PSALM 62 - Your Only Refuge

Introduction

It was a warm September day as Conrad Vasquez Martinez climbed to the roof of the laboratory building where he worked in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighborhood. The 67-year-old mechanic was working on the building’s heating system when he felt the entire structure leap into the sky as a 7.1 magnitude earthquake ripped through the city. Immediately Martinez turned off the flow of the heating gas (which may have saved numerous lives), and then ran as hard as he could over the bucking, crumbling rooftop to a corner of the building where a large tree branch had grown close to the edge. Martinez had always joked with his co-workers that if they ever had to get off the roof in a hurry, he was going to jump off the roof and grab that branch.

He hit the edge of the roof, leaped off and grabbed the tree branch—which promptly broke. He managed to hold on, falling through a lower branch onto the sidewalk four stories below hard enough to break his leg and his hip. But as he lay there, dazed from the fall, a metal balcony grill fell overtop of him, shielding him from the direct impact of rubble that tumbled over him. The tree branch (which he was still holding onto) poked out of the debris, providing a trickle of airflow into his position. As he tried to clear his face, nose and mouth from the rubble, he noticed that his water jug that he had with him on the roof had landed right within his reach. “God is so great”, he said, “that even water was provided!” He whistled and called for help until co-workers found him and rescued him from the debris. (Retrieved from https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-mexico-earthquake-survivors-20170928-story.html, accessed 06/16/2022)

What kind of refuge are you seeking today, as the world around you continues to be shaken? We all have those “tree branches” in mind that we feel like we can jump onto if things start to go bad, a way that we can take refuge when challenging and difficult times come out way. You have a good “emergency fund” built up in savings, so you figure you can manage the $5 gas prices. You grew up with a good work ethic and were taught by your family to be industrious and self-sufficient, so you’re confident in your ability to survive. You figure you have a good job at a company that likes you and values your contribution, and you take refuge in that good position. You live in a quiet corner of west central PA, far away from the simmering hatred and crime of the big cities—you have a haven from all that here in this little valley.

Now, it’s certainly true that all of those things are blessings to you—your job, your home, your financial picture, your safety and security here in the hinterlands—these truly are good gifts of God for you during these days. But David’s psalm this morning is a reminder to you that, as good as those things are, none of them can truly protect you in this tumultuous, uncertain world.

David makes this crystal-clear in this psalm, doesn’t he?

Psalm 62:1–2 (ESV)

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.

So here is what I want you to see from God’s Word here in Psalm 62 this morning, that

God is the only REFUGE worth SEEKING in a SHAKING world

The Hebrew word translated “only” or “alone” appears six times in this psalm; most of them are connected with David’s confident claim that only God can keep him from being shaken by the tribulations of this world. He repeats the same lyrics, even more confidently, in verses 5-7:

Psalm 62:5–7 (ESV)

5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, 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.

And you can even see David’s confidence in God as his refuge growing as the psalm progresses—he says in verse 2 that he will not be greatly shaken; in verse 6 he goes even further, saying he will not be shaken at all by the trials and hardships arrayed against him, because God alone is his refuge.

As David sings this song of confidence in God his only refuge, he makes it clear that

I. You can’t trust your ACCOMPLISHMENTS (Psalm 62:3-4)

Look at verses 3-4:

Psalm 62:3–4 (ESV)

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. Selah

David knew a thing or two about being attacked while he was in a high position. We do not have an exact idea of the time this psalm was written, but several commentators suggest that this was another psalm that David composed while he was on the run from his son Absalom—who had slandered him to the people before he carried out his coup (cp. 2 Sam. 15:1-6).

David knew from personal experience that it doesn’t matter how hard you have worked to get where you are, it doesn’t matter how much honor or prestige or respectability you have earned—your accomplishments cannot be your refuge because

They are never as STABLE as you think (v. 3)

David uses the metaphor of being a “leaning wall” or “tottering fence” that someone tries to kick over—the modern idiom we would use is to “kick someone when they’re down”. You don’t have to look very far today to see people that thought they were untouchable by hardships—that believed their position protected them from attacks—only to find out too late that their influence or reputation or authority and responsibility didn’t provide them any refuge at all.

To use a 21st Century category for this kind of thing, King David found himself “cancelled” by his enemies—enemies who didn’t care whether what they were saying was true; only that their accusations against him got them what they wanted. To “thrust him down from his high position...”

It’s not just powerful people like senators and celebrities that are living in perpetual fear of being “cancelled”—millions of common, ordinary people live in perpetual fear of saying (or writing or posting) something politically incorrect that will bring the outrage mob down on them, and their career will collapse like a leaning wall overnight. You know that there is no job or workplace that will protect you when that mob comes--

They will bring you DOWN with LIES (v. 4)

Psalm 62:4 (ESV)

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. Selah

Peter Vlaming was a French teacher at West Point High School in Virginia who had a female student insist that Vlaming refer to her as “him”. He respectfully explained to his principal that he couldn’t in good conscience use masculine pronouns to refer to a female student—his principal issued Vlaming an official reprimand and explained that was the first step in terminating his employment. Soon after, the West Point School Board voted unanimously to fire him. (https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/12-people-canceled-the-left-after-expressing-conservative-views, accessed 06/16/2022).

You may think that your position or your employer or your outstanding work history will be a refuge from trials—but God is the only refuge worth seeking in a shaking world.

You cannot trust your accomplishments in this shaking world—and David makes clear in verse 9 that

II. You can’t trust your UPBRINGING (Psalm 62:9)

Psalm 62:9 (ESV)

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.

The word that David uses here that we translate “delusion” is related to the word “liar” or “deceptive”—you could translate this verse as saying, “those of high estate are fooling themselves!” When it comes to finding refuge in a world that is being shaken apart,

SILVER SPOONS don’t count for much

You may have been born into a wealthy family, and the money and resources and connections from being born into wealth might certainly help you if you find yourself in trouble—but there are troubles and hardships that all the wealth in the world cannot protect you from. David says that all of the wealth and influence and “weight” of that good family breeding will “go up in the balances”, “lighter than a breath”. No help at all in the midst of a world being shaken. The stock market crashes, your investments go up in a puff of inflation, your country club network dries up, and nobody at the unemployment office is impressed by your last name!

Now, of course, we’re already kind of hard-wired to take a dim view of people born into a high estate, aren’t we? We like to think that the privileged, gated community set are going to have it rough when their shipments of Evian water and avocado toast dry up, but we’ll be fine, because we come from good old, down to earth hardy pioneer stock!

King David himself could identify with those kinds of humble roots—he was a shepherd, a common laborer who no one even thought to include in the search for the next king (1 Samuel 16:11ff). But David makes it clear in this verse as well that, when it comes to finding a refuge in a world being shaken,

HUMBLE ROOTS don’t get you anywhere

“Those of low estate are but a breath...” David says. There is no refuge, no confidence to be had in your upbringing, one way or another. Whether you were born with all kinds of advantages or born with all kinds of challenges, the only refuge that is worth seeking is refuge in God Himself. David calls his listeners—high and low alike—to trust in Him alone:

Psalm 62:8 (ESV)

8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

David starts off exulting in God as a refuge for him, and now he turns to the rest of the world and says, “He is a refuge for us! There is enough room in this stronghold for all of us!”

God is the only refuge worth seeking in a world that is being shaken around us. You can’t trust your accomplishments, you can’t trust your upbringing, and

III. You can’t trust your BANK ACCOUNT (Psalm 62:10)

Psalm 62:10 (ESV)

10 Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

At first it may seem odd that David goes to the trouble of warning his listeners not to “put their trust” in crime to save them—extortion and robbery would, at first glance, seem to be the furthest thing from the mind of someone who wants to put their hope in God! But the Scriptures warn that it is very easy to let your trust in money and wealth become a snare that causes you to lose your integrity:

1 Timothy 6:10 (ESV)

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

David says here in Psalm 62 that financial security isn’t your real refuge--

Don’t SELL your SOUL for it (cp. 1 Timothy 6:10)

As you are going through the financial earthquake that is rocking our country right now, take a moment to evaluate your heart—what are you willing to do to hold onto your financial security? You may not become so desperate that you will go knock over a liquor store, but would you pad out your mileage reimbursement for company travel a little? Would you get creative in the way you clock into work so that you get paid for more time than you really spent? Over and over we hear the stories of people who we always considered good, upstanding employees who get fired when it is discovered that they had been embezzling funds from their workplace. And almost always their story is that they were in desperate financial circumstances and felt like they had no choice.

If you are willing to “do whatever it takes” to maintain a refuge for yourself and your family in your bank balance, David says, you are demonstrating that your refuge is not in God.

But David goes further in this verse, doesn’t he? In the rest of Psalm 62:10 he says

Psalm 62:10 (ESV)

10 ...if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

The word for “increase” here means “frutifulness”—he is saying that even if your riches grow through good and godly means,

Don’t TRUST your WORK ETHIC

Even if you have what you have because you have worked hard and saved and been a good steward, that does not mean that you can trust that wealth! All your blue-collar upbringing, all of the industrious, hard-working integrity that you learned from your parents and grandparents, all of the heritage of self-sufficiency and ingenuity that carved a life out of these fields and hills, the generations of miners and loggers who built this town and thousands like it across this country—this is truly a rich heritage of blessing from God.

But do not make the mistake of believing that this rich heritage of a Puritan work-ethic and grit and determination alone will be a refuge for you in a world that is being shaken apart. Those things may be a blessing from God for which you can be profoundly grateful, but in the end they cannot be your refuge. You cannot trust your work ethic to be your refuge; don’t sell your soul for financial security. The 19th Century preacher Alexander Maclaren put it well in his commentary on this psalm when he said, “Whether rightly or wrongly won, [riches] are wrongly used if trusted in.” (Maclaren, A. (1903). The Psalms. In W. Robertson Nicoll (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible: Psalms to Isaiah (Vol. 3, p. 163). S.S. Scranton Co.)

God is the only refuge worth seeking in a shaking world. As much as you feel drawn to place your confidence in your accomplishments or your upbringing or your bank account, none of those things can promise you protection in this shaking world--

IV. Only God’s PROMISES are UNSHAKEABLE (Psalm 62:11-12)

Psalm 62:11–12 (ESV)

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.

I love how this psalm opens with David “waiting in silence”—he is not crying out in fear, he is not railing against his slanderous enemies, he is not begging God to do something—he is simply waiting because he knows his refuge is in God! When your refuge and your trust is in God, you don’t need to be loud or anxious or fretful, because you know that His promises are sure!

This is what David is getting at in verse 11: God speaks once, and I hear it twice! Like the figure of speech we have when someone says something we are utterly certain is true: “You can say that again!” David is utterly and completely confident that God is his refuge, and he gives three reasons for his confidence in God. First,

His WILL is UNSTOPPABLE

Psalm 62:11 (ESV)

11 Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

The sense in Hebrew for the word power is of God’s powerful arm; His ability to defend and protect His people and accomplish His purposes. When He delivered His people from their oppressors in Egypt, Moses wrote:

Deuteronomy 9:29 (ESV)

29 For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’

And in Psalm 138, David sings,

Psalm 138:7 (ESV)

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.

And the Apostle Peter remarks that the wickedness of the people who brought about Jesus’ crucifixion did not thwart His plan, but accomplished it:

Acts 4:27–28 (ESV)

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Take refuge, Christian, in the sure promise that nothing that shakes apart in this world can shake the purposes of your God!

David takes refuge in the truth that God’s will is unstoppable, and that

His LOVE is UNRELENTING

Psalm 62:12 (ESV)

12 and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love...

Once God has set His love on you, He will never turn His back on you like those envious enemies who love you to your face and hate you to your back! When you come in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ, you have this unshakeable, unrelenting love that will never let you go:

Romans 8:35–39 (ESV)

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.

No matter what tribulation or distress or famine or nakedness or danger falls on you in this shaking world, Christian—even if you lose your very life as a sheep going to the slaughter—there is nothing that will shake you out of the refuge of the steadfast covenant love of God for you!

Only the promises of God are unshakeable—your only refuge is in Him! His will is unstoppable, His love is unrelenting, and

His JUSTICE is UNDENIABLE (v. 12; cp. Galatians 6:7-8)

Psalm 62:12 (ESV)

12 and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.

David takes refuge in the knowledge that his trust in God as his only refuge has not gone unnoticed by God—God sees David’s trust in Him, and God remembers. None of David’s confidence in God will ever go unrewarded:

Psalm 34:5 (ESV)

5 Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

David takes refuge in God’s undeniable justice—he will remember David’s faithfulness, and He will remember his enemies’ treachery. Nothing David’s enemies have done to him has gone unnoticed by God. None of the slander, lies, misrepresentations, attacks of his adversaries have escaped the attention of God, and God will repay.

By itself, there is not much comfort in that promise, is there? Psalm 130:3 considers the undeniable justice of God from another perspective:

Psalm 130:3 (ESV)

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

God will always repay according to your deeds—His justice is utterly unquestionable. And so if you and I are going to have any hope whatsoever of being able to stand on that day when our deeds are repaid, we must stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. As Paul writes in Galatians 6:7-8:

Galatians 6:7–8 (ESV)

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Throughout this psalm, we have been hearing from God’s Word about the importance of making him our refuge, about trusting Him alone above any other plan or contingency or security we can create for ourselves. Let David’s final words of this psalm bring home to you the reminder that you will be called to account for your deeds; you will be repaid for your actions—completely, with undeniable justice and no remainder.

On that Final Day when you stand at the Great White Throne before the Ancient of Days, from whose presence earth and sky will flee away, when that Book is opened and the deeds of your life are weighed, where will your refuge be? On that Day, your accomplishments won’t matter, your upbringing won’t matter, your bank balance won’t matter—the only thing that will matter on that Day—the only refuge you will have—is whether you lived your life in obedience to God the Father through faith in God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

And the only way to live that life—the only way to be able to stand on that day—is if you have fled for refuge from the penalty of your sin to the forgiveness purchased for you by the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross! He was the Sinless Son of God who died in your place so that you would be forever free from the penalty and power of your sin. If you are not hiding in the refuge of Jesus Christ today, David’s psalm calls out to you from across the centuries with the same promise: Trust in Him at all times, pour out your heart before Him—He is a refuge for you today! Come to Him in faith to be justified by His blood, saved by Him from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9) and a recipient of the abundance of His grace and the free gift of righteousness, reigning in life through your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

(From 1 Thessalonians 3:11–13, ESV)

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus... make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all… 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints; to Him be the glory and honor forever and ever. Amen

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

How do you know if you are relying on something (or someone) more than you are depending on God? How does Psalm 62 help you identify ways that you may be looking for refuge in the wrong places?

Look again at the progression of David’s confidence from verse 2 (“I will not be greatly shaken”) to verse 6 (“I shall not be shaken”). How does this demonstrate the importance of regular and repeated worship in strengthening our confidence in God?

Why is it significant that David says he can wait “in silence” for God to rescue him? Does your life reflect that kind of quiet and peaceful assurance that God is your refuge?Take some time this week and pray through this psalm, asking God to give you this kind of confidence in Him!