So, I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 62. Psalm 62, the title we find there, says, For the director of music for Jedithun, a psalm of David. Jedithun, if we look in 1 Chronicles 16 and chapter 25, he was one of the chief musicians that was appointed by David to lead in public worship. And it's fitting that this psalm be sung by God's people in public worship. Psalm 62, as we hear now the Word of God. My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will never be shaken. How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down, this leaning wall, this tottering fence? They fully intend to topple Him from His lofty place. They take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. Find rest, O my soul, in God alone. My hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God. He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, O people. Pour out your hearts to Him. for God is our refuge. Low-born men are but a breath, the high-born are but a lie. If weighed on a balance, they are nothing. Together they are only a breath. Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods. Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard, that you, O God, are strong and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done. May God add his blessing tonight to the reading and the preaching and the hearing of his word. Well, beloved in Christ the Lord, this past Tuesday, January 20, 2009, was an important and for many an exciting day in the history of our nation. as we witnessed, as a nation, the inauguration of a new president. And as we witnessed that event, we witnessed, really, a relatively peaceful transition from one president to the next. And we also witnessed the excitement of the crowds, especially if you happened to watch it on TV. We witnessed the excitement of the crowds, those who were gathered in Washington, D.C., and maybe even you saw some of the other televised gatherings, and we saw that excitement. And indeed, there ought to be excitement for our nation. If we think of the coming to power of the first kings in Israel, especially Saul and David and Solomon, along with their crownings, there was a coronation celebration among the people of Israel. So it ought to indeed be an exciting time for our nation. But I must confess that for me, Something has disturbed me over the weeks ever since the election, and especially in this past week. And that which has troubled me is the hope and the confidence and the faith misplaced, I believe, that has been put in one man and in one administration. You and I have seen together that some have elevated a man so high, almost to the point of worship. And we have witnessed tears streaming down people's cheeks that tell of the hope that they have and the confidence that they now have in this one man that all will now be made well. Everything will be right now, at least according to the way they think it ought to be. Promises to all kinds of groups with regard to all kinds of social and domestic and foreign policies are expected to be kept, many of which will be troubling to Christians and to the church as we have already received a flavor of that. And indeed, beloved, we must and we will pray for our new president and the leaders whom God has placed over us. We will pray not to them. We will not worship them, but we will pray to the one and worship the one alone in whose hand these leaders are only an instrument. And in the midst of a nation of many that have misplaced hope and confidence, we consider David tonight. Really, this whole thing is what I believe God used to draw me to this psalm tonight. We consider David himself a king. No one was higher than David in his kingdom. Yet this David himself points us, as he says in Psalm 61, verse 3, he points us to the rock that is higher than himself. And this one, King David, we know in whom Israel placed its trust on occasion. David demonstrates his own unshakable faith in Psalm 62 as we witness there that David rests in God alone. And his rest in God alone is first of all emphasized in his confident confession and secondly it is expressed in his confident encouragement. David is so filled with unshakable confidence here. He is so filled with strong assurance that, notice, there's not one petition in this psalm. He doesn't ask God for anything in this psalm. He is only exalting the truth of God and what He is for His people. David rests in God alone, and that rest is, first of all, emphasized in his confident confession in his Lord alone. Beginning with verse 1 again, My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will never be shaken. What an amazing statement to make. And maybe you notice the emphasis on the word alone. God alone. He alone. That word is the translation of a very small Hebrew word that is used for emphasizing something. And that word really is used throughout the psalm. six times. We find it is used in verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 9. And in the Hebrew text, it's located at the very beginning of each sentence, again, a place of emphasis. And it can be translated in a few different ways, but it's translated, of course, as alone with reference to God in verses 1 and 2 and 5 and 6. It's translated as fully in verse 4, and It's translated in verse 9 as but, in the sense of but a breath. But in each sense, beloved, it has a restrictive sense. And what I mean by that is, for example, when David uses it in relation to God, he is talking about none other than God. God alone. God only. In verse 4, where he says, They fully intend to topple him. The word fully, the idea there is that their only intention, it's the only one they have, is to topple him. And in verse 9, the lowborn men are but a breath. They are nothing but. That's all they are is a breath. And we'll consider that more when we get to it. But with regard to God. For David, the Lord and him alone is the only object of David's trust exclusively. It's not God and something else. It's not God and David, or God and David's wise men, or God and David's military. It is God exclusively. Because God alone, and no one, and nothing other than Him is the fortress. Now that's just one of the few beautiful word pictures that David uses there. He calls the Lord his rock. And there we know we have a picture of security and strength and something solid, something unbreakable. A huge rock. And he also says the Lord is His fortress. And a fortress was a high place of refuge and defense where one might flee to for protection and flee to out of the enemy's reach and put them together. He is a rock. He is a fortress. It is a picture of something that is indestructible. Indestructible security and refuge out of the reach of the enemies. A picture of salvation. David's confidence is that the Lord not only provides salvation for him, but God himself is David's salvation, his indestructible protection. He is the one in whom David has full confidence and assurance from his enemies to be sure, but also for eternity, as David says in Psalm 23, for I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And David expresses his confidence that he confidently rests in the Lord. My soul finds rest in God alone, or as we also know it, translated as we have sung, my soul in silence waits for God. And either way, congregation, what we have is a picture of confident trust that one can only have when they are in a right relationship with God. And David enjoyed that right relationship by the grace of God. He had that confident trust with no restlessness, no anxiety, and no worry, which is really amazing because it is believed that David penned this psalm when his enemies were indeed in pursuit of him. And it makes it all that much more amazing that he is able to write with confidence these words. One commentator says with regard to this idea of silence, he says it is the composed submission of the believer in the exercise of which he acquiesces in the promises of God, gives place to his word, bows to his sovereignty, and suppresses every inward murmur of dissatisfaction. And if we were to take it literally, we might say that David doesn't say a word. Even in the midst of his enemies pressing in on him, he doesn't say a word. He doesn't try to give God advice. he doesn't try to tell God how it ought to be done he doesn't think that he knows best but he is content to know and to believe that God is completely in control and that he is the one who keeps in safety as he says I will never be shaken now the NIV leaves something out here I believe there is a word in the Hebrew that is translated greatly and some translations included it ought to say I will not be greatly shaken instead of simply I will never be shaken I will not be greatly shaken I will not be greatly moved so the idea of being somewhat shaken is there and it makes sense because in the early verses David has a sense of his enemies pressing in on him he knows that they will try to attack him he knows that they will try to harm him but he is confident that even though they might be able to rattle him a little even though they may be able to affect his earthly circumstances to a point. David has confidence that his mighty fortress, we might say, is made of rock, not of sand. That's the same confidence Paul had that we read about in 2 Corinthians 4 when he says, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. Paul could say the very same thing as David, and what Paul says is also David's confident confession in his Lord, even in the presence of his enemies. He's just given this beautiful statement, My soul finds rest. God is my salvation, my rock, my fortress. How long will you assault a man? He says to his enemies. When all of you throw him down, this leaning wall, this tottering fence, they fully intend to topple him from his lofty place. They take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. In the presence of his enemies, he has this confidence. His enemies who attack the weak. How long will you assault a man? The idea there is to rush suddenly upon another with raised and clenched fists in order to intimidate them. That's what the enemies, the wicked, do to the weak. They have no mercy. They go in for the easy victory. The idea here is to kick a man when he is down. And in many ways that was David's experience, wasn't it? Especially as he had to run from Saul and later on from his own son Absalom. And David describes himself here as a leaning wall, a tottering fence. And we've probably all seen that sort of a wall that is unstable, that's beginning to fall over and it shakes a bit in the wind and it looks as if if you just touch it or maybe even blow on it, It's going to go completely over. That's how David appeared. Weak, vulnerable, helpless to his enemies. In their minds, he was one that, if they rush at him that way, he might only curl up into a ball before them. But his enemies were also those who desired to destroy the strong, the powerful. They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place. David was king. And the wicked coveted the power of the mighty. And that word fully, again, is the same word that is translated alone or only. His enemies had only one intention and one alone. And that was to destroy him. And beloved, today we think of the abortion and the homosexual rights groups who are ecstatic. We know that. They think they have their man and their administration in place. They believe it's their day. And they have only one intention, that is to destroy, try to destroy Christian values. To make them extinct. And maybe you and I with them, or at the very least, make it so that in some way we have to compromise with them. But David makes it clear that his enemies will use any means, lies, deception. With their mouths they bless, but with their hearts they curse. They try to look friendly in order to get one to let their guard down, like Satan did in the Garden of Eden. But David's confidence, David's confidence after giving that solid statement in verses 1 and 2 is that his enemies are wasting their time. How long? His confidence is that his enemies are blind to the truth of his solid foundation. And really, the world too is blind to our solid foundation, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Even if we live before the eyes of the world in a way that shows Jesus Christ, they're ignorant to it. They don't see that solid foundation. He is our confidence. David's confidence was not in his own strength and not in his own wisdom, but his confidence was in God, that God is more powerful than his enemies. And he expresses this in his call to himself. Beginning in verse 5, Find rest, O my soul, in God alone. My hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God, he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Now, verses 5 and 6 really mostly are repeated, verses 1 and 2, though there are some differences. Now in verse 5, notice, he says to his soul what he had said of his soul in verse 1, as if to remind himself in the midst of his enemies, to remind himself to consciously exercise his confidence. And in verse 1 he says, My salvation comes from him. Now he says, My hope, also translated, My expectation comes from him. David knew that he had salvation. He fully expected that salvation. He trusts in God's covenant promises. that God will protect and provide for and save David. His was a living hope, as Peter speaks of, that was safe, would not perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven. And therefore he calls himself then to continually seek the Lord. David no longer thinks about his enemies, those who were traitors against him and their plots against him, but he fills his thoughts of God alone. His enemies, who may have been breathing down his neck, we're not able to steal David's attention. And may that be true for you and me, beloved. And we also feel the pressures of the world. And we feel them right now in different ways. Maybe personally, as a church, as a Christian society. When we face the anxieties and the troubling times of life, may it be true of us that the Holy Spirit would keep us safe. That these things would not be able to steal our attention away from God. But that at all times we would be able to confess with him, my soul finds rest in God alone. But as well, David calls for greater confidence. Again, in verse 2, he says that he would never be greatly shaken, as I mentioned a moment ago. But now he says that he will not be shaken, period. His confidence was so sure, beloved. He was so confident that he was so safe in the care of God that he could say with Paul, if God is for me, who can be against me? And he could say that nothing will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus the Lord. Nothing. David is confident because of God's blessing. My salvation and my honor depend on God my honor or my glory it's an interesting word it means to be heavy to be weighty and it's not talking about stepping on the bathroom scale though that analogy is used in in verse 9 in contrast to what David enjoys but it means to be heavy to be weighty has the idea of reputation of significance of worth in contrast to verse 9 where it says that man is nothing but breath. He is meaningless. He is without significance. He is light. David had the confidence that his significance, his worth, his meaning, his identity, if you will, comes only from God having been brought into a right relationship with him so that he could say, blessed is the man whose God is the Lord. He knew that he was a sinful man. He knew that he was worthless in himself. He knew that his power and his prestige and And his position came only from God who had made him and who saved him. And therefore, it was not himself that he exalted. It was not himself that he promoted, as so many men do today. And neither would he keep this God that he speaks of as the best little secret for himself. But his rest in God alone, secondly, is expressed in his confident encouragement. Verse 8 says, Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Really, as you can see, this psalm is in three parts, separated by the word sila, as we pronounce it. And I have made it into two sections here tonight. But verse 8 really finishes the second section, but we consider that tying in with what comes before and introducing what comes after. David expresses confident encouragement for comprehensive trust in God. Notice he moves from a call to his own soul, in verse 5 and following, to a call to his people. And he encourages them to have comprehensive trust in God at all times because God is not only good once in a while or when he feels like it or only on particular occasions or only for certain details of life. God can be trusted with regard to every detail of life. He's not only interested in the big and the important events and situations of your life and mine, but all that His people face, He's interested in. David makes that clear in Psalm 139, where he says that God knows our thoughts before we think them. He knows our words before we say them. He knows all of our actions. David says He knows all your ways. And with regard to God's thoughts toward you, And me, they're uncountable. Comprehensive trust in God at all times, but also then with a whole heart. Pour out your heart to Him, the soul that finds rest in Him. That soul alone is able to unburden itself, to pour out, to cast all your cares upon Him. There is nothing so insignificant about you and me that God doesn't care about it. He has all of our hairs numbered. He has all of our days planned. He cares about your financial difficulties and your job situation and the fact that you're trying to put food on the table. He's interested in your study habits and in your work ethic and in your spare time. He cares about the challenges that you and I face. And his promise is simply this, as our Lord Jesus said, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you. And we know, of course, that He doesn't promise that we will be rich and famous before the eyes of the world. He doesn't promise that we will never suffer physical or financial setbacks. He doesn't promise that we will never experience the world's hatred, even close and around us in our own nation. But those who trust in Him, those who cast their burden on Him, find contentment in him, rest for their souls. All we need for this life and the next. Someone has said those who trust in God truly will trust in God only. And that's why David's encouragement also is an encouragement to resist trust in man. He says, find rest, O my soul, in God alone. Then he turns to the people and says, trust in him at all times. And then he points their attention to man. Resist trust in man. Low-born men are but a breath. The high-born are but a lie. If weighed on a balance, they are nothing. Together they are only a breath. Do not trust in extortion or take pride in soul and goods. Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. David's focus changes, you see, from looking at his enemies in relation to himself earlier to looking at his enemies in their relationship to God. And he teaches here the security of trusting in God versus the insecurity of trusting in man. And as another commentator points out, the point then is not that we have nothing to fear from man, but we have nothing to hope for from man. And really that's what David says in verse 9, we have nothing to fear from man. In verse 10, we have nothing to hope for from man. Resist, trust in man who cannot save. David says in Psalm 27, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? And the answer expected to both those questions is the same. No one. Nothing. And David, we know, practiced what he preached. He knew that his enemies were out to kill him. But at the very same time, beloved, He knew that man's life is transitory. It changes. In Psalm 49, verse 10, we read, For all can see that the wise men die, the foolish and senseless alike perish. And in Psalm 146, Do not put your trust in princes and mortal men who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground. On that very day, their plans come to nothing. And the same is true of the leaders of our world. The leaders of our nation. The day will come when they will die. And their plans will come to nothing. Man cannot save himself. Man cannot save others. He can kill the body, Jesus says, but he cannot kill the soul, and therefore he is not to be feared. Why? Because he is meaningless. He is but a breath. He is only a breath. And that word breath is the same word that is translated in Ecclesiastes 1 as vanity or meaningless. That means that man, apart from Jesus Christ, he's without real substance, without value, without permanence, without significance, without meaning. He is so insignificant that you can take the whole lot of wicked men, the whole works, put them together, put them on a scale, and they register no weight. They're nothing. And we too need to be reminded of this, beloved, in the midst of the pomp and circumstance that surrounds our earthly leaders. And maybe we even need to be reminded of this when it comes to ourselves. In not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We do not have to fear man. We also have nothing to hope for from man. Man cannot provide. The enemies get ahead, the wicked get ahead in life by wicked and dishonest practices. But earthly riches, beloved, are meaningless for man's true need which is to be made right with God. To have all of our sins forgiven and to be made righteous in His sight that we might stand in His very presence. That's man's true need as we know. But earthly riches and man who craves them is a shaky foundation. It will be consumed. Our true hope and our true help is not to be found in man who will let you and me down every time as we often let each other down. but our true hope and our true help is to be found only in God who is unchanging, who is from everlasting to everlasting. And David's encouragement is also, he gives this encouragement because of the trustworthiness of God. Verses 11 and 12, One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard, that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done. once again God in his providence has seen fit that we have already seen this this morning in the first of the two questions and answers of the catechism talks about this very thing the trustworthiness of God and that trustworthiness beloved is that God is able to save but he is also willing to save As David says, God is strong. He is powerful, sovereign, almighty. All power belongs to Him. It's as if David places God's power over against the pretended power of man, and there's absolutely no comparison. God, to God, belongs all power. He is able to save, but along with that, He is willing to save. He is loving. He is mercy. And this points to what is true and dependable. He is a covenant-keeping God. He will keep His promises to save. God is both willing and able to save. You see, without either of these attributes, there would be no salvation. Because power without mercy means that one would have the ability, but no inclination, no desire, no heart for it. But mercy without power means that he may have the desire, the heart for it, but not the ability to carry it out. But God has both. And our God has demonstrated both through Jesus Christ on the cross where God's justice and His love came together as God's justice was satisfied through Jesus Christ as He poured out His blood for the remission of all of our sins. And His love is there as that was done for you and me by the grace of God. And by His power, He has conquered Satan, sin, death, and hell for all those who trusted Him. And we know as David says that God is also equitable. Surely you will reward each person according to what He has done. You see, if God is not a God of all power, there would be sinners too great to be punished. And if God is not a God of all mercy, there would be no hope for you and me because as we know, even our best works, even as believers, are as filthy rags. And even now in this life, The righteous may suffer injustice at the hand of the wicked, but we are able to rest in God for Jesus' sake. Because we know in whom our security lies. God is equitable. Those who rise in opposition to the will and order of God will feel the power of His punishment that dashes to pieces. But those who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in confession of all their sins and in faith. Those who are anxious for the salvation through Jesus Christ, who by the Holy Spirit embrace the law of God and delight in it. By the grace of God, they receive God's mercy from His overflowing fullness. Our beloved, we know that David's hope was in his greater Son, Jesus Christ, who secured that salvation for you and me. In Jesus Christ alone, we are solid and secure. We are safe in that mighty fortress from the reach of the enemy. Satan can attack, he can shake us all he wants, but nothing will be able to snatch us out of our Father's hand. As the writer of Hebrews says, Jesus Christ is the anchor for the believer's soul. We are already anchored into God's heavenly presence. And that connection will never be broken. Beloved, true contentment is found only in a right relationship with the Lord, which is ours through Jesus Christ. In Him we have true rest. It is God alone who saves. He saves forever. He gives significance and meaning to you and me. Our honor is secure with Him. Our identity is wrapped up in Him. And that purpose, as we were reminded this morning, is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. But this is not only important for the life to come, it is important for that, but it's also important for this life. As Jesus says, in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. We know that God uses means, He uses means to provide for and to protect us in this life, even the means of those who don't believe in Him. we know that the world lays before us many tools and mechanisms by which we might live in this life. And we must confess that once in a while we do put confidence, oh yes, we say it's in God, but we also put our confidence, for example, in the power company, that when we turn on the light switch that there will be light. We put some confidence in our investment advisor that he will give good advice that our investments will gain in value and not lose in value. We tend to put confidence in our law enforcement to provide protection from the bad guys. We put confidence in our government to keep us safe from terrorists. We put our confidence in medicine to take away what ails us and in doctors to fix that which is broken about us. But sometimes we are surprised, aren't we? Even as we were surprised that But Vera did not come through the operation. Children put confidence in their moms and dads to provide, and especially mom, to have food on the table. And we tend to put some confidence in ourselves too, don't we, beloved? To put confidence at times in our own reason, in our own intellect, even when it may contradict what God's Word says, and we think that we know best, and we tend to drift off in that direction. but even as those who confess that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, maybe it's true that we also put a little bit of confidence in ourselves that we somehow help out just a little bit by fulfilling my part for doing that which is pleasing to God. But David, David makes it clear that there is only one who is reliable for all of these and more, our Heavenly Father, who gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life in Him alone. We are not to put our confidence in riches, in world leaders, in the economy, or in ourselves. These are all meaningless in and of themselves. Tools that God has given indeed. But our confidence is to be in God. God has taken care of our eternal need through Jesus Christ. And for the here and now, He knows what we need and He promises that all things will work together for our good. And therefore, beloved, while there are so many in our day and in our nation that put their hope and their confidence in leaders and in what man can do, may our hope and confidence be only in our faithful Savior Jesus Christ, for indeed great is His faithfulness. Dear people of God, hope in God alone. For He has made all things well in Jesus Christ for all who believe in Him. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we praise Your name for the truth of Your Word, the truth which tells us without a doubt that You are our salvation, that You are our refuge, our mighty rock, our fortress, that Your people are safe, both now and forever. And that we may have this confidence. Father, give us that confidence even in times when we face the difficulties of this life And we do feel the pressures of this life weighing in on us. We do, in a sense, sense the wicked breath of Satan breathing on our necks through those who do not know you and do not love you, but seek to go their own way. And therefore, Father, give us confidence, even when our confidence begins to wane. Build us up in that certainty that all things are in your hand. And help us to rest in you alone. For you alone are God and everlasting is your throne. Hear our prayer, O Lord, for Jesus' sake and in his name. Amen.