Psalm 62-A "Alone… Only"

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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 it is 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.[1]

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 too with 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.[2]

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.[3]

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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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, emphasis 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 it 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.”

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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[1] Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 51-100 (WBC, Vol. 20), Word, 122.

[2] TWOT, Vol. 1, 39.

[3] Michael Wilcock, The Message of Psalms 1-72, IVP, Downers Grove, IL, 2001, 220-221.