this morning that are facing such a dilemma in their life.
David was certainly
facing a crisis when he penned the Psalm we read today; it was written in the
midst of a very tough personal situation. In the part of the Psalm just before
where we began reading this morning we learn that evil men were out to “murder”
David (Psalm 62:3b). No one knows for sure the exact situation that gave rise
to this psalm but we do know that at one point King Saul was trying to kill David.
We also know there were others out to get David as well: Philistines,
Amalekites, and others. Most commentators believe the particular historical
background of this Psalm was Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15-18). Absalom was
David’s favored son and when he tried to usurp the throne David had to flee for
his life into exile in the wilderness. There he was deprived of the safety and
comfort of his palace, and of the honor of being
It was in that midst of that situation – not knowing who to trust, who might be a spy for Absalom – not knowing who was for him or who was against him that David pondered the question we’ve already alluded to – who should the turn to? Who could he trust?
The answer to that question, of course, is God. No big surprise there. But there are some surprising lessons – some takeaways for us this morning from this Psalm concerning the manner in which David turned to God. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in this “brief homily” on Psalm 62.
God Alone
First notice that David turned to God alone. I would venture to guess that most of us here this morning have put our trust God in God at one time or another in our lives. But do we trust God alone? Do we really pin all our hopes on him? This is a significant question. Six times in this Psalm David uses the small Hebrew word translated “only” or “alone.” This word occurs in verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 9 and it underlines the clear focus and exclusive nature of David’s faith. Over and over again David says his hope, salvation, trust and refuge are all found in God alone.
I’m afraid that whether we consciously admit it or not, for many of us it’s not “God Alone” but “God And.” We trust God and our bank account. We trust God and our ability to get and keep a job. We trust God and our education, or our God and family and friends when we should be looking to God. Where do you turn when trouble comes?
Perhaps we don’t
turn to God like because we have it so good in so many ways here in
The blessing of our having so much more can actually turn into a curse if we begin to rely on things other than God to sustain us. Do the “things of life’ form a kind of safety net that keeps you from fully trusting in God? Would you trust in Him alone if all of these things were removed like David in our Psalm today, or like Job in the book of Job? Let’s remember the words of David here – let’s inscribe them on our hearts, “My soul finds rest in God alone…”
Rest and
Security
Note, second of all, what confident trust in God results in according to David; rest and security, deliverance, hope and honor. It’s what David found, and when we make David’s practice our own, it will work for us as well. He is, as David affirms, our rock, our salvation and our fortress. He’s our shelter from the storm – whatever the storm may be.
I watched and
old movie recently about an airplane that crash landed in the jungles of
Like the characters in this movie we, too have a retreat, all we have to do is to run to our spiritual refuge, our Father in heaven. There we will find the rest, peace and security that we can only find in him. Let’s face it, isn’t that what we all long for anyway? Again, I think living as we do in a relatively safe environment we lose sight of the fact that security is really our biggest issue. We talk about wanting to be “happy” or “fulfilled,” but when you are out in the middle of a field in a thunderstorm or almost involved in a car accident you don’t worry about being “happy” you just want to be safe and secure.
And look at verse 8 again: “Trust in Him at all times, O people.” This is an important reminder for us to trust God in every circumstance and in every situation. The reality is, true relief doesn’t come when the problem facing us, whatever that problem happens to be, is solved. Why? Because more problems are on the way! True relief in life, true rest comes from an knowing that now matter what may come, God is in control. The problem with us is that if we’re in the habit of only calling on God as a last resort when things get totally out of control then we’re simply going to go from crisis to crisis, hoping God will rescue us. We will constantly lose the peace and rest that we so desperately need. So David says, “Trust in Him at all times,” then we won’t live our lives on a roller coaster.
We can lose our peace so easily too. One of the unfortunate byproducts of living in the world we live in is that if we’re not careful we’ll begin to take on the characteristics of a worldly person, one with no hope, or one who puts their trust in something other than God. We’re like tuning forks in that regard. If you take a tuning fork and you strike it and then place it next to another tuning fork, the second one will start vibrating at the same exact pitch. The scientific name for this is resonance. Likewise if I enter a room and I’m angry, before long those I encounter will absorb those “negative vibes” and they’ll get angry too. If I come into a room and I’m happy, those I encounter will become happy.
When we are “tuned in” to God – when we trust in him at all times and we’re experiencing the peace, security and rest he offers, then we will send a different vibe to those around us – that’s how we can be salt and light in the world. That way we can be catalysts to good things in the world around us instead of being constant absorbers of the bad stuff.
Pour Out Your
Heart To God
Let’s face it; we all need the rest, hope, and deliverance that God alone offers. But how can we can we get it? Well that’s the third “takeaway” from this Psalm I’d like you to see this morning. It’s there in verse 8 where David tells us to pour out our hearts to God.
David says take your troubles, your concerns, your weaknesses and sickness and pour them all out before the throne of heaven. Imagine how much better we’d all feel if this pouring out became a regular habit! Many of us have built up such a back-log of feelings, hurts and complaints that our entire personality is affected. What a blessing it is for God’s people to enjoy the privilege of regularly leaving all our problems at the foot of the cross!
Who do you turn to in times of trouble? Who do you speak with when things are going well? Our hearts need to be poured out to God. We need to speak to God and tell him what is going on. And I love the way David says this. He doesn’t say to have a polite little chat with Jesus; he says “Pour out your heart before him!”
You may be thinking, but why should I burden God with my problems? Perhaps you’d rather tell a person who can speak back to you. Why pour out your heart to God instead of people? David gives us the answer to that as he closes the Psalm.
First of all he says we should because God can do something about it. Strength and power belong to God. To get through the hard times in life, we need God. Life’s trials can be crushing. We need the Lord to get us through!
Second, we should pour out our hearts to God because God is a God of love. The Hebrew word translated “steadfast love” in verse 12 is hesed. Hesed is the consistent, ever-faithful, relentless, constantly-pursuing, lavish, extravagant, unrestrained, furious love of God. It’s the kind of love God demonstrated through the life and death of our Savior Jesus Christ, and experiencing it will shape our lives and make us like him – a people filled with joy and confidence who know the source of life; people who are living life the way it was meant by God to be lived.
When you know and experience God’s hesed love you begin to realize that it doesn’t really matter what may happen to you in life or how bad your circumstances may be because God still loves you and his covenant with you will never be broken. As the Apostle Paul said “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.”
But there’s one more reason to pour out your heart to God and that’s because God is a God of justice. I’m so glad that David was honest here and that the people who handed us down the Bible over the years allowed stuff like this to remain in it. What he says here is that God is a God of justice and the bad guys are going to get theirs in the end, and the good guys will get their reward. Every person will be repaid for their deeds, good or bad. If we have done the righteous things of God, then we will be rewarded for our sacrifices and for our actions. But if we have committed evil, as described in this psalm, then God will repay us with wrath and punishment.
What about you this morning?
Are you trusting God alone? Or are you putting your trust and hope in yourself or in others?
Are you experiencing the rest, security and peace that God alone can bring? Or is your tuning fork vibrating with the frequency of the world?
If you aren’t where you know you should be spiritually, pour out your heart to God. You can do it right now. Tell him the source of your joy and the source of your pain. Tell him the doubts you have. Tell him what has got you in its grips and is holding you back from living for him 100%. As they say, “confession is good for the soul.”
May Gye Nyame – “Except for God” “God Alone” be the cry of our hearts…let’s pray.