Homily on Psalm 62 given at Trinity School for Ministry.
Friends, we’ll be contemplating Psalm 62 this morning. If you open up the pew Bible to Psalm 62, you will see that verse 3 looks different than the version we read from the prayer book. Coverdale has the attackers as the broken wall about to be destroyed. Most other translations render the Hebrew so that the psalmist is the fragile one in danger of collapsing. That’s the translation we’ll consider today.
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A few years ago, some Boy Scout leaders – these were adults – videoed themselves dislodging and knocking over a boulder in Utah’s Goblin Valley State Park. It was one of those mushroom formations of sandstone where the supporting rock has eroded so that a smaller stone is supporting a much larger stone. The men said they did it to protect hikers, but their glee in the video says something else.
What is it about us humans that we see a pile of rocks and we want to kick it over. We see an abandoned building and want to throw rocks to hear windows break. We see someone building a house of cards or a sand castle and we want to knock it down?
The psalmist, fragile from trouble, feels needlessly attacked.
“How long will you assail a person,
will you batter your victim, all of you,
as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?”
Jewish commentators attribute this psalm to David when his son Absalom attempts to take the throne.
If you haven’t read 2 Samuel in a while and you like a good ripping story, I commend chapters 13-18 to you. It would make a tremendous screenplay. Like the old TV announcer would say: Betrayal, intrigue, sex, violence. Entertainment for the WHOLE family!
The highlights of the story are that even after Absalom murders his brother (for raping their sister), David lets him live and brings him back to Jerusalem. Absalom endears himself to the people over four years, then when he’s ready, he enacts a coup from Hebron.
David knows his son is capable of murder, so the king and his whole household leave Jerusalem. They cross the Kidron Valley, go over the Mount of Olives, through the Dead Sea Valley and cross the Jordan river.
Yet, David says, My soul is in silence before the LORD. He is my salvation, my fortress, my refuge.
As he’s going along, a relative of King Saul curses David. But David will not let his men punish the one cursing. David allows that the LORD may have a hand in the adversity he is facing. He has faith that God may turn the curses into blessings.
David’s faith in God is not some inner strength from himself. It comes from knowing exactly who God is. David trusts because he knows God. No matter how dark it looks, he knows God is faithful. He knows, not just because he received some prophetic word that seems to be alluded to at the end of the psalm.
He knows because he’s walked with God: from guarding the family sheep from wolves and bears to slaying Goliath to receiving mercy after cuckolding then murdering Uriah, he KNOWS God is faithful and merciful.
My soul waits in silence…. how hard is it to sit in silence today? Most of us can’t. We all have our headphones on flooding our ears with music or podcasts to drown out the cocophony of our anxiety. Wars and rumors of wars. Climate change. Suspect food supply. Tumultuous leaders. Unsettled masses ready to riot. Will I marry? Will I have a job?
My soul waits in silence….. Be still my soul….
How do we know God is faithful? How do we know God is merciful? How do we know that what seems like a dead end is really a cavern of protection, a rock in a desert like the ones David used to hide in when his enemies were hot on his tail.
Because Jesus, Yeshua, literally named Salvation, has shielded us already. He took the death blow we earned, us weak, tottering fences that would collapse with a swift kick. He shielded us from destruction. And in his resurrection, he rebuilds us. ….
He is making us new… eternally shielding us from betraying forces that wish to destroy us.
My soul waits in silence… for his salvation, his deliverance. As he shields us, he rebuilds us, we wait….
We wait for the glimmer on the eastern horizon, we wait to hear the caller shout, “the bridegroom is coming! the bridegroom is coming!” And we know he will come! We know… because he has already died for us. There is no greater love than to give one’s life for his friends. He has called us friends. He is our refuge already!
May our souls wait in silence for him. Amen.