What does it mean when the psalmist asks God to "lead me to the rock that is higher than I" in Psalm 61:2?

To the rock that is higher than the flood, or the storm, or the trouble, or the perplexity, or all that overwhelms—lead, oh, “lead me to the rock that is higher than I”—Wonderful Rock! “Rock of ages,” once cleft and riven to give shelter, indeed, to the sin-burdened soul, now the same Rock of ages risen from the dead, and seated on God’s right hand, the unfailing refuge of every sorrow-tossed heart that seeks only to be led “to” Him. If “I” am small and weak and needy, that Rock is great and strong and secure and everlasting—the “Rock that is higher than I!”

The cry of an outcast whose spirit, though overwhelmed, looks to God as his rock, to save from the floods by which he is surrounded.

(vv. 1-2) The psalmist cries to God from the end of the earth (or “land”). Thus the enemy is in possession of the sanctuary, while the godly man is driven out. Though overwhelmed with distress, the soul sees there is a rock that rises above the floods. In spite of his distress, he is confident that God will lead him to this place of security, for he can say, “Thou wilt lead me on to a rock” (JND).

(v. 3) His confidence in God is the result of his experience of God; for he says, “Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.” He has found in God a shelter from the storm, and a defence against those opposed to him

114 Psalm 61. The soul is still removed from the enjoyment of present blessing. It is at the end of the earth, but looks to God. The heart is overwhelmed within itself. There is no resource within in the pressure of circumstances. Pride may stand up against difficulties and be haughty even in destruction, but this is not the path of the saint. Besides, the fortitude which maintains itself in adverse circumstances has always some result to hope for; but in the circumstances of the saint here before us, there were none. He is driven out and no ground to hope for human deliverance, and pride is far from him. He bows to God's hand; but he has a resource - God leads him to the rock that is higher than he. Faith gets to what is above circumstances, when nature is overwhelmed by them. And if God be for us, who can be against us? God takes an interest in us; we know it; He has shewn it. The heart can look to Him with whom all circumstances are nothing. The heart trusts God and self disappears overwhelmed, as it may be. God is the securer and portion of the believer. AU else is then simply nothing, It is the contrast between God and circumstances, instead of between ourselves and circumstances. God has heard the cry of distressed faith, and, as it trusts now, so will it abide for ever in the tabernacle of God. It is the secret of all peace in trial, the Rock higher than ourselves. The spies saw themselves grasshoppers. Was God so? The walls were up to heaven - what matter when they tumbled flat down?

This confidence in God which calls Him to hear is expressed in Psalm 61. It is not an appeal of the godly man against enemies, but the sinking of his heart as cast out; but, when at the end of the earth and his spirit overwhelmed, he cries to God and looks for a rock higher than himself from this flood. Thus his confidence was restored. It was a known God whom he thus trusted, whatever his then sorrows. In verse 5 he applies it to present certainty of having been heard. The vows he had sent up Godward had reached His ear above; full blessings would rest upon him, and in those blessings he would perform them. Verse 6, doubtless, as to the occasion of it, was David, but it looks, I apprehend, clearly to a greater than he, and the abiding life into which He entered as man; and though the godly remnant be thus driven out and their spirit overwhelmed within them, yet the fact that the King had been so would be a cheer and a security to their hearts: His song would become theirs, His having sung it a relief to them when they might have sunk in despondency. Though the being driven out is the occasion and is felt, the psalm does not refer to wickedness, but to nature, the human heart being overwhelmed.

“From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” David could say in Psalm 61. If his heart were overwhelmed he knew of a rock which no floods could submerge and where he could securely stand if led to it by the mighty hand of God. What relief had his burdened heart in this blessed certainty!

Looking at the Psalm more practically, we find its keynote in the second verse — "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Christian faith may find itself severely tried. God tries it purposely; Satan, again, tempts it: but the heaviness with which the soul of a believer may become acquainted in the secret exercise of his spirit before God tends in its results to more abundant joy in Him. The end of God, in dealing with those who are not bastards but sons (Heb. 12:8), is to acquaint them more perfectly with His own way — to render them more wisely conversant with Him as a Saviour God. While any lurking root of pride, or any unwithered growth of self-righteousness remains unjudged in the soul, God cannot fully manifest Himself in Christ. The heart, when brought truly to a sense of its own helplessness, ceases from itself. The mist which surrounded it then rises, and the glory of Christ as the Rock of its salvation becomes distinctly manifest. God in Christ is found to be a present refuge. Out of weakness is the soul of the believer made strong, when simply given up through Christ into the hands of God. "Lead me." And what the Church now finds will. Israel also find, when, taking words of needy yet faithful prayer upon his lips, he turns again to seek the Lord (Hosea 14). He will then be known as the fruitful dew which shall clothe with the beauty of Lebanon the once dry and sapless branch. Often a believer has to learn the lesson of practical dependence in a painful way. The private aims of the heart are not easily extinguished. Steps are taken and plans are formed which, if allowed to grow to their issue, would remove the soul farther than ever from the presence of God. But the Father of mercies knows how to wither these flowers of our painting, and by reducing the soul to a sense of its intrinsic poverty and weakness, to draw it with renewed earnestness of desire to the Rock which is higher than itself, to find therein its everlasting strength and joy.

In these verses the King speaks as representing the people, who cry out to the Lord in the midst of overwhelming circumstances. Though Israel has been scattered to "the end of the earth," this blessed Intercessor takes His place with the godly who are so scattered, and pleads on their. behalf, "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I" (v. 2). Of course, He speaks as the truly dependent Man, not as He does in His prayer of John 17, where He speaks as the Son of the Father, and therefore, fully equal with the Father.

For God had been a shelter for Him, a strong tower from the enemy (v. 3). This of course was true for Him personally when on earth, and will be true of Him in His identifying Himself with the godly in Israel even through the Tribulation.

This is "To the chief musician, on a stringed instrument, of David." Here it is the soul more than the people and their enemies. And though the heart is overwhelmed, the cry is to God. From the end of the earth is strange and sad for a Jew, but makes no difference to God, Whose chastening is accepted, and His leading to a Rock higher than himself is counted on. go cannot fail, though His people do. Nor does the Spirit look for a refuge only but "the king," not as erst to be rejected, but to abide for ever. So will the godly praise His name for ever, performing vows day by day.

The other word is tsur, a rock, generally sharp and precipitous, 'a place of shelter and security': "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I"; Thou art "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.

The rock was the only safe place for Moses, for otherwise he would have been consumed by the glory of God. There is some important teaching in Scripture about God as the Rock. In Deuteronomy 32 Moses repeatedly spoke about God as the Rock of His people: He was the Rock of their salvation, the Rock who begot them and who fathered them (vv. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31). This picture is also often used in the Psalms. God was the Rock in whom David trusted, and whom he blessed as the God of his salvation (Ps. 18:2, 31, 46). In Him he found a safe place in times of trouble: “In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me: He shall set me up upon a rock” (Ps. 27:5). Psalms 31 (vv. 2-3), 40 (v. 2), and 61 (vv. 2-4) also speak about this place of shelter on the rock.

It is evident that all these passages refer to God Himself as the Rock where David found security and safety. The New Testament believer occupies the same place. For as Christians we rest in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our eternal safety is founded on His finished work. And Christ is also the Rock on which the church is now being built.