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Commentary on Psalms 62 verses 1–7
In these verses we have,
I. David's profession of dependence upon God, and upon him only, for all good (Psa 62:1): Truly my soul waiteth upon God. Nevertheless (so some) or "However it be, whatever difficulties or dangers I may meet with, though God frown upon me and I meet with discouragements in my attendance on him, yet still my soul waits upon God" (or is silent to God, as the word is), "Says nothing against what he does, but quietly expects what he will do." We are in the way both of duty and comfort when our souls wait upon God, when we cheerfully refer ourselves, and the disposal of all our affairs, to his will and wisdom, when we acquiesce in and accommodate ourselves to all the dispensations of his providence, and patiently expect a doubtful event, with an entire satisfaction in his righteousness and goodness, however it be. Is not my soul subject go God? So the Septuagint. So it, certainly so it ought to be; our wills must be melted into his will. My soul has respect to God, for from him cometh my salvation. He doubts not but his salvation will come, though now he was threatened and in danger, and he expects it to come from God, and from him only; for in vain is it hoped for from hills and mountains, Jer 3:23; Psa 121:1, Psa 121:2. "From him I know it will come, and therefore on him will I patiently wait till it does come, for his time is the best time." We may apply it to our eternal salvation, which is called the salvation of God (Psa 50:23); from him it comes; he prepared it for us, he prepares us for it, and preserves us to it, and therefore let our souls wait on him, to be conducted through this world to that eternal salvation, in such way as he thinks fit.
II. The ground and reason of this dependence (Psa 62:2): He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence. 1. "He has been so many a time; in him I have found shelter, and strength, and succour. He has by his grace supported me and borne me up under my troubles, and by his providence defended me from the insults of my enemies and delivered me out of the troubles into which I was plunged; and therefore I trust he will deliver me," Co2 1:10. 2. "He only can be my rock and my salvation. Creatures are insufficient; they are nothing without him, and therefore I will look above them to him." 3. "He has by covenant undertaken to be so. Even he that is the rock of ages is my rock; he that is the God of salvation is my salvation; he that is the Most High is my high place; and therefore I have all the reason in the world to confide in him."
III. The improvement he makes of his confidence in God.
1.Trusting in God, his heart is fixed. "If God is my strength and mighty delivered, I shall not be greatly moved (that is, I shall not be undone and ruined); I may be shocked, but I shall not be sunk." Or, "I shall not be much disturbed and disquieted in my own breast. I may be put into some fright, but I shall not be afraid with any amazement, nor so as to be put out of the possession of my own soul. I may be perplexed, but not in despair," Co2 4:8. This hope in God will be an anchor of the soul, sure and stedfast.
2.His enemies are slighted, and all their attempts against him looked upon by him with contempt, Psa 62:3, Psa 62:4. If God be for us, we need not fear what man can do against us, though ever so mighty and malicious. He here, (1.) Gives a character of his enemies: They imagine mischief, design it with a great deal of the serpent's venom and contrive it with a great deal of the serpent's subtlety, and this against a man, one of their own kind, against one single man, that is not an equal match for them, for they are many; they continued their malicious persecution though Providence had often defeated their mischievous designs. "How long will you do it? Will you never be convinced of your error? Will your malice never have spent itself?" They are unanimous in their consultations to cast an excellent man down from his excellency, to draw an honest man from his integrity, to entangle him in sin, which is the only thing that can effectually cast us down from our excellency, to thrust a man, whom God has exalted, down from his dignity, and so to fight against God. Envy was at the bottom of their malice; they were grieved at David's advancement, and therefore plotted, by diminishing his character and blackening that (which was casting him down from his excellency) to hinder his preferment. In order to this they calumniate him, and love to hear such bad characters given of him and such bad reports raised and spread concerning him as they themselves know to be false: They delight in lies. And as they make no conscience of lying concerning him, to do him a mischief, so they make no conscience of lying to him, to conceal the mischief they design, and accomplish it the more effectually: They bless with their mouth (they compliment David to his face), but they curse inwardly; in their hearts they wish him all mischief, and privately they are plotting against him and in their cabals carrying on some evil design or other, by which they hope to ruin him. It is dangerous putting our trust in men who are thus false; but God is faithful. (2.) He reads their doom, pronounces a sentence of death upon them, not as a king, but as a prophet: You shall be slain all of you, by the righteous judgments of God. Saul and his servants were slain by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa, according to this prediction. Those who seek the ruin of God's chosen are but preparing ruin for themselves. God's church is built upon a rock which will stand, but those that fight against it, and its patrons and protectors, shall be as a bowing wall and a tottering fence, which, having a rotten foundation, sinks with its own weight, falls of a sudden, and buries those in the ruins of it that put themselves under the shadow and shelter of it. David, having put his confidence in God, thus foresees the overthrow of his enemies, and, in effect, sets them at defiance and bids them do their worst.
3.He is himself encouraged to continue waiting upon God (Psa 62:5-7): My soul, wait thou only upon God. Note, The good we do we should stir up ourselves to continue doing, and to do yet more and more, as those that have, through grace, experienced the comfort and benefit of it. We have found it good to wait upon God, and therefore should charge our souls, and even charm them, into such a constant dependence upon him as may make us always easy. He had said (Psa 62:1), From him cometh my salvation; he says (Psa 62:5), My expectation is from him. His salvation was the principal matter of his expectation; let him have that from God, and he expects no more. His salvation being from God, all his other expectations are from him. "If God will save my soul, as to every thing else let him do what he pleases with me, and I will acquiesce in his disposals, knowing they shall all turn to my salvation," Phi 1:19. He repeats (Psa 62:6) what he had said concerning God (Psa 62:2), as one that was not only assured of it, but greatly pleased with it, and that dwelt much upon it in his thoughts: He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence, I know he is; but there he adds, I shall not be greatly moved, here, I shall not be moved at all. Note, The more faith is acted the more active it is. Crescit eundo - It grows by being exercised. The more we meditate upon God's attributes and promises, and our own experience, the more ground we get of our fears, which, like Haman, when they begin to fall, shall fall before us, and we shall be kept in perfect peace, Isa 26:3. And, as David's faith in God advances to an unshaken stayedness, so his joy in God improves itself into a holy triumph (Psa 62:7): In God is my salvation and my glory. Where our salvation is there our glory is; for what is our salvation but the glory to be revealed, the eternal weight of glory? And there our glorying must be. In God let us boast all the day long. "The rock of my strength (that is, my strong rock, on which I build my hopes and stay myself) and my refuge, to which I flee for shelter when I am pursued, is in God, and in him only. I have no other to flee to, no other to trust to; the more I think of it the better satisfied I am in the choice I have made." Thus does he delight himself in the Lord, and then ride upon the high places of the earth, Isa 58:14.
And now, my child, if you take God as your hope, he will be your help in the time of your anguish; “for anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who search for him.” These words were written for us, that we may believe in God and do battle, great and little, by fastings, prayers and other religious practices. God will not forget even the saliva that has dried in your mouth as a result of fasting. On the contrary, everything will be returned to you at the moment of your anguish. Only humble yourself in all things, hold back your word even if you understand the whole affair. Do not quietly acquire the habit of abusing; on the contrary, joyfully put up with every trial. For if you knew the honor that results from trials you would not pray to be delivered from them, because it is preferable for you to pray, to weep and to sigh until you are saved, rather than to relax and be led off a captive. O man, what are you doing in Babylon? “You have grown old in an alien land” because you did not submit to the test and because your relations with God are not proper. Therefore, brother, you must not relax.
Since the psalmist is conscious of the use of sincere hope in God, he invites the people to a zeal equal to his own, saying, “Trust in him, all you people; pour out your hearts before him.” It is impossible for us to become capable of divine grace unless we have driven out the evil passions that have preoccupied our souls. I know doctors who do not give the salutary medicines before they have drained out by means of an emetic the matter that was causing the sickness, which the intemperate had stored up in themselves through a bad diet. Perfume should not be poured into a vessel that had previously been filled with some foul-smelling liquid, unless it is washed out first. Therefore, it is necessary that its initial contents be poured out, in order that it may be able to contain that which is being brought in.
“In God is my salvation and my glory; he is the God of my help, and my hope is in God.” Blessed is one who exults in none of the lofty things of life but regards God as his glory: who holds Christ as his boast; who is able to say, according to the apostle, “But as for me, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Christ.” Many are glorified in body, who devote their time to gymnastic contests, or, on the whole, who are vigorous in the flower of their age; and many, because of their valor in the wars, who consider the murdering of those of the same race bravery. In fact, rewards in wars and the trophies raised by a general and by cities, are according to the magnitude of the slaughter. Others are glorified because they put walls around cities; and others, because of the structures of the aquaducts and the buildings of the great gymnasia. That person who has spent his wealth in fighting wild beasts and who exults in vain words of the people is puffed up with the praises and thinks himself something great, having his glory in his shame. He even shows his sin inscribed on tablets in conspicuous places of the city. Another is extolled for his wealth; another, because he is a skillful and invincible orator, or he is acquainted with the wisdom of the world. It is proper to pity the glory of all these and to deem happy those who make God their glory. For if a certain one thinks he is something great because he is the servant of a king and is held in great honor by him, how much ought you to exalt yourself, because you are a servant of the great King and are called by him to the closest intimacy, having received the Spirit of the promise, so that, sealed with his approval, you are shown to be a child of God?
"In God is my salvation and my glory" [Psalm 62:7]. Saved I shall be in God, glorious I shall be in God: for not only saved, but also glorious, saved, because a just man I have been made out of an ungodly man, by Him justified; [Romans 4:2] but glorious, because not only justified, but also honoured. For "those whom He has predestined, those also He has called." [Romans 8:30] Calling them, what has He done here? "Whom He has called, the same also He has justified; but whom He has justified, the same also He has glorified." Justification therefore to salvation belongs, glorifying to honour. How glorifying to honour belongs, it is not needful to discuss. How justification belongs to salvation, let us seek some proof. Behold there comes to mind out of the Gospel: there were some who to themselves were seeming to be just men, and they were finding fault with the Lord because He admitted to the feast sinners, and with publicans and sinners was eating; to such men therefore priding themselves, strong men of earth very much lifted up, much glorying of their own soundness, such as they counted it, not such as they had, the Lord answered what? "They that are whole need not a Physician, but they that are sick." [Matthew 9:13] Whom calls He whole, whom calls He sick? He continues and says, "I have not come to call just men, but sinners unto repentance." [Matthew 9:12] He has called therefore "the whole" just men, not because the Pharisees were so, but because themselves they thought so to be; and for this reason were proud, and grudged sick men a physician, and being more sick than those, they slew the Physician. He has called whole, however, righteous men, sick, the sinners. My being justified therefore, says that man that leaps over, from Himself I have: my being glorified, from Himself I have: "For God is my salvation and my glory." "My salvation," so that saved I am: "my glory," so that honoured I am. This thing hereafter: now what? "God of my help, and my hope is in God;" until I attain unto perfect justification and salvation. "For by hope we are saved: but hope which is seen, is not hope." [Romans 8:24] ...
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SUMMARY
Psalms 62:7 is a profound declaration of King David's absolute and unwavering dependence on God as the singular, all-sufficient source of true security, honor, and deliverance. Amidst the instability of human affairs and the deceit of adversaries, David confidently asserts that his salvation, glory, strength, and refuge are found exclusively in the immutable character and protective power of the Almighty, reiterating the central theme of trusting solely in the divine amidst life's trials.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Psalm 62 is a deeply personal psalm of trust, attributed to David, likely composed during a period of intense personal distress, betrayal, or political turmoil, such as Absalom's rebellion or Saul's relentless pursuit. The psalm opens with David's soul waiting in silent, steadfast reliance on God alone, proclaiming, "Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation" (Psalms 62:1). Throughout the psalm, David contrasts his unwavering reliance on God with the futility of human schemes, the instability of worldly power, and the deceitfulness of those who seek to overthrow him. He explicitly warns against placing trust in oppression, ill-gotten gain, or fleeting riches, declaring them to be vanity (Psalms 62:9-10). Verse 7 serves as a powerful reiteration and expansion of the psalm's foundational declaration, articulating the specific provisions God offers to those who place their hope in Him, reinforcing the psalmist's resolute faith despite overwhelming external pressures and internal anxieties.
Historical & Cultural Context: David, as king and a man constantly navigating political intrigue and military threats, frequently experienced periods of vulnerability, flight, and existential danger. His life was a testament to the precariousness of human power and the necessity of divine intervention. In ancient Near Eastern cultures, the concepts of "rock" and "refuge" were not abstract but deeply tangible realities. Rocks, cliffs, and fortified strongholds were literal places of safety and defense against enemies, wild animals, or natural disasters. The rugged Judean landscape, with its numerous caves and rocky outcrops, provided natural fortresses. Thus, calling God a "rock" would have resonated profoundly with an audience familiar with seeking physical shelter in such places. Similarly, "glory" (Hebrew: kavod) in this context refers not merely to personal honor or fame but to one's substantial reputation, dignity, wealth, and even divine favor. David's declaration that his glory is "in God" directly challenges the prevailing cultural norms that often linked these attributes to human power, military might, or material possessions, redirecting the source of true honor to the divine.
Key Themes: Psalms 62:7 powerfully contributes to several overarching themes within Psalm 62 and the broader Psalter. Central to this verse is the theme of Exclusive Trust in God, emphasizing that God alone is the sufficient and ultimate source of all good things, contrasting sharply with the fleeting and unreliable nature of human resources and worldly pursuits. It highlights Divine Stability and Immutability, portraying God as an unshakeable foundation in a world of shifting sands and human treachery, a concept echoed throughout the Psalms where God is consistently depicted as an unchanging anchor. Furthermore, the verse underscores God as a Protector and Deliverer, presenting Him as a secure refuge and the ultimate source of salvation from all forms of distress, whether physical danger, political conspiracy, or spiritual turmoil. This reinforces the consistent portrayal of God as a mighty deliverer for His people, a theme deeply rooted in Israel's history, exemplified by the exodus narrative.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The profound impact and theological weight of Psalms 62:7 are significantly enhanced by its masterful use of several literary devices. The phrase "in God" acts as a powerful Repetition and Inclusio, appearing at the beginning and end of the verse. This deliberate framing device underscores the absolute centrality and exclusivity of God as the sole source of all blessings, creating a theological emphasis that leaves no room for alternative foundations of trust. The verse also employs rich Metaphor, most notably in the description of God as "the rock of my strength." This vivid image transforms an abstract theological concept into a tangible, relatable reality, conveying God's immutability, steadfastness, and protective power in a way that is both immediate and profound. Furthermore, there is an inherent Parallelism in the listing of divine provisions ("my salvation," "my glory," "the rock of my strength," "my refuge"). While not strictly synonymous, these elements are all aspects of God's comprehensive care and provision for His people, building a cumulative and expansive picture of His all-encompassing sufficiency and unwavering support.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 62:7 stands as a robust theological statement on divine sovereignty and human dependence. It articulates a theology where God is not merely a helper among many, but the exclusive and ultimate source of all true security, honor, and deliverance. This verse challenges any tendency to place ultimate trust in human power, wealth, self-sufficiency, or fleeting circumstances, redirecting the believer's gaze solely to the Almighty. It affirms God's character as immutable, steadfast, and utterly reliable, providing an unshakeable foundation for faith in a turbulent world. The comprehensive nature of the blessings—salvation, glory, strength, refuge—underscores God's holistic provision for every aspect of the believer's life, from existential well-being to personal dignity and protection from all forms of adversity, demonstrating His complete sufficiency.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
In a world characterized by constant flux, economic instability, relational fragility, and pervasive anxieties, Psalms 62:7 offers a timeless anchor for the soul. It compels us to critically examine the foundations upon which we build our lives and derive our sense of security, worth, and hope. Are we, like David, truly finding our "salvation" and "glory" in God alone, or are we subtly placing our ultimate trust in fleeting achievements, material possessions, the approval of others, or our own capabilities? This verse calls us to a radical reorientation of our trust, reminding us that true strength is not self-generated but divinely bestowed, and genuine refuge is not found in escape or self-reliance but in the unwavering presence and character of the Almighty. When storms rage, when betrayal stings, when our own weaknesses are exposed, or when the future feels uncertain, this declaration invites us to declare with David, "my refuge, is in God," resting in His unshakeable character and unfailing provision. It is a call to courageous, exclusive faith, knowing that our ultimate well-being, honor, and security are eternally secured in the hands of the One who is our everlasting Rock.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is the phrase "in God" repeated in this verse?
Answer: The repetition of "in God" at the beginning and end of Psalms 62:7 serves as a powerful literary and theological device known as an inclusio. This emphatic repetition underscores the absolute and exclusive nature of God as the sole source of everything David declares. It creates a framing effect, driving home the central message that salvation, glory, strength, and refuge are not merely from God, but are inherently found within God Himself. It leaves no room for doubt or alternative sources of trust, reinforcing the psalmist's unwavering and singular dependence on the Almighty. It's a deliberate rhetorical choice to highlight God's all-sufficiency and the futility of trusting in anything else, a theme found throughout Psalm 62 and indeed, the entire Psalter.
What is the significance of calling God "the rock of my strength"?
Answer: The metaphor of God as a "rock" is deeply significant and prevalent throughout the Old Testament. In a literal sense, rocks, cliffs, and mountains provided physical shelter, defense, and stable ground in ancient Israel, offering protection from enemies and natural elements. Spiritually, calling God "the rock of my strength" signifies His immutability, steadfastness, and unyielding reliability. Just as a physical rock provides a firm foundation and unshakeable protection, God is the unmoving source of David's power, resilience, and stability. It implies that David's strength is not inherent in himself but is derived from and sustained by God, who is utterly dependable and unchangeable. This imagery assures the believer of God's unwavering support and protective presence, as seen in other passages like Deuteronomy 32:4 and 1 Samuel 2:2.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 62:7 finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the very embodiment of God's salvation, the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), offering complete deliverance from sin, death, and the power of darkness. In Christ, we receive not only forgiveness and reconciliation but also a new life of righteousness and peace with God (Romans 5:1). He is our true "glory," for through Him, we are adopted as children of God and are invited to share in His divine nature and eternal inheritance (2 Peter 1:4; Romans 8:17). Jesus is the foundational "rock of our strength," the cornerstone rejected by human builders but chosen by God, upon whom the entire spiritual temple of believers is built (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6-8). When we are weak, His strength is made perfect in us, enabling us to overcome all things through Him who loved us (2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:13). Moreover, Christ is our ultimate "refuge," the secure haven to whom we can flee in times of trouble, persecution, and spiritual warfare. He offers a peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7) and promises that all who come to Him will never be cast out, finding rest for their souls (John 6:37; Matthew 11:28). Thus, in Jesus, every declaration of Psalms 62:7 finds its perfect, eternal, and all-encompassing reality.