Psalm 62
January 21, 2024
Lord, we want to take you up on your invitation: Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. Renew our trust in you this morning. We admit our frequent lack of trust. In whatever way today fits into at all times for us individually and as a church family, may we trust you today. And may we pour out our heart before you, being honest with you, bringing to you our anxieties, our fears, our concerns, our needs, our circumstances, our weaknesses. For you are indeed our salvation, our hope, our rock, our fortress, our refuge. May we experience you as such, growing deeper in trust, deeper in honest, earnest prayer. Thus may we wait in silence for you, with a spirit that is quiet, a heart that is at rest. May the realities of this psalm, with its multiple angles and insights into what it means to trust you—waiting in silence on the one hand, pouring out our hearts on the other—may these realities sink deep into our lives.
We praise you, Lord Jesus, Son of David, that when you walked this earth, you lived out today’s psalm. Amid deceitful, powerful, murderous enemies, you trusted your heavenly Father at all times, waiting in silence for him, pouring out your heart to him, depending on him as your rock and hope and salvation. All the way to the cross you trusted and obeyed. You proved the truthfulness of this psalm when your Father raised you from the dead. You were perfect in your trust, perfect in your obedience, perfect in the success of your mission to redeem us sinners. Now we rest in the victory you won. What a wonderful Lord and wonderful salvation is ours! We praise you!
May the incisive wisdom of your word here about human nature instruct us—perhaps especially as we have now launched into an election season. All human beings, whether of low or high estate, wherever they are found on the socio-politico-economic spectrum, are but a breath—deceptively powerful, deceptively trustworthy. From your point of view, and seen in light of you, human beings are fleeting in their longevity, inadequate in their capabilities, dishonest in their integrity, contemptuous in their relationships, greedy in their desires, quick to trust any number of things other than you. In this election year may we not trust in politicians or political processes or political ideals. May we trust in you. And in our affluent society, may we not set our hearts on the riches you have given to us. We feel their lure; may we not be deceived by them.
Yet you do tell us to pray for our leaders, so we do that this morning. We lift up to you our president, his cabinet, the members of congress, our Supreme Court justices. We remember our governor and state legislature. We think of the leaders of our local communities and school districts. Give all these individuals wisdom. Guide their hearts and their decisions. Grant stability in our land so that the gospel can be readily shared. Whatever the faults, frailties, and frustrations of our political processes and our political leaders in this election year, it is you who ultimately place over us the persons of your sovereign choice. Exercise your wisdom, carry out your good plans, be Lord over this year’s elections, whether local, state, or national. And whatever happens politically this year, Lord Jesus, train us, refine us, equip us as your disciples so that we reflect in our society your superior beauty, value, wisdom, and trustworthiness. Through our skillful witness, in the power of your Spirit, may others this year turn to you and for the very first time, truly call you Lord. May the wind of your Spirit you’re your gospel blow steadily and fruitfully in and through our lives, in and through our church, even as we are learning in the book of Acts. Keep teaching us.
And because of our risen Lord Jesus, all God’s people said, “Amen!”