With God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
Psalm 62 comes from a man surrounded by enemies. He had learned that no human help was coming, and verse 7 is where that lesson lands: salvation, glory, strength and shelter all sit in God alone.
One word sets the character of this psalm. Older English wording hides it.
We see the special character of Psalm 62 more easily if we notice that one word — "only" — occurs in it no less than six times. Our Authorized Version hides this a little, since it uses "truly" in verse 1 and "surely" in verse 9.
That word marks out a place most people only reach the hard way:
The psalm opens with the soul in trouble, surrounded by enemies. But it has learned the lesson that salvation (deliverance) can only come from God. So the psalmist waits only upon Him. Few of us have not known what it is to turn to human help under the stress of conflict or temptation, and so to lose the blessing of waiting only upon God. The fact is this. We never reach this blessed place of entire dependence until three things have happened. We come to the end of ourselves and of man. Experience shows us how empty all human help is. We are shut up to God alone.
Verse 7 sounds like a repeat of verse 2, but something has shifted between them. One writer reads it as the difference between believing a thing and having proved it.
So we regard verse 7 as experience rather than the language of faith. David had now realised that God was his salvation and his glory, and that the rock of his strength and his refuge was in God. He knew it before. But now he had made his own what he knew, so he was enjoying in the present what his trials had worked out in his soul.
The verse joins two things: rescue, and something to boast about.
"On God rests my salvation and my glory" (v. 7). Not only is salvation from enemies found in God, but He also inspires the vital rejoicing of His people. They glory (or boast) in Him, along with their Messiah. For He is the Rock of their strength and their refuge. In that perfect sanctuary refuge they are safe from all the attacks of the enemy.
Verse 7 calls God a rock. One of the words for "rock" in the Psalms points to a place to hide.
The other word is tsur, a rock, usually sharp and steep. It is "a place of shelter and security": "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I"; You are "my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation." "My God is the rock of my refuge." Ps. 61:2; Ps. 89:26; Ps. 94:22.
(These lines come from an older translation. The ESV of verse 7 reads "my mighty rock, my refuge is God.")
One writer hears a second voice in these words, beyond David's own.
This same rejected King, the disowned Son of David, is heard here too. He is making God everything to Him. He will own no other refuge, or source of strength, but God. God is His rock, His salvation, His glory. His soul waits only upon Him, and all His expectation is from Him.
Verse 2 held something back. By verse 6 that hesitation is gone. The lines below quote an older translation.
"I shall not be greatly moved" (v. 2) had been the words of his mouth; "I shall not be moved" (v. 6) is the assurance of his heart. It is God's battle, so the victory is certain. What a difference confidence about this can make! How often have human calculations of victory turned out to be mistaken! ... Nothing of this kind can be in question where the battle is the Lord's.
The verse is not a private conclusion. It leads straight into an appeal to others.
The soul that finds all its expectation, as well as its salvation, in God stands in a place no enemy can take. Verse 8 shows all that is then needed — to trust in Him at all times, and to pour out the heart before Him in every emergency. Then He proves Himself to be a Refuge.
- Only — the word runs six times through the psalm, and it is the hinge: God alone, to the exclusion of every other hope.
- Only after emptiness — we reach entire dependence only after we have tried human help and found it empty.
- Only then owned — verse 7 is not new information. It is old truth proved in trial and enjoyed now.
- Only He is enough — salvation, glory, strength and shelter all meet in one Rock, a place of shelter and security.
- Only shared — the lesson learned alone turns into an appeal to everyone: trust Him at all times, pour out your heart, He is a refuge for us.
Confide in him at all times, ye people; pour out your heart before him God is our refuge. Selah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.