As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved.
David is remembering here, not boasting: he quotes the confident man he used to be, before God hid His face. The psalm asks what an easy life does to the heart, and where a person should rest when everything looks firm.
His confidence was real, but it rested on his circumstances instead of on God.
(vv. 6-10) The verses that follow give the psalmist's experiences. In the day of his prosperity he trusted his circumstances and forgot God. So he had said, "I shall never be moved." He learned, however, that even though his circumstances were as firm as a mountain, this was entirely owing to the favour of the Lord. The Lord had only to hide His face. In a moment he found himself in trouble, despite the apparent security of his circumstances.
The next verse traces that strong mountain back to God's favour. But which mountain does David mean?
David was a man of faith who had learned many things through the trials of the First Book of Samuel. But when he wrote the thirtieth Psalm as the "dedication-song of the house," all those experiences were already behind him. "Jehovah, by Your favour You had made my mountain to stand strong" (v. 7). This is not Mount Zion, the mountain of God, which cannot be shaken; here he is speaking of himself and the human resources that are his from God. If these resources fail us, what will the state of our souls be?
Crediting God for the mountain does not cure the danger. One writer says the credit can even deepen it.
How hard it is to have a mountain standing strong and not put our confidence in it! And if the heart traces this to the favour of God, all the more may it become a snare. It becomes a false confidence that comes in between the heart and direct confidence in the Lord. And how hard it is to give up this (real or supposed) "favour," attached as it is to what makes something of us! Privileges, circumstances, experiences — we cling to them, only to find they fail us in the day of trial. Everything is allowed to be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Hard times are not the only school. One writer sets David beside Job.
On our path through this world we may face seasons of adversity or times of prosperity, and each one tests us. In adversity we may be tempted by the devil to lose confidence in God and question His ways of love. In prosperity we may grow self-confident and forget God. So Job was tested by adversity, and David by prosperity.
If the mountain has quietly taken God's place, something has to move it. One writer traces the trial that follows to a Father's hand.
We are apt to rest in these things and say with the psalmist, "In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by Your favour You have made my mountain to stand strong." We let these things come in between our hearts and the Lord, and so they become a snare to us. This is why chastening is needed. Our Father, in His faithful love and care, is watching over us; He sees the danger and He sends trial in one form or another.
David's words are not only a believer's slip. Jesus told a story about a rich man who reasoned the same way.
How common it is that prosperity seems to encourage us to make our prosperity our confidence! We grow so sure that we "shall never be moved." The same principle drove the rich man of Luke 12:16-21, who said, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." Yet the very day he said it, the Lord told him, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you."
There is a place where "I shall never be moved" is true. What changes is not the blessing but what the heart rests on.
David said, "I shall never be moved. Lord, by Your favour You have made my mountain to stand strong. You hid Your face, and I was troubled." When his mountain was gone, he found that he had been trusting in his mountain and not in the Lord. When he says, "The Lord is my shepherd," there was no being moved, for he was resting in the Lord Himself.
- Gift. The mountain stood strong by God's favour — David did not build that security, and he learned it only afterwards.
- Drift. The gift slid into God's place; commentators note this can happen even while the heart is crediting the favour to Him.
- Test. Prosperity tests a person as much as loss does: adversity tested Job, prosperity tested David.
- Shaking. In faithful care the Father sends trial — He lets everything shakeable be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken remains.
- Rest. Rest on the blessing and it will fail you in the day of trial; rest in the Shepherd Himself, and "I shall never be moved" becomes true.
Jehovah, by thy favour thou hadst made my mountain to stand strong thou didst hide thy face; I was troubled.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.