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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Waiting Still Upon God |
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Psalm
62 Eleventh
Sunday after Trinity August
3, 2008 The first thing I see in a Psalm 62 is a man at peace in God. The man is David, King of Israel. Knowing something about David’s life, we may be tempted to ask why he was at peace in God. We know about his murder of Bathsheba’s husband so he could take her as his wife. We know his life had its trials. There were foreign enemies around him. There were those in his own nation who opposed him. There was even unrest and rebellion in his own house. He seems to allude to these problems in verses 3 and 4 of this Psalm. Yet David says “My soul truly waiteth still upon God.” To “wait still” means to wait in stillness and quietness before God. It conveys the image of quiet trust that is so deep and profound it produces a condition that can only be described as resting in God. This is not lapsing into inactivity. Quite the opposite. David was king in a very troubled nation. Enemies wanted to erase Israel from the map, and he often lived under the threat of attack by powerful neighbors. As in any nation, there were also power struggles and unrest going on within. Even his own house was not immune from unrest and rebellion. He could not simply retreat to the Palace Chapel and spend the whole of his time in prayer. He could not simply sit in Church all the time and say, “God will take care of everything.” David had to act. David had to rule. David had to oversee the courts and the army and the government. David had to defend his country. He even had to fight a war against his own son. He had to take action. But in taking action David also had to trust God to be with him, to guide him. And David had to trust God with the results. I think this brings up a very important point to us. We also face trials and enemies. Often our greatest enemy is us. And we have duties and obligations in life, and we can’t just spend our whole day in prayer, and much as we would like to, we can’t stay awake all night in prayer, not every night, anyway. We have work to do. People depend on us. So we have to act. But we can act in faith. We can act in a way that “waiteth still” upon the Lord. We can indeed we must go about our daily tasks in an attitude of quiet trust. We must do our duty, and trust God with the results. This leads to the next point, to wait still upon the Lord means to have an attitude of quiet acceptance of God’s will or contentment in your situation. I can say this best by means of an illustration. A certain man, call him Will was visiting a friend in the city. Call the friend Daniel. Will owned prosperous business interests in the small, rural county where he lived. Dan was an equally prosperous business leader in the city where he lived. But Dan yearned for the country. He dreamed of green fields and wide open spaces. In one of their conversations Dan turned to Will and said “I’m not happy here. I wish I lived in the country.” Will thought for a moment, then motioned to Dan’s comfortable apartment and said gently, “This is what the Lord has provided for you now. Why not enjoy it?” What would happen if we put our own names in place of Dan’s? Could we find something we chaff against? Do we allow ourselves to become unhappy with our circumstances in life? Our jobs? Our homes? Listen, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have dreams. I’m not saying we shouldn’t work toward better and higher goals. I am saying we should appreciate what God has provided here and now, today. A good example of this is the Apostle Paul, who had learned to be happy in any circumstances. This does not mean he didn’t work to improve his circumstances, it does means he did not allow his circumstances to take way his joy in Christ. Even beaten and locked away in a dungeon, he was able to sing praises to God. Was he in pain? Yes, excruciating pain. Was the cell dark and dirty, filled with vermin and disease? Yes. Was it possible that he would be executed? Yes. He could have given in to anger and bitterness at God for letting him be beaten and jailed. It would have been easy to do that. But he chose to sing songs of praise to God instead. He chose to trust God, even in those circumstances.. He accepted the circumstances, and trusted God. This is what we need to be able to do. This is part of what it means to wait still upon the Lord. Finally, to wait still upon the Lord means to have an attitude of obedience. It is, as Charles Spurgeon said, “to bring down the will and subdue the affections to such a degree that the whole mind lies before the Lord like the sea beneath the wind, ready to be moved by every breath of his mouth, but free from all inward and self-caused emotion, as also from the power to be moved by anything other than the Divine will” (Psalms of David, vol. II, p. 48). Again I turn to the Apostle Paul for an example of this in everyday life. Paul said, “for me, to live is Christ.” What depth of meaning that phrase gives. It seems almost unfair to try to dissect and objectify it in some attempt to understand it scientifically. It speaks to us in a way that is beyond scientific investigation. It speaks to us from his soul to our souls. I think it means Christ defined his life. Christ was who and what Paul was about. His life, his work and his being were about Christ. Thus, whatever Christ commands or demands, Paul was ready to do. Even his life was not valuable to Paul, for the phrase that begins with “for me to live is Christ,” ends with, “to die is gain.” To wait still upon the Lord is the ultimate goal of all true Christians. We often forget this. Or we substitute other things for it. I am dismayed by the way Christians chase the things of the world with the same vigor as those who are not Christians. Do we seek Christ with the same energy and passion and love? Do we not sometimes actually put other things in God’s place, and define our lives by them in stead of saying, “for me to live is Christ?” Allow me, please to close with two points about how to move closer to your goal of being able to “wait still” before the Lord. First, God must be your God. One thing that stands out in any reading of this Psalm is David’s complete surrender to God. He says, “He is my strength” 62:6, and, “God is my health and my glory” (62:7), and “God is our hope” (62:8). He is saying God is my God. In fact, if you look at Psalm 63:1, which deals with some of the same issues found in Psalm 62, you read at the very beginning, “O God, thou art my God.” This thought permeates Psalm 62. David can only say God is my health and my glory because he can also say God is my God. The two statements balance one another, and without one, the other falls like the tottering wall of verse 3. Let me give a very interesting characteristic of the Hebrew language that sheds light on what it means to call God, “my God.” You may be familiar with this, if you have studied other languages, for most of them follow this same pattern. In the possessive case, Hebrew, like Latin, for example, does not say “my” as English does. It says “of.” So instead of saying “My God,” it says “God of me.” How significant. “My” can carry the sense of ownership and control by us. But “of me” seems to emphasize more of a relationship between ourselves and the thing. Think of the difference it would make if, instead of saying, “my,” we started saying, “of.” Instead of “my wife,” “the wife of me.” Instead of “my children,” “the children of me.” Think of the difference it would make if instead of saying, “my God,” we started saying, “God of me.” “My God” seems to put the control and authority in our hands. “God of me” clearly puts ownership and authority in God’s hands. And that is the secret to resting in God. Put the ownership and authority in His hands instead of yours. Not, “my God,” but, “God of me.” Second, this comes as the gift of God’s grace. It is something God develops in you, not something you achieve on your own. Therefore, seek it from God. Ask Him to develop it in you. Ask Him to grow it in you. Desire it as David desired it when he wrote in Psalm 63:2, “My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee.” Want it as David wanted it when he wrote in Psalm 63:4, “thy loving kindness is better than life itself.” Desire it of God as David desired it. Seek it as David sought it. God will give it. God of us,
Father of all mercies, giver of good and perfect gifts, grant us,
we beseech Thee, that deep in our souls we may wait still upon Thee.
In the Name of Christ we pray. Amen The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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