One of the great, perhaps the greatest brief declarations of “Assurance,” is given in Psalm 62:
1 For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress;
I shall not be greatly shaken.
3 How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
4 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. Selah5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
Psalm 62 (ESV Translation)
for my hope is from him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
7 On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
8 Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah
9 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.
10 Put no trust in extortion;
set no vain hopes on robbery;
if riches increase, set not your heart on them.
11 Once God has spoken;
twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
12 and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
according to his work.
For God Alone
This post is about the opening three lines and, separately, the fourth line, that open Psalm 62.
The great message of this Psalm, and the Bible Itself, is contained in these opening lines.
1 For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress;
Even more specifically, it is the first three words that should strike us:
“For God Alone.”
(In a certain sense, they have the kind of power of the opening three words of the Bible Itself: In [ –] Beginning God (Gen. 1:1 and John 1:1, where there is no definite article in the original mss, so the text is calling us to thinking beyond anything we might conceive as some specific, articulated ‘beginning’ such as The Big Bang).
The unique distinctiveness of the word “Alone” is highlighted by the Psalmist, here King David, “waiting in silence” as an indication of humble submission, and recognition of his powerlessness.
A further distinctiveness is David’s claim of God as “my rock.” The word “Rock” is used many times in the OT as a name of God, as the name of the promised Messiah, and as a term of steadfastness (of God) and safety / deliverance (of God’s child). This is likely the text that inspired Martin Luther in his writing of the great hymn: A Mighty Fortress is Our God.
However–and the Bible over and over reminds that in this life and time there is often, perhaps even always, a ‘however’–the above bold highlighted three lines are bookended by two earthly realities. The title of the Psalm in that of Kind David in his experience in the harsh and terrible Judean wilderness / desert likely during his fleeing from his usurping son, his own son, seeking to kill him and take over the kingship of Israel. Just after these words we we read in the fourth line above: “I will not be greatly shaken.”
David’s assurance here is founded securely on God and God alone, and from God he will be saved in the ultimate sense of eternally security and, as well in the sense of being in God’s fortress of earthly protection such that nothing will befall David that was not by the permission of God Himself.
So David knows he will not be “greatly” shaken, while the very form of the Psalm and his desert existence in writing it makes clear he is being shaken. That is the ‘however’ of one’s life in a fallen world, including the fallenness of one’s own heart, as was the twin-fold case of David’s life.
The Crook in the Lot
One of the classic books of the important Puritan writing period post-Reformation–approximately 1600 to 1725–was by Thomas Boston entitled The Crook in the Lot. (The title’s context is the recognition that every ‘production’ or experience, however well or carefully it may have been done, there is a ‘crook’ (damaged) element in it).
Thomas Boston’s life was full of such ‘crooks,’ even massive ones: both his parents died while he was still young, the dear women he loved and married had enormous life-long struggles with mental disorders and their attendant life limitations, he lost to death ten (10!) children, and his entire life was confined to a pastoral ministry in two very small, impoverished towns in Scotland, and his life ended in his mid-50s after a period of where he literally preached from his death-bed to his small congregation huddled outside his bedroom window.
However, now working the ‘however’ in the other direction, Thomas Boston lived a life of enormous purpose and blessing both to his small congregation and to countless others, to this very day, by his many, voluminous writings which have been reprinted again and again in many individual volumes and collections. The book Crook in the Lot is one such standalone publication.
This book can be found freely online as a pdf or more-usefully as a Kindle book format in modern English thanks to a ‘co author’ Jason Roth. The Kindle version is free with “kindle unlimited” or $2.99 without it; and it also available as a paperback ($8.99). The Kindle version is highly recommended.
There are many insights in this Crook book. Boston wrote it at the end of his life by which he brought a lifetime of Bible study and pastoral and other life experience together in a wonderful exposition of the goodness of God which is not only present in and through the various ‘crooks’ of life but also God’s very use of such ‘crooks’ to accomplish great, purposeful ends. In a separate post, I will give some ‘nuggets’ from Boston’s book.
David’s Wilderness Humility
Returning to Psalm 62, we know that from and in that harsh discipline of the Judean wilderness came many deep and necessary blessings on David. He learned there what he never could have learned any other way, likely most of all the very first words of Psalm 62: “For God alone.”