Psalms 62:1 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, David says plainly that he depends on God, and on God alone, for every good thing (Psalm 62:1). “My soul waits on God,” means that, no matter what happens, he keeps looking to God with trust. Even if God seems to hide his face, and even if David feels discouraged in worship, he still stays quiet before God. He does not argue against what God does, but calmly waits for what God will do.

We are on the right path for both duty and comfort when our souls wait on God. That means we freely place ourselves, and all our concerns, into his will and wisdom. We accept his providence, his wise rule over all things, and we patiently wait for the outcome, trusting that his ways are right and good, whatever they are. The Septuagint renders this as, “Is not my soul subject to God?” and that is certainly how it should be. Our wills must be shaped to fit his will.

“My soul has respect to God, for from him comes my salvation.” David is sure that rescue will come, even though he is now threatened and in danger. He expects that rescue to come from God, and from God alone. It is useless to hope for it from hills and mountains (Jeremiah 3:23; Psalm 121:1, Psalm 121:2). Since he knows it will come from God, he will wait patiently until it does, because God’s time is always the best time.

We can also apply this to our eternal salvation, which is called the salvation of God (Psalm 50:23). It comes from him. He planned it for us, prepares us for it, and keeps us for it. So our souls should wait on him as he leads us through this world to that eternal salvation, in whatever way he thinks best.

David then gives the reason for this trust in God (Psalm 62:2). “He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense.” God has been this for him many times. In God he has found shelter, strength, and help. God has supported him by his grace under trouble, and by his providence has guarded him from his enemies’ insults and delivered him from the troubles into which he had fallen. For that reason, David trusts that God will deliver him again (2 Corinthians 1:10).

God alone can be his rock and salvation. Created things are not enough, because they are nothing without God. So David looks above them to God himself. God has also promised by covenant to be such a helper. He who is the rock of ages is David’s rock. He who is the God of salvation is his salvation. He who is the Most High is his high place. For all these reasons, David has every reason to trust him.

David then turns his confidence in God into practical steadiness. Because God is his strength and his rescue, he says he will not be greatly moved. That does not mean he will never be shaken at all, but he will not be ruined. He may be startled, but he will not be crushed. He may be troubled, but he will not sink into despair (2 Corinthians 4:8). Hope in God becomes like an anchor for the soul, sure and firm.

He also grows bold against his enemies and treats their plans with contempt (Psalm 62:3, Psalm 62:4). If God is for us, we do not need to fear what man can do, no matter how strong or cruel he is. David first describes them: they plot harm, and they do it with both snake-like poison and snake-like cunning. They are attacking one man, someone of their own kind, though they are many and he is alone. Even though Providence has often stopped their evil plans, they keep going. “How long will you do it?” David asks. “Will you never admit your mistake? Will your hatred never be satisfied?”

They all agree in planning how to throw down an excellent man from his place of honor, how to pull an honest man away from his integrity, and how to trap him in sin, because that is the only sure way to bring him low. They are trying to push down a man whom God has raised up, and in that way they are fighting against God himself. Envy is driving them. They cannot bear David’s rise, so they try to damage his name and spread lies about him. They delight in falsehood. They also lie to his face, flattering him outwardly while cursing him inwardly. In their hearts they wish him harm, and in secret they work out some evil plan to ruin him.

It is dangerous to trust people who are so false. God, however, is faithful. David then speaks their judgment, not as a king, but as a prophet: they will all be struck down by God’s righteous judgments. Saul, Israel’s first king, and his servants were slain by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa, just as this word foretold. Those who try to destroy God’s chosen people only prepare ruin for themselves. God’s church is built on a rock and will stand. But those who fight against it, and against its supporters and protectors, will be like a leaning wall or a shaky fence. With a weak base, they fall suddenly and bury under the ruins those who had trusted them for safety.

Because David has put his confidence in God, he can already see his enemies’ downfall and, in effect, challenge them to do their worst. Then he encourages himself to keep waiting on God (Psalm 62:5-7). “My soul, wait only on God.” What is good for us, we should stir ourselves to keep doing, and to do more and more, especially when we have already tasted its comfort and value. If we have found it good to wait on God, then we should urge our own souls to keep trusting him steadily, so that we may remain calm and settled.

David had said, “From him comes my salvation” (Psalm 62:1). Here he says, “My expectation is from him” (Psalm 62:5). Salvation is the main thing he is waiting for. If he has that from God, he wants no more. Since his salvation comes from God, all his other hopes also come from God. If God will save his soul, then, as to everything else, David is willing for God to do whatever he pleases with him, because he knows that all God’s dealings will turn out for his salvation (Philippians 1:19).

David repeats what he had said about God in Psalm 62:6, showing that he was not only sure of it, but deeply glad about it. He kept turning it over in his mind: “He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense.” There he had said, “I shall not be greatly moved.” Here he goes further and says, “I shall not be moved at all.” The more faith is used, the stronger it becomes. It grows by being exercised.

The more we think about God’s character, his promises, and our own experience of his help, the less ground our fears have. Those fears, like Haman’s downfall, will collapse before us as they begin to fall, and we will be kept in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). As David’s faith in God grows into steady confidence, so his joy in God grows into a holy triumph (Psalm 62:7): “In God is my salvation and my glory.” Wherever our salvation is, there our glory is too, because salvation is the glory still to be revealed, the eternal weight of glory. That is where our boasting must be.

“ The rock of my strength” means my strong rock, the one on which I build my hope and rest myself. “My refuge” means the place I run to for safety when I am pursued. David says that this is found in God, and in God alone. He has no one else to flee to, and no one else to trust. The more he thinks about it, the more satisfied he is with the choice he has made. In this way he delights himself in the Lord, and then he is lifted up above the troubles of the earth (Isaiah 58:14).