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| Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash |
Waiting in Silence
"For God
alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my
salvation.
He only is my rock
and my salvation,
my fortress; I
shall not be greatly shaken." (62:1-2)
I
love the first line of this psalm! "For God alone," which means my
trust and worship are not directed elsewhere. "My soul waits in silence,"
which indicates a patience and level of trust that is not always crying out in
distress but at times waiting patiently with mouth closed and eyes and ears
open to see and hear what God intends to do. How much of our prayer time is
simply listening? This verse reminds me of the “weaned child” imagery in Psalm
131:2,
“But I have
calmed and quieted my soul,
like
a weaned child with its mother;
like
a weaned child is my soul within me.”
How
wonderful to be able to quiet our soul to wait in silence for our Lord to do
what he does best! This statement in verses 1-2 is repeated almost
word-for-word in verses 5-6. It must be a message we need to hear more than
once...However, I am glad not to have been greatly shaken.
Another
commentator describes such stillness before God as follows,
Stillness before God has exercised
the frequently dominant elements of life—fearful anxiety, disappointment, pain
of abuse—and has become the source of assurance of the adequacy of divine power
and divine willingness to help those who are faithful. When we remain calm in
trust before God, we grow in strength and discipline.
An
‘Ak - ‘Ak Psalm
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One
of the most notable characteristics of this psalm is the repeated use (6x) of
the Hebrew word 'aḵ.
My heading is making a play on “Ack-Ack,” which was a WWII slang term for
anti-aircraft gunfire that pilots would have to fly through on their way to
their targets. It had a way of getting your attention. So to the word 'aḵ in this psalm. Scholars have
consistently weighed in on this word. Without getting too technical, I think it
might be helpful to examine the meaning and use of this word.
'Aḵ, is a Hebrew particle that
primarily communicates emphasis. It can mean truly/surely, alone, only, or but.
However, it is often not translated. In English, we do the same thing by
putting the accent on a specific word when speaking or by using italics when
writing.
When translated, the sense
is either an emphatic affirmative or an emphatic restrictive. Many times, no
translation is preferable to either of the above alternatives.
Michael
Wilcock not only speaks to the meaning of the word, but also to how this incident itself
was perhaps an emphatic moment in the life of David.
At this period of his life.
Maybe more than in any other, it was [impressed] on David that his hope really
is in God alone. Six times he expresses that quivering awareness by the little
word 'aḵ.
It can mean ‘truly’ (v.4, fully) or ‘only’ (vv. 1,2,5,6, alone),
or perhaps both… Instead of trying to find a word for it, an English
translation might simply put in italics the words that follow it. ‘It is in
God that my soul finds rest,’ says David, ‘he is my rock’ …As Tate says,
'aḵ
statements, “do not come naturally and easily’. We may mouth them glibly at any
time, but Psalm 62 is for the times when bitter experience makes us mean them.
Indeed,
we can easily say that we trust or look to God alone for help, be it salvation,
protection, or direction, but it is much more difficult to live as though it were
true. I am reminded of the father of the demonized son, who, when Jesus said, “‘All things are possible for one who believes,” immediately answered,
“I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24).
In
the next verses, the writer interrogated his attackers, and then, in an aside
to his audience, he described the heart and motivation of such oppressors.
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. (v.3-4)
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| Photo by Samuel Cruz on Unsplash |
The
psalmist’s attackers were like an enemy’s battering ram looking to breach a city’s defenses. LOTR fans easily think of Grond, the great ram used to breach the
gates of Minas Tirith. Home improvement show fans might picture the sledgehammers
and pry bars used for a demo-day kitchen tear-down, removing useless walls and old
kitchen cabinets.
Elsewhere
in the OT, similar imagery is used in Isaiah 30:13 but in a different context.
There, it describes the wicked, whose sin, in rejecting God’s words of
prophetic warning, is like a bulging wall that will suddenly collapse.
Therefore thus
says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
and trust
in oppression and perverseness
and rely on
them,
therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a breach
in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose breaking
comes suddenly, in an instant;
and its breaking is like that of a
potter's vessel
that is smashed
so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
with which to
take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up
water out of the cistern.” (Isaiah
30:12-14, empasis mine)
In
our psalm, the first part of verse 4 uses ‘ak once again to
emphasize that these enemies only want to push him down (e.g.,
from being king). We see people/groups like this today, whose only focus
is to remove a given leader/group from power, above and beyond any effort to
work for the common good of the country, state, town, or church.
In
the second part of verse 4, they are described not only as duplicitous but as
enjoying the lies. Outwardly, they say the right things, but inwardly, they
enjoy their haughty and dismissive cursing.
In
contrast, in verse 5, the psalmist reminds himself to do otherwise.
For God alone, O my soul,
wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
This
is a reiteration of his statement from verse 1, this time as a reminder to
himself. This silence is not a break in communication, but here is in contrast
to those in v. 4 who speak blessing but believe cursing in their hearts. The
silence which the psalmist urges to be “for God alone” means that he
should have no inward
cursing or complaint towards God, for “hope/salvation is from him.”
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| Photo by Guillaume Brocker on Unsplash |
In
difficult and tumultuous times, will we choose to believe in our hearts and
speak with our mouths that the Triune God is the strong, loving one who protects,
saves, and lifts us up?
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. (Psalm 62:6-7)
Note:
I will bring a devotional reflection from the second half of Psalm 62 in my
next post.
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