God Is Our Refuge
Text: Psalm 62 ESV
Our souls find rest when they have hope. (1) Hope is what levels our emotions.
Imagine a hard situation with me for a minute:
A husband and wife rush to the hospital. It is time to give birth. In the middle of the process, the doctor comes out and says, “Your wife might not make it. She might die.” Immediately, a hundred questions and emotions flood your mind. Why? What? What's going on? Now imagine a little later the doctor comes and says, “Based on her condition, 99 percent of women who we put this IV in live.”
What happens in that moment when the doctor comes back out? Your wife was likely going to die, but now you find out there's a remedy. All you have to do is insert this IV. What happened when you found that out? Hope came. You had reason to hope that she's going to live, and now those emotions settle down.
This psalm is not about the hope a doctor can give or any kind of hope that we could find here on earth, for that matter. It’s about having hope amid the worst of trials here. It’s about the hope that we have when everything is going wrong and is only getting worse. This Psalm sings out the truth that God alone is our refuge because in him only do we find hope. Why? Because he gets the final word.
God Alone Is Our Rock
This psalm breaks up into three sections that resemble the structure of a sermon. That small word “Selah” separates the segments.
First, from verses 1–4, we have the opening. In it we see the main point of the psalm and David’s first illustration. Then, we move to the body of the sermon. This is where he's really going to preach this truth to the congregation. The first congregation is his own soul, and then he expands his audience to everyone else. Here he unpacks his main point. Finally we get to the conclusion. This is David’s time to flesh out the logic of this point. The conclusion also acts as a climax as David uses these illustrations to make these last stanzas the grand finale.
So we'll start in the first part, the opening, verses 1–4.
“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah” (Psalm 62:1–4 ESV)
David wastes no words. The first line is the main point of the psalm: God alone is my rock, my salvation, my fortress. I wait for him. I trust him.
This opening line is not about how to trust in God. It’s about the God who is worthy of our trust. It’s not a debate. It’s not a question. It’s a statement.
God is a rock. He is salvation. He is a fortress. Because of him I shall not be greatly shaken. There is no safe place in the world. But there is safety in our God. (2)
I count at least five occurrences of the word “alone” or “only” in this psalm. David, the promised king of Israel, has armies of followers at his disposal, and he puts zero stock in that army. He puts no confidence in his political influence. It's in God and God alone. God alone is my rock. He alone is my salvation.
Here is how one psalm puts it:
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of YAHWEH our God.” (Psalms 20:7 ESV)
Here's how Psalm 121:2 puts it,
“My help comes from the YAHWEH, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:2 ESV)
But this truth that God is a rock is not a truth just for David and his high appointed officials, it is for everyone who puts their trust in God.
Here’s what he says,
“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” (Psalms 62:8 ESV)
From the highest general to the milkmaid who takes care of her cows every day. God who made the heavens and the earth looks down and says, “I'm protecting you. I'm your hope.”
I was preaching this to myself this week, and I just thought to myself, “Really, don’t you have better things to do than to help me.”
David's point is that the God who made the heavens and the earth, who changes times and seasons, who upholds it by the word of his power, he is your helper. He is your shelter. He cares about you and what's going to happen. David says, “I’m not going to look anywhere else. That’s where I’m putting my hope.”
Danger for the Ungodly
But that's not true for anyone who's outside of God, who's not trusting in him.
Here's what it says in Deuteronomy,
“For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.” (Deuteronomy 32:31 ESV).
The poor person with very little significance who puts their trust in God, will find that the maker of heaven and earth says, “I am your protector.” But the enemies, no matter how great and how strong and how rich, they are by themselves. They're outside of God.
I didn't grow up in the church. My dad took me to mass every now and again, but I wasn't a Christian until I was 16-years-old. I remember feeling the warmth for the first time when I felt that God is my protector. I had a time when I could literally feel that I had no refuge and then all of a sudden God was my refuge. Before then, I had no reason not to be shaking in all of life’s circumstances. I remember my heart pounding in those scenarios. When bad things were happening, where would I go for any kind of hope that things would change? That's David's point of this psalm. God alone is our refuge because in him only do we find hope.
Uncommon Fortress
Now he's going to give an example to explain this. Look at verses 3–4.
“How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah” (Psalm 62:3–4 ESV)
You get this picture of enemies that are attacking David. So I think David is writing this psalm focused on God being a refuge amid turmoil. This is real life for him. This isn't theoretical.
The enemy is at the gate, maybe now inside the gate as they bring down this leaning wall. They are pressing in around him, doing everything they can to bring him down—from hammering against the high tower to leveraging political influence to dishonest maneuvers. They seem like they’re blessing, but they're actually cursing, trying to get in by snaking around to bring him down.
So what's David's point? His point is, my hope hasn't changed. God is my refuge amid that kind of wretchedness. God's my refuge, so I’m not moving. I'm rock solid.
This seems like an odd example for a psalm about God being a refuge. The enemy is getting the upper hand. They are getting past the defenses. When we picture a strong fortress, we normally picture a mighty wall that never lets the enemy through. But here’s David saying God is his fortress and the enemy is breaking through.
So what in the world does David mean by saying that God is our refuge? What kind of refuge is God if the enemy is attacking and winning? What does it even mean that he will deliver us from evil, if it's pressing in around us? How can David say he can't be shaken when the very foundation around him is being shaken?
What does it mean in reality for God to be a refuge?
If we think that because God is our refuge—our hope in time of need—that evil will not afflict us, then when it does, our faith is going to crumble. In order to put our confidence in God, we have to trust him.
“So if you are refuge, God, and evil things are happening and you've promised to be our refuge, how can I trust you to be a refuge if it's not actually happening?”
The Last Word
David's about ready to answer that question again in part two.
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah” (Psalm 62:5–8 ESV)
God is a refuge not because evil will never come but because he provides comfort amidst the turmoil. Whatever befalls us in the moment, it can never ultimately shake us because we have a hope that extends far beyond the results of the current turmoil.
Remember that our souls find rest when they have hope. Well, David can always find rest in God amid whatever he faces because he knows his God.
Whatever hardship you face, it will not go on forever. Whatever it is, God gets the last word. There is nothing that the enemies can do to change the fact that God is on his side. They can never take away that God is his salvation. If this ends with David defeating the enemy, then he’ll be fine. If it ends with David dying, then he will be fine. David’s hope extends beyond the current battle.
They could take everything we have, and we have lost nothing:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35–39 ESV)
That's the kind of refuge God is. He's the kind of refuge that says, “Amid the turmoil, amid the heartache, amid the evil, none of it will separate you from the one thing that matters eternally. None of it will condemn you. None of it will take you away from me. None of it will get the last word.”
If you're in Christ, all of it is powerless against you. None of it needs to shake you. But for those who are not in Christ, that's not the case. All of these things separate, all of them leave you with no hope—powers, authorities, death, life, angels—all of them are things to fear. You have no hope outside of Christ, but in Christ, all of them are powerless against you.
Confidence Amid Suffering
Perpetua was a young, well-to do woman nursing her infant child. Felicitas was a slave, who prayed that her baby would come before she was killed for her faith. It did. But later Perpetua and Felicitas were put in the arena with a crazed cow. After being thrown and hit by the animal, Perpetua asked to re-tie her loose hair, for untied hair was a sign of mourning and this was a time for rejoicing. Two bleeding women stood in the middle of the arena, gave the kiss of peace, and died by the sword.
We could spend the rest of church just talking about former believers who have displayed that God is their hope amid whatever circumstances they find themselves in. If you're looking for a good way to encourage your heart in this, pick up some Christian biographies. There is a series called the Swans Are Not Silent by John Piper. It is a set of short biographies. Not all of them are martyrs, but they each show how they hoped in God during hardship.
So when cancer strikes, the promise of the Bible is not that you are going to live. Cancer may win today. It may take your life, but the promise of the Bible is that the cancer didn't win. Your hope goes well beyond this life. Just when we thought cancer got the last word, God steps in and gives the final verdict—you get a new body that will never know disease. On that day, cancer will be eradicated and you will be with him, with God in the new heavens and new earth with a perfect body.
Maybe you're single, and you're lonely. You want to be married. The promise of God is that he will never leave you nor forsake you. You may have some loneliness and longing all your life as you put your hope and trust in God, but one day there will be a perfect union and a wedding that you will be a part of with Christ, our bridegroom.
Now don’t go too far in this direction and think that God will never turn situations around in this life. And don’t go thinking that God is only a refuge for us when we are amid the battle. He needs to be a refuge for us when life is good as well.
Look at what David says later in the psalm,
“If riches increase, set not your heart on them.” (Psalms 62:10 ESV)
If things are going well for you this morning, oh, don’t be fooled! Don’t put your hope in them. We don't put our hope in the changing of the season. No, we hope in God amid the season, amid the turmoil, and amid the good life.
But David doesn’t just leave us with this abstract principle. He drills down and helps us apply this truth in the moment of hardship and in the moment of ease.
Preaching to the Soul
Notice that David preaches this to his soul. Look at the difference between verse 1 and verse 5:
“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.” (Psalms 62:1 ESV)
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” (Psalms 62:5 ESV)
He's taking the truth that he mentioned in verse one, and now he's actually preaching it to himself. Then he preaches it to everyone else, saying, “Trust him, him at all times. People pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.”
Then he moves to the last part of the psalm where he fleshes out the logic that God is our refuge for himself and others. He reminds us of what this actually means in reality. It makes me think of a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones:
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” (3)
Power Belongs to God
“Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.” (Psalms 62:8–12 ESV)
So he preaches to his soul and to us, “remember actual reality”.
In this example you have the lowly, and they are a breath. Then, you’ve got those who are high and mighty. They're just a delusion. If you put all them in a scale, they would just be a breath compared to the weight of God. It's God alone who has the power. God alone. We put our trust in him, not extortion, not robbery, not riches and conclusions. Our hope lies in one place.
Then he clarifies:
“power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.” (Psalm 62:8 ESV)
So the the wicked may prosper. The evil ones may advance. They may be the ones ruling. They may be the ones that are advancing in the world. But one day God will render to them, whether it's here or in eternity, according to the wickedness.
That's a comfort. That's hope. When the enemy is pressing around, God will get the last word. Evil doesn't get the last word:
“Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1:5–6 ESV)
But when we think about God treating us according to our works, we start feeling not so safe as well. If he was to look at my works, and render accordingly, I would also be doomed, just like them.
That is right, unless you are in Christ. He sent his son so that Romans 8:1 would be true:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1 ESV)
Now instead of the verdict that you are to be condemned, because you're in Christ, you no longer have condemnation.
This God, who was the one who was going to deliver wrath to you, who would punish you, because he renders all things correct, He is now a refuge to you, your salvation, your hope, because you're in Christ. This rock, this salvation, it is Christ himself!
God is our rock and our salvation because of what Christ did and for those who are in Christ. We no longer stand condemned. God will get the last word!
Footnotes:
1— https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/come-all-who-are-weary
2— http://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/a-safe-place-in-god
3— D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, pp. 20.