And if you have your Bibles, perhaps you could turn back with me to Psalm 62 in the Church Bible.
! It's page 579. Thinking about this wonderful Psalm and what it can help us to see about Jesus, our true rest and security.
But as we begin, a couple of really important questions that relate to the theme of Psalm 62.
The first is this. What is it that makes you feel anxious or insecure?
So I guess a lot of people are recognizing, it's hard not to, a time of growing insecurity in the world.
We look at the Middle East as a prime example.
Perhaps we think of ongoing conflict in Europe, and especially as we continue to live with the knock-on effects,
whether that's, you know, the prices in our energy bills or how it affects our finances.
It feels like that insecurity comes ever closer to home.
But maybe what causes us anxiety and insecurity is more related to our personal circumstances.
Maybe it's our own health and well-being.
Maybe it's our job, our career prospects, the demands within our particular role.
Maybe as we survey our nation, we have concerns and anxiety about the moral and spiritual condition of the country.
Maybe we think about recent votes that seem to go against what the Bible teaches, and we feel growing concern.
Maybe our concern is linked to, not ourselves, but to family members.
Maybe family members as it relates to their spiritual condition.
What is it that makes us feel anxious?
What is it that keeps you awake at night?
What are the factors that rob you of sleep?
Or set your mind or your heart racing all of a sudden in panic?
Maybe with David in Psalm 62, those issues come kind of related to this morning because of conflict that we have with others.
Maybe it's the words that are said to us or words that are spoken about us, whether it's to our face or whether it's an anxiety about what's being said behind my back.
Or what ideas are being said behind my back.
One of the many trust psalms, security psalms, within this songbook.
It's a psalm that reflects a deep trust in God.
There's lots of them in the book of Psalms, which I think says to us that we need to be reminded time and again that God is the one who invites us to trust in Him.
Psalm 46, God is our refuge and our strength.
Psalm 124, if God the Lord had not been on our side, then we would have been enveloped.
This week I was reading Psalm 3, which isn't one of the more familiar psalms.
I find it really interesting that whenever the people were compiling the 150 psalms, putting them in their particular order, Psalm 3 was pulled right to the beginning.
So we know from the subtitle that it is a psalm that's to do with when David is in conflict with his son Absalom, so it's towards the end of his reign.
But it's pulled right forward to the beginning.
And I think it's because the compiler knows.
We need to know who is the blessed man, who is the righteous king.
Psalms 1 and 2 is pointing to Jesus.
But also that we need to know that God knows that we will be fearful.
And so right from the beginning, the book of Psalm teaches us when we are fearful, we should run to the Lord.
So we have ideas in Psalm 3.
You are a shield around me.
I can lie down and sleep in peace because the Lord sustains me.
From the Lord comes deliverance.
So the book of Psalms begins with a posture inviting us to deep trust.
And Psalm 62 is no different.
Here we find David in an unidentified set of trials and trouble.
But in the heat of that trial, his hope in God is secure.
And actually, it's a hope that grows both in clarity and confidence as the psalm continues.
And what's really interesting, I think, about this psalm is that we are invited into David's heart.
We hear his internal workings, his reflections.
So he talks both to and about God.
He talks both to and about his enemies to God.
And he also talks to his fellow worshippers, inviting them to trust in God.
And that's a gift because we're worshippers.
And so that includes us.
And the message from David, if we could boil it down effectively, is learn to come and to run to your God and your King.
Come and run to Jesus.
He is the powerful King of steadfast, saving love if we are to find our true rest and security.
So let's look together at these first four verses where we see rest under stress.
Truly, my soul finds rest in God, David begins.
The question in verse 3, how long will you assault me?
So psychologists will tell us that in a situation of stress, a person who is stressed, their focus will narrow.
We will develop something of a tunnel vision.
And that can be a really good or a really bad thing.
I think in David's case we're seeing where it can be a really good thing.
So verses 3 and 4 we begin to see what David's stress is.
That there are cruel men who are on the one hand picking on him in his weakness.
Would all of you throw me down this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
So they sense David's rule is somewhat shaky.
And so there is this determined effort to topple him, picking on him in his weakness.
But also, they pick on him because of his strength.
Verse 4, surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place.
You know that instinct that we can have sometimes, he's the top dog, let's bring him down.
And so David is both being attacked because of his weakness and because of his position of strength.
And what we see are enemies circling with betrayal and lies.
They take delight in lies, he says.
With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse.
False friends.
And so we might naturally expect this is where David would begin.
And maybe this is what we would expect his tunnel vision would lead him to so that all he could see were his opponents surrounding him.
That's what happens, I think, when we live with what's known as the fear of man.
People can become so big in our vision that God can seem small and be blocked from our horizon.
But that's not what happens in David's story.
Because it's not where the psalm begins and it's not where his focus falls.
Rather, the psalm begins with this emphatic certainty.
Truly, my soul finds rest in God.
My salvation comes from him.
Truly, he is my rock and my salvation.
He is my fortress.
I shall never be shaken.
Here's his testimony.
Here's what he knows about God.
Here's what he speaks to God.
In God, I find rest.
There's a wonderful connection.
So in verse 8, if you look down at verse 8, David turns to give advice to the worshippers.
And he says, pour out your hearts to him.
For God is our refuge.
So David knows the wisdom and the goodness of pouring out our hearts, bringing our concerns to God.
But then he also knows there is a time to rest, to wait with silence, to peacefully wait for God's answer.
And so that's where we find David in verse 1.
We find him reflecting on the truth that in God, he is safe and secure.
He is not that fence about to be blown down.
Because he has found God to be his fortress and his shelter.
He has built his foundation on solid rock.
God is his salvation.
So he shall not be shaken and blown down.
If we think about Edinburgh Castle on Castle Rock, we think about those solid walls and those heavy gates.
Imagine if an enemy attacked and the soldiers were behind those walls.
They would still be able to enjoy security because they had found that fortress.
Well, David takes that image to say, I have found my trust in my God.
I am secure in God's salvation.
I am unshakable because my life is established on God, this solid rock.
Like he says in Psalm 3, I can lie down and sleep in peace because God protects me and will deliver me.
He is able to rest under stress because he looks to God and because of what he knows about God.
It's a wonderful testimony.
And this testimony, I think as well, of trust prepares us for a greater king, for King Jesus.
When we read the Gospels and we look at the life of King Jesus, don't we see this same feature that no power of hell, no scheme of man would ever shake Jesus from his steadfast trust.
He was threatened.
People lied about him.
He was betrayed by a false friend.
But nothing would shake his trust in his father and in his father's will.
And he died with that certainty.
Praying into your hands, I commit my spirit.
He knew the battle was over, that his victory had been won, that he would be vindicated, that God's plan of salvation has reached its climax.
And so he faced stress, resting in his father's care and his father's plan.
When we feel distress and sorrow, or we wake up in the middle of the night with panic or with fear,
maybe when we switch on the news and it stresses us out,
we need that tunnel vision that would take us to the right rock and refuge.
That you and I would set our hopes on our strong Savior God.
To know by personal experience what we sang, that through the storms he is, Lord.
That we would hear the invitation of Jesus to come when we're weary, when we're burdened, when we're distressed, and find rest.
That we would turn to our everlasting, never failing, Redeemer God.
So David shows us rest under stress.
And then in the middle verses, wonderful verses, verses 5 to 8,
we see rest that is to be both savored and shared.
I have recently got into cooking in a very small way, and a cooking app in a very small way.
I like it.
You can browse the app.
If you see something that looks nice, you can hit like, and then you can look it up.
You can find the recipe.
You can make the meal.
So it's really nice.
I have a nice set of really appetizing-looking meals.
But 6 o'clock at night, if I just open my app and that's it, that's going to be profoundly unsatisfying.
We know this.
We need to move beyond, here's the recipe to actually having the food prepared and before us.
We need a meal to savor and to enjoy.
When you and I face trouble and stress, David, in that sense, has given us the recipe for rest.
What are the ingredients?
Well, simple.
We need to let God be all our hope.
That's the recipe for being able to rest under stress, that God be all our hope.
But with each new experience of anxiety and stress, we need more than the recipe.
We need to taste and see that the Lord is good.
We need to actually put that into practice.
We need the lived-in personal experience that I can place all my hope in God and I can rest because I trust Him.
I'm safe in His everlasting arms.
And David shows us this.
He shows us that rest is to be savored.
In verses 5 to 7.
Notice, verse 5 is very similar to verse 1, but this time he's speaking to himself.
He's like speaking to the gospel, speaking the gospel to himself.
Yes, my soul.
Here's what you should do, my soul.
Find rest in God.
My hope comes from Him.
Because we know this, I think, that troubles, trials, anxieties, they can redirect us away from God to ourselves or to the circumstance.
They can distract us from our God and from our worship.
And so what David does is really helpful.
He speaks truth to himself to recall those things that he knows to be true.
So once again, he's setting his hope in God alone, calling himself to confident faith.
Our trusting in God, our call to faith is not a one-time thing.
It's an everyday thing.
Every time that we have trouble or we struggle, we need to recall ourselves.
Yes, my soul.
Here's what we need to do.
Find rest in God.
And again, he's determined that what's going to fill his heart and fill his mind, it's not the enemy's circling.
It's not that circle of lies and betrayal.
But it's the God of covenant love.
That's what's going to fill his heart and his mind.
That's who is going to fill his heart and his mind.
And so he again turns to think about his God.
And what truths about God does he savor?
And what truths about God are we invited to savor and to enjoy ourselves, to find rest and security?
Look at verse 5.
You and I should be saying to ourselves as Christians, Jesus is my hope.
Yes, my soul find rest in God.
My hope comes from him.
We talk to ourselves about the cross.
Now we understand that Jesus has secured our salvation.
He has paid the price in full.
That the work of salvation is a finished and accomplished work.
And so we look to the cross to find hope.
But we also talk to ourselves about the promises that we find throughout Scripture.
The promise, for example, of Jesus when he said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
That promise that he would give another comforter, the Spirit, to be in us and to help us and to teach us.
Jesus is our hope.
We talk to ourselves about the reality of future glory.
That Jesus hasn't just guaranteed a victory over our sin.
He guarantees our eternal reward.
That we look ahead to his kingdom being fully established, the new heavens and the new earth.
That's our hope as the people of God.
So we talk to ourselves about the hope we have in Jesus.
Verse 6.
Truly, he is my rock and my salvation.
He is my fortress.
I shall not be shaken.
Jesus is my rock.
We tell ourselves that.
He invites us to do that.
And we'll get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
We'll think about that parable that Jesus tells of the two house builders.
And the one that built their house on the rock when the storm came.
The house stood firm.
And the rock is Jesus' life and Jesus' word.
Jesus' word of promise.
In him, we are safe and secure.
In him, we will make it to the end.
In him, we are never alone.
Verse 7.
New idea.
My salvation and my honor depend on God.
He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
David looked to his God to vindicate him.
We look to Jesus to know that we will be vindicated.
Jesus has died for in our place, bearing all our guilt and shame.
Now, he is risen in honor and victory, vindicated by the Father.
And when we are in him, we share in his honor, victory and vindication.
That's true today.
And it will be true on the final day.
And so, David invites us to recognize that under stress and facing anxiety, we need to speak the gospel again to our souls.
To savor it in our lives, what we discover to be true about God.
But also, this rest, this security is something to be shared.
Verse 8.
Like a good meal that adds joy.
David now turns to talk to his fellow worshipers.
Here is the king, the worship leader.
And what does he say?
Trust in him at all times, you people.
Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
David shares from his own experience for their encouragement, for our encouragement.
You can pour out your hearts to God.
That's a wonderful thing.
He is a refuge.
He is your safe space.
He is your wonderful counselor.
You can trust him completely and find rest, David says to us.
And when you think about it, here is the king.
And so, the people are looking to him.
He is God's man.
And he speaks very personally about how he deals with trouble.
And he shows them his faith.
He shows them his heart.
And he invites them to the same, which is wonderful.
I mentioned Bonhoeffer this morning.
I mentioned him again this evening.
Because he said one of the wonderful things about Christian fellowship is that when we get to a point in our lives, and it does happen.
Maybe it happens often.
When our faith feels weak.
When we're struggling to hold on to Christ and his promises.
When we feel low.
Bonhoeffer says one of the wonderful things about Christian fellowship is that we then have the opportunity to go to our brother and sister in Christ, whose faith is strong.
And we can find hope as we see Christ in them.
As we see their faith in Christ, then our faith can increase.
We gain strength from Christ in one another.
David has found God to be his wonderful counselor.
He wants to be a good counselor to his people by inviting them.
Speak to God about your troubles.
And understand that he is there for you.
It's a wonderful thing.
If we're in a position, we're a privileged position, I think, to help somebody in trials of any kind, it's really important that we can listen well.
That we can ask good questions.
That we can care and show empathy and try and enter in.
But also that we can't listen well.
But also that we would be listening and be listening to the Spirit so that we would know how to gently speak God's truth appropriately.
To point people to find hope in Jesus, the sympathetic high priest.
Jesus, the rock and the refuge.
Well, one last thing to see, and it's the last section, verses 9 to 12, where there's really this invitation to rest in true security.
So, let's imagine ourselves.
It's crunch time again.
We return to that situation that causes us stress.
We find ourselves in a fresh round of trouble or trial.
The people that make life difficult for us or just the next trial that comes along in our path.
And we're faced with another situation of threat.
And so, the question then is, you know, when my rest and my security is being threatened, where will we look?
Where will we look for our help and for our comfort?
And so, as King David continues to want the people of God to look to God alone, he presses us or he invites us to make the same decision as he did.
And to help us to do that, it's as if he pulls out a set of measuring scales.
Those balances.
And he says to us, well, let's weigh our different options in the balance.
Where would we typically look to find comfort?
And how do they stack up in their effectiveness?
Because you see in verses 9 to 12, there's really three options in view.
Probably the three typical places that people will go to.
We need rest and security.
We're feeling stress and anxiety.
Will we turn to other people?
Will we put our hope in riches?
Or will we find our rest in God?
Look at verse 9 and 10.
Verse 9.
Surely the low-born are but a breath.
The high-born are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance, they're nothing.
Together, they're only a breath.
So on the scales between the eternal God and people, he's saying don't look to people in the end to save us and to give us lasting security.
Because compared to God, the eternal, the rock, he says they're weightless.
They're like a breath.
Now this was good news for David as he was confronted by enemies because he's being reminded, here's the perspective.
Compared to the God who will save me, these enemies, they're but a breath.
But it's important for us to recognize the principle that when we find ourselves troubled, we want to find the strongest source of security.
And David says to us, recognize where ultimate reality rests.
He rests in the eternal God.
He wants us to know that no one but Jesus is good enough and strong enough to be our Savior, the one who's always there for us.
The one who will ensure that we will get through to the very end.
The one who is always reliable.
Maybe he also wants us to recognize that if we ask someone else, a person to be a Savior to us,
then we will place way too much expectation on them.
We will place on them a crushing load that no one was ever meant to bear other than our God and Savior.
So when we're looking for ultimate rest and security, we don't look to people, but nor do we look to money.
Verse 10, do not trust in extortion or put vain hope in stolen goods, though your riches increase.
Do not set your heart on them.
Money is a vain hope.
It can provide temporary relief, but not ultimate.
It can provide temporary shelter from some of the trials that we experience.
But it's the contrast between, you know, money is like the pop-up tent, whereas trusting God is a refuge.
That's the fortress.
There's solidity and permanence.
Money can distract us.
It can ease some of our troubles.
But there are things that money can't do, and we know this.
Money can't buy us hope.
Money won't stand the final test.
We can't take our money with us.
And so David very simply wants to say, when we face trouble, don't look for ultimate hope to money or to people.
The two negatives lead David to the great positive.
Verse 11.
One thing God has spoken.
Two things I have heard.
Power belongs to you, God.
And with you, Lord, is unfailing love.
And you reward everyone according to what they have done.
Where is true rest and security found?
Well, David knows, and he tells us.
It's found in the powerful king of covenant love.
It's what he knows by personal experience, and it leads him to worship.
He entrusts himself in the present and in the future for eternal reward to his God and Savior.
And all of us are invited into that same rest and security to trust Jesus as our great and good and powerful and loving king.
The one who himself trusted his God and Father when threatened.
The one whose faith endured beyond betrayal and attack.
The one whose steadfast love led him to the cross to secure and establish the new covenant in his blood.
An unbreakable covenant commitment of God to love and always love his people.
And so the psalm concludes with that invitation to rest and trust in the God of power and unfailing love.
To come unto Jesus and rest in his love.
To find our security with him in God as our father, our rock, and our refuge.