#DailyDevotion Are You Trusting God To Be Your Rock, Salvation, Fortress, Refuge and Glory?
Psalm 62 5Surely my heart is calm before God, for He gives me hope. 6He alone is my Rock and my Savior, my Mountain Refuge where I’ll not be shaken. 7The Most High God is my Salvation and Glory; God is my strong Rock and my Shelter. 8Trust Him always, you people! Pour out your hearts before Him. God is our Shelter.
Verse 5 is a a repeat of verse 1. Our heart can be calm before God when God is our hope. When God alone is our Rock, our Savior, and our Mountain Refuge we won’t be shaken when times are tough. Have you turned to God to be these things for you. Looking at David’s life who writes this, it doesn’t mean everything is going great for you at the moment. Whether it was the Philistines, Saul (his father in law) or Absalom (his son), David has a lot of negative stuff going on in his life. He casts his hope on the One who is the Rock, Salvation and Mountain Refuge. This isn’t any easier for him than it is for you. Even Jesus in the Garden casts His hope on God the Father as He prays with drops of sweat like blood.
He then proclaims God is his Salvation and his Glory. He does not look to himself for these things. He looks to God alone. Glory is added to the previous claim. David trusts the LORD is his glory. It is God’s glory to be the trust of man. When God finally delivers us from our troubles, God gets the glory. That glory is shared with us because our trust is in him.
In parallel to that, God is David’s strong Rock and Shelter (Machesh). Just as glory is added to Salvation, now Shelter is added to Rock. Machesh can also be trust, hope, shelter and refuge. These two verses encourage us to make God our Glory and our Shelter. God does not want us looking anywhere else nor to anyone else to be these things in times of trouble. He will not disappoint us if we make Him these things to us in our hearts.
9Mortal men are only a breath, even important men a delusion. When they are weighed the scales rise; they are altogether less than a vapor. 10Don’t trust to get anything by extortion or scheme to get anything by robbery. When you get rich, don’t rely on it.
In opposition to having God as our Rock, Salvation, Mountain Fortress, Glory and Shelter, men trust in things that are not dependable. Mortal men, even important men, will fail you. In our day, trusting in government to fix our problems is foolish. Whether from the right or left, both are but a vapor, less than a vapor. We’re not to trust in extortion, schemes, or robbery (even by the hand of government). It will only backfire on us. We should not trust our wealth if we achieve it. It is just as fleeting as mortal men and all our machinations. All these things are idolatry. Idols are less than nothing.
11God said it once, twice I heard it: “Power belongs to God.” 12And to You, O Lord, belongs kindness, for You pay a man according to what he does.
Power belongs to God. Look to Him alone. Adonai, to Him belongs kindness and mercy(chesed). In this chesed He makes right, He recompenses a man according to what he has done. I think here David is referring to his trusting in God alone which pairs best with chesed. On the other hand, God is being merciful to David by paying back those who cause him all this trouble. God will also be merciful to you as well when you put your trust in God alone to be your Rock, Salvation, Fortress, Refuge and Glory.
Almighty God, our Rock, Salvation, Fortress, Refuge and Glory, all power belongs to You and we trust You to be these things to and for us in good times and in bad. Keep us faithful to You so we may experience Your kindness when You act. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.