Psalm 62

Here are my public notes on Psalm 62: I get to preach this remarkable Psalm in a series my church is doing, and I have the luxury of 12 weeks to prepare! So I get to dig into it more than usual, doing deeper devotional sermon prep from before the dawn of deadlines.

[UPDATE: Sermon preached, Nov 1. Here’s video. It’s a funny experience to spend months in a Psalm and then try to deliver a meaningful single sermon on it. Even in a congregation that appreciates 45-minute sermons, it feels like leaving everything out. But I know it was good for me to sit with the Psalm for a long season, and I trust that it informed what I was able to impart to the church.]

I’m going to be preaching this as a Sola psalm: ONLY in God, in God ALONE. There’s some fancy footwork there on the translation “Alone” (see below; LXX & Vulg didn’t catch it well; KJV is too subtle about it), but I’m not actually hanging my interpretation on a key word. Rather, the entire Psalm strongly contrasts God with the world, and urges total devotion to God. I’ll be presenting its theology and spirituality in Reformation idiom, as a guide to the great, shared, theocentric “sola” that underlies all the familiar Reformation solas. (We might say in solo Deo, or Solus Deus.)

A couple of sermonic concerns. Though my reading and notes range expansively, and I’m freeeee to chase whatever interests me in this astonishing region of God’s word, the goal is to produce one helpful sermon for my church. I’ve already sketched out a probable sermon outline. So provisionally, I already know that my sermon won’t spend equal time on each verse, but will focus on the opening blast, then move to the “balance scales” imagery near the end, and draft off of the whole Psalm’s broad flow of thought. So these public notes focus on those aspects.

Another sermonic consideration: I’ll be preaching sermon 9 in a 12-week series called “A Song for Every Season,” which pairs up a personal situation (when I am afraid, when I am grieving, when I have sinned, etc) with an appropriate Psalm. I love this series plan! Really looking forward to being in the Psalms this way with my church, and learning from the other preachers in our team-preaching approach. In that context, I’m preaching Psalm 62 as the place to go “when I am overwhelmed.” So while the word of God is the boss and gets to say whatever it says, we are approaching it from the angle of believers in danger of being overwhelmed.

A soteriological movement:
Verse 1: my salvation is from God
Verse 2: God is my salvation
Verse 6: God is my salvation
Verse 7: my salvation is in God (or on God, or rests or depends on him)

ONLY (‘ak): First word in six of the 12 verses
1 only to God
2 only he is rock
4 only from high position they thrust (more “surely” than “only” here)
5 only for god
6 only he is rock
9 only a vapor is man

Divine names: The Psalm’s strategy is to balance persecution on the one hand with God on the other hand. So the series of divine names functions as a counterweight to the evils: God, rock, refuge, salvation, fortress. These titles are to be meditated on. (Rock in particular deserves close study; check out Deut 32’s use of it in 4, 15, 18, 30-31.)

Ancient Commentators

Eusebius of Caesarea (q about authenticity here) Greek-English columns here; PG transcribed here (p. 195). An interesting take on the superscription: “David, having composed the psalm on behalf of Jeduthun, handed it over to him to meditate upon and to use in place of an incantation for healing, when a certain misfortune had befallen him.” (ἀντὶ ἐπῳδῆς χρῆσθαι εἰς θεραπείαν) I take this to mean “Don’t use magic spells; meditate on Psalms.” Eusebius also finds a lot of links between the bad situations in this Psalm and in Psalm 38, also for Jeduthun: “If at your leisure you were to place side by side and compare the expressions contained in both of the specified psalms, would find that they hold one and the same meaning. David, therefore, seems to have handed down a therapeutic teaching (διδασκαλίαν θεραπευτικὴν) to Jeduthun when he had fallen into some temptation.” This really dominates Eusebius’ commentary. He envisions Jeduthun having lapsed, then recovered, and now preaching to himself “shall my soul not now be in subjection to God alone ad not to man?” Eusebius directs readers to see his theology of Jeduthun at Psalm 38, and he wonders why these only two Jeduthun Psalms aren’t side by side. He also admits it would be reasonable to think of Jeduthun as the author; he encourages readers to decide for themselves.

Eusebius points out that in the words “In God is my salvation…” we find the name of Jesus, which “in the Hebrew tongue…is written with the same characters.”  He goes on: “As if the meaning from the Hebrew tongue were set down more clearly in the interpretation, it would thus contain: Jesus, being my salvation in God, and in the bosom of the Father, He is my glory and my guardian, and the God of my help, and my hope which is in God. For the Word of God is all these things to those who hope in Him.”

When the Psalmist turns to exhortation (“Hope in him, all ye people”), Eusebius remarks, “He perceived that the Salvation would not only be therapeutic for himself, but would become a common good; wherefore he calls everyone together unto it, turning away from self-love (φιλαυτίαν), and displaying love for humanity (φιλανθρωπίαν) and love toward one’s neighbors.”

I’m not entirely sure where, in the Psalm itself, Eusebius perceives the idea of healing. He introduced it way back when he claimed that the Psalm was for healing Jeduthun after a calamity. And here in the exhortation to others, he develops it at length: “Thus, as those who are free from care in Him and anchored in hope, it is fitting for them to unfold their thoughts and lay bare the passions of their soul before Him as before a physician. Wherefore he adds: ‘Pour out your hearts before Him; God is our helper.’ For, he says, because you have a helper, withhold nothing, nor hide anything in your minds; but having thrown open the storehouses of the soul, reveal the thoughts hidden within it, entrusting yourselves to Him who alone is good and able to heal all things.”

A nice canonical connection tp Ecclesiastes at verse 9: “Since all the sons of men—even if they seem to be rulers, and even if they possess great power in this life—are fleeting; or according to Symmachus, ‘vapor,’ soon to become ‘like chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth.’ Hence Solomon, having benefited from his father, wrote: ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,’ and whatever else is like this.” And in the conclusion, a reference to the whole canon: ” For God has spoken once, but I have heard these two things; for he spoke both through prophets, and he spoke through apostles; and the one word that was once ordained by God I heard both through the Old Testament and through the New.”

Augustine sermon is about 7k words, but not his best work. Much attention to establishing the legitimacy of “head and members” exegesis; much about thirst; much about the city. There’s bound to be good stuff in here, but on this Psalm he’s got an unstable link to the text.

Hilary of Poitiers Tractatus super Psalmos Hilary begins with a brief statement of the purpose of the Psalm: It instructs its user in the three things by which “the state of a blessed and eternal life is assured…piety toward God, patience in adversity, and contempt of wealth.” (pietas in deum … et patientia in aduersis et contemptus opulentim). (208) He then sketches out a kind of natural universal history of the quest for God: “The prophet begins this confession of God out of the common experience of mankind. After the long night of ignorance; after the ambiguous and uncertain teachings of human opinions; after the vain speculations of diverse religions…” wise men found God and his Son, and now ask with the Psalmist, “Shall my soul not be subject unto God?”

Hilary’s trinitarian stuff here is odd. I ain’t trackin’.

JM Neale‘s catena., including liturgical usages.

Bear in mind that for early writers (and esp. the illuminated manuscript tradition), ps 62=ps 61 because of lxx psalm numbering, and the prominent Latin opening line is “Nonne deo subjecta.”

Reformation Commentators

Luther (Luther’s Works Vol 14; Selected Psalms part III). Ten pages. GOOD, lots of attention to haters and meanies. (Recall that Luther is Mr. Mighty Fortress, which is based on Psalm 46 but the key word occurs here as well: 62:7, mahseh, refuge, feste burg)

Calvin (quoted on Kraus p. 14) The Psalm begins abruptly: “We know that the Lord’s people cannot always reach such a measure of composure as to be wholly exempt from distraction. They would wish to receive the word of the Lord with submission…but inordinate affections will take possession of their minds, and break in upon that peace which they might otherwise attain to.” The Hebrew particle ‘k, ach, is often used in an exclusive sense, and has been rendered by some, only; it is also employed in an affirmative sense, and has been rendered truly, or certainly. But in order to arrive at its full meaning, we must suppose that David felt an inward struggle and opposition, which he found it necessary to check.” The expression in the close of the verse, I shall not be greatly moved, implies his persuasion that he might be overtaken with afflictions, (for he was well aware that he could claim no exemption from the common lot of humanity,) but his conviction, at the same time, that these would not overwhelm him, through the good help of God. ” Nevertheless, my soul, be thou silent before God. Here there may appear to be a slight inconsistency, inasmuch as he encourages himself to do what he had already declared himself to have done. His soul was silent before God; and where the necessity of this new silence, as if still under agitation of spirit? Here it is to be remembered, that our minds can never be expected to reach such perfect composure as shall preclude every inward feeling of disquietude, but are, at the best, as the sea before a light breeze, fluctuating sensibly, though not swollen into billows. 7. In God is my salvation One expression is here heaped upon another and this apparently because he wished to rein that infirmity of disposition which makes us so prone to slide into wrong exercise. We may throw out a passing and occasional acknowledgement, that our only help is to be found in God, and yet shortly display our distrust in him by busying ourselves in all directions to supplement what we consider defective in his aid. The various terms which he employs to express the sufficiency of God as a deliverer, may thus be considered as so many arguments to constancy, or so many checks which he would apply to the waywardness of the carnal heart, ever disposed to depend for support upon others rather than God. the meaning of David will then be, that he considered the Word of God in the light of a decree, steadfast and irreversible, but that, as regarded his exercise in reference to it, he meditated upon it again and again, lest the lapse of time might obliterate it from his memory. But the simpler and preferable reading would seem to be, that God had spoken once and again.   

Spurgeon‘s Treasury of David. Very good! “rom the sixfold use of the word ac or only, we have been wont to call it THE ONLY PSALM.”

“The original is, “only to God is my soul silence.” The presence of God alone could awe his heart into quietude, submission, rest, and acquiescence; but when that was felt, not a rebellious word or thought broke the peaceful silence.” “It is an eminent work of grace to bring down the will and subdue the affections to such a degree, that the whole mind lies before the Lord like the sea beneath the wind, ready to be moved by every breath of his mouth, but free from all inward and self caused emotion, as also from all power to be moved by anything other than the divine will. We should be wax to the Lord, but adamant to every other force.” “Our salvation in no measure or degree comes to us from any inferior source; let us, therefore, look alone to the true fountain, and avoid the detestable crime of ascribing to the creature what belongs alone to the Creator.”  “I shall not be greatly moved. His personal weakness might cause him to be somewhat moved; but his faith would come in to prevent any very great disturbance…  Moved, as one says, “but not removed.”

“How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? It is always best to begin with God, and then we may confront our enemies.” Spurgeon’s version says the enemies are a bulging wall; Dr. Kay of Calcutta says the faithful is. ” We have, however, kept to our own version as yielding a good and profitable meaning. Both senses may blend in our meditations…”

“He only is my rock and my salvation. …. We cannot too often hear the toll of that great bell only; let it ring the death knell of all carnal reliances, and lead us to cast ourselves on the bare arm of God.” “The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. He multiplies titles, for he would render much honour to the Lord, whom he had tried, and proved to be a faithful God under so many aspects. Ignorance needs but few words, but when experience brings a wealth of knowledge, we need varied expressions to serve as coffers for our treasure.” “Observe how the psalmist brands his own initials upon every name which he rejoicingly gives to his God—my expectation, my rock, my salvation, my glory, my strength, my refuge; he is not content to know that the Lord is all these things; he acts faith towards him, and lays claim to him under every character.” “Ye people, pour out your heart before him. Ye to whom his love is revealed, reveal yourselves to him. His heart is set on you, lay bare your hearts to him. Turn the vessel of your soul upside down in his secret presence, and let your inmost thoughts, desires, sorrows, and sins be poured out like water…To keep our griefs to ourselves is to hoard up wretchedness.”

Hebel: “As the first son of Adam was called Abel or vanity, so here we are taught that all the sons of Adam are Abels.” “And men of high degree are a lie. That is worse. We gain little by putting our trust in the aristocracy, they are not one whit better than the democracy: nay, they are even worse, for we expect something from them, but get nothing. May we not trust the elite? Surely reliance may be placed in the educated, the chivalrous, the intelligent? For this reason are they a lie; because they promise so much, and in the end, when relied upon, yield nothing but disappointment.” 

“God hath spoken once. So immutable is God that he need not speak twice, as though he had changed; so infallible, that one utterance suffices, for he cannot err; so omnipotent, that his solitary word achieves all his designs. We speak often and say nothing; God speaks once and utters eternal verities. All our speaking may yet end in sound; but he speaks, and it is done; he commands, and it stands fast. Twice have I heard this. Our meditative soul should hear the echo of God’s voice again and again.” “We have two ears, that we may hear attentively, and the spiritual have inner ears with which they hear indeed. He hears twice in the best sense who hears with his heart as well as his ears.”

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (from others) in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David: “There is in it throughout not one single word (and this is a rare occurrence), in which the prophet expresses fear or dejection; and there is also no prayer in it…” Moses Amyraut, 1596-1664 ” They trust not God at all who trust him not alone. He that stands with one foot on a rock, and another foot upon a quicksand, will sink and perish, as certainly as he that standeth with both feet upon a quicksand.” John Trapp If my rock, what storm shall shake me? If my salvation, what melancholy shall defeat me? If my glory, what calumny shall defame me? John Dunne.  How quickly the soul of the faithful returns again to the God of its confidence. He spared a moment to admonish the ungodly, but like the dove of Noah he returns to the ark. Observe how the expressions of this holy confidence are repeated, with every pleasing variety of expression, to denote the comfort of his heart. Reader, ask yourself—are such views of Christ your views of him? Do you know him in those covenant characters? Is Jesus your rock, your salvation, your defence? Robert Hawker, D.D. There are several names of God given in this verse, that so every soul may take with him that name which may minister most comfort to him.  Abraham Wright

See also Spurgeon’s own sermon 144 on 62:5. html pdf when he said, “My soul wait thou only upon God.” He meant, My soul, have no care but to please God. …etc.

Alexander MacLaren! So good. Mostly just quotes: Opening move is to point out that v1 and v5 are practically the same, but: “the one expresses the Psalmist’s patient stillness of submission, and the other is his self-encouragement to that very attitude and disposition which he has just professed to be his. In the one he speaks of, in the other to, his soul.” The opening exclamation: “The Psalmist bursts into song with a word, which tells us plainly enough how much had to be quieted in him before he came to that quiet waiting…” “That one word is the record of conflict and the trophy of victory, the sign of the blessed effect of effort and struggle in a truth more firmly held, and in a submission more perfectly practised. It is as if he had said, ‘Yes! in spite of all its waywardness and fears, and self-willed struggles, my soul waits upon God. I have overcome these, and now there is peace within.’” “literally the words run, ‘My soul is silence unto God.’ That forcible form of expression describes the completeness of the Psalmist’s unmurmuring submission and quiet faith. His whole being is one great stillness, broken by no clamorous passions, by no loud-voiced desires, by no remonstrating reluctance.”

“That silence is first a silence of the will. The plain meaning of this phrase is resignation; and resignation is just a silent will.” “A man’s will should be an echo, not a voice; the echo of God, not the voice of self.” 

“Who among us dare to take these words as the expression of our own experience?” “This man’s profession of utter resignation is perhaps too high for us; but we can make his self-exhortation our own. ‘My soul! wait thou only upon God.’” A few thoughts on “the necessity for conscious effort and self-encouragement, in order to the preservation of the highest religious emotion.” No religious feelings are permanent; they need tending. etc. 

Note from Modern Commentaries

Artur Weiser (Psalms: A Commentary, Westminster Press, 1962) is highly recommended by Tate as the best on Psalm 62, is free online at Archive. Some notes: “Yea, my soul is still unto God.” “His confession, ‘My soul is still only if turned to God’, arises out of the very midst of that affliction the gravity of which the poet by no means conceals from himself. This confession, which is the fruit of the wrestling of his soul in prayer, is in itself one of the finest testimonies in the Psalms to the true spirit of prayer. 446” “He attains not only peace of mind, but the right standard and sound judgment on which alone one can rely in life, so that he is also enabled to become the leader of the other members of the community, one who can, out of his own experience, give them advice and help.” 447 On the structure: The intensity of the author’s struggle and the spiritual force latent in the situation have found expression even in the form of the psalm. Here formal features from various types of song illustrate in a quite clearly discernible fashion that it is not the form which dominates the subject-matter, but that the living substance chooses and creates its specific forms. Thus in vv. 1-8 the note of trust predominates, whereas the song’s second part changes over to the patterns of exhortation and Wisdom poetry. The directness of the emotions expressed is also the reason for the poem’s lack of a well-proportioned structure. It is only towards the end of the psalm that the calm note which is sounded can be accounted for by the strength which the psalmist has acquired by his peace of mind and by his self-control based on trust in God, and which is also manifested in the sound judgment he is able to pass on the situation. The psalm does not provide any particular clues which would make it possible to date it.” 447 and “As often in the Psalms, so here, too, the main fundamental idea of the whole hymn is stated at the beginning, thereby laying down right from the outset the main trend of the thoughts to be developed in the psalm. The poet has concentrated his thoughts on God by exerting his mental faculties to the utmost and, having opened up his heart to God in prayer, has turned his whole inner being to God. He has abandoned his search for human help and has completely entrusted himself to his God. Now he becomes still, whereas previously he had been tormented by thoughts and doubts which had made him restless. He now clearly sees from whom alone his salvation comes.” 448 “From a purely human point of view he is fully conscious of the hopelessness of his calamitous situation, seeing, as he does, that all his former friends assail him, a single man, as if he were a leaning wall, a cracked fence which might collapse at any moment.” 448 “[5—6] And yet he does not allow these sentiments to become his master. This is the result of the fact that he has reached a position enabling him to ignore every kind of trouble which man may try to bring upon him and every kind of human untrustworthiness, the position of having peace of mind and of feeling secure, gifts granted him as he focused his thoughts on God in faith.” 449 and “In the presence of God the things which are emphasized and the standards which are employed are entirely different from those which usually carry weight in ordinary life. In the face of the majesty of God the glory of man shrinks into an ephemeral nothingness; before God man is but a breath which cannot be relied on.” 451 and “. [11-12] In contrast, the closing portion of the psalm once more states the true viewpoint and the standard which alone is valid because it derives its rules from God.” 452 and “The whole content of the revelation of God in the cult of the Covenant is contained in the two statements in which that knowledge is expressed : power belongs to God, and it is he who bestows grace upon man. It is in the union of power and grace that the essential nature of the Old Testament belief in God is truly expressed ; for power without grace does not admit of any trust, and grace without power is deprived of its ultimate seriousness.” 452

Hymns: 1 * For example, ‘Meine Seele ist in der Stille’, ‘Zu Gott sei deine Seele still’; and perhaps also ‘Harre meine Seele, harre des Herrn’, a hymnal prayer by Friedrich Rader (1815-1872).

Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150: A Continental Commentary (Augsburg Press, 1989; from 5th German edition 1978), 11-16.

“If in the interpretation of Psalm 62 we begin with the fact that Yahweh has spoken (v. 11a), that the psalmist has received an ‘oracle of salvation’ (vv 11-12), we would have to understand vv 1-7 on the basis of that event.” .

Félix Asensio, S.J. (1909–1998), “Teología bíblica de un tríptico: Salmos 61, 62 y 63,” Estudios Biblicos 21 (1962), 111-125. This is the only source cited in Kraus’ Psalm 62 bibliography. I find it suggestive but not conclusive. Arsenio claims that these three psalms form a triptych. Certain themes and terms are introduced in 61, developed in 62, and brought to a climax in 63. These themes include a personal faith that is challenged but steadfast; God as refuge/rock/shelter; dwelling in God’s presence; and the paired attributes of power and lovingkindness. Asenio sees Psalm 63 as the “mystical union” high point, but also admits that 62 is clearest about God being personally identified as the one who simply is salvation and refuge. It’s interesting to me that the links between 61 and 63 are clearest, and 62 is the poor fit. Tabernacles and sanctuaries are absent in 62, but God is the rock. ‘King” is not explicit in 62, but Asenio intuits in the “heights” of verse 5 (Asenio wrote a long study on kingship in the Psalms). There are divine wings in 61 and 63, but not in 62–or maybe 61 and 63 are the wings around 62. There is plenty here to meditate on fruitfully, and reading Psalm 62 in dialogue with other Psalms sets up a kaleidescope of reconfigurations. But the assertion that this particular sequence of Psalms has a special triadic unity is not convincing.

Standout Commentator: John Hooper (1495-1555)

“Certeine Comfortable Expositions of the Constant Martyr of Christ, M. Iohn Hooper, Bishop of Glocester and Worcester written in the time of his tribulation and imprisonment, vpon the XXIII. LXII. LXXIII. and LXXVII. Psalmes of the prophet Dauid.” How to read it? Here is the 1580 version, with archaic spellings, in html (EEBO/TCP); I can’t find the pdf of that printing, but here is a later printing, 1830, with good printing and normalized spelling scanned at Internet Archive. Footnote form for that is Writings of Dr. John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester (London: Religious Tract Society, 1830).

These “comfortable” (that is, comforting) expositions mean business. Hooper wrote these “in the time of his tribulation and imprisonment” leading up to his gruesome execution under Queen Mary. So Hooper has a keen ear for what Psalm 62 says to someone in affliction: He summarizes its argument by saying “the prophet…declares, by his own experience, how the truth of God’s word” gets treated in the world: It is “rejected, and the lovers thereof slandered and persecuted.” (290) Hooper says that David “in this psalm…writes his own condition and miseries, with certain and most comfortable remedies, by which ways the afflicted person may best comfort himself, and pass over the bitterness and dangers of his troubles.” If you notice that only four of the Psalm’s 12 verses are about afflictions, you might find this summary a bit slanted. But Hooper was under terrible affliction, and soon to die. You might say he was tuned in to this Psalm from a privileged position, with sharpened alertness, and that his experience gave him a key that fit the lock especially well. If we approach the Psalm from a less desperate situation, we owe Hooper the benefit of the doubt as a commentator. He may be hearing things that are really there but that we cannot hear so well.

If Hooper is right, then “whosoever, from the feeling of his heart can say this psalm, and use the remedies prescribed therein by the Spirit of God; doubtless he shall be able to bear the troubles both of doubtless he shall be able to bear the troubles both of the devil and man patiently, and contemn them strongly.” (290)

Hooper’s outline is (1) The Favor and Help of God: Powerful (vv 1-8) and (2) The Favor and Help of Man: Useless (vv 9-12). (He then offers a sixfold outline that does more justice to the various parts.)

All christians and afflicted persons, saith the prophet, follow mine example, and put all your hope and
trust in the mercy of God, who only saves us from evil, and blesses us with all goodness. Pour out, therefore, all your cares and heaviness before him, and look assuredly for help from him, for, doubtless, the help of man is nothing worth. (293)

Hooper starts by defining “what it is for a man to have his soul waiting still upon God; or else to have silence always in his soul towards God… as this Psalm speaks.” (293) Here’s the definition: When the soul “without grudge or impatience looks for the help of God, and gives not himself to quarrelling or complaining of God, as though he did him wrong, and punished him too much, then the soul waits upon the Lord.” (294) He provides key examples (Job, David).

But no sooner has he defined this wonderful stillness of the soul than he admits it is only present “sometimes.” At those times, a troubled saint has “such constant and strong faith, that it makes all sorrows and troubles rather pleasant and sweet.” (294) “At another time,” though, the same saints feel their troubles to be “so heinous and grievous, that the burden of them is as great a pain as death, not only in unquieting the body, but also in very sore vexing of the spirit” and racing, turbulent thoughts. (294) We have much to learn from “this diversity of increase and decrease of faith and hope” among “holy men and women before our time.” For one thing, if we were tempted to think these saints were just naturally strong and steady in faith, their ups and downs show us that “faith and hope are not natural qualities in man.” (295) Rather, faith and hope are always a miracle of divine help, “the merciful gifts of God given unto man for Christ’s sake, and wrought by the Holy Ghost above man’s deservings.” (295)

For another thing, we learn that these virtues “are not at all times of like condition and strength in man,” so that “now and then” things simply will not be clear to us. (295; this paragraph deserves closer reading as Hooper ponders the various ends which God seeks in trials.)

Standout Commentator: Robert Rollock (1555-1599)

Robert Rollock, An Exposition Upon Some Select Psalms of David. Translated by Charles Lumisden. Edinburgh: Printed by Robert Waldegrave, 1600.

How to read it? Here it is in html (EEBO/TCP; here is the scanned book at Internet Archive (the pdf is from microfilm and is a whopping 220megs; the page may load slowly and you may not want to download the file); here it is in the original Latin (T.F. Torrance’s copy! The Geneva printer notes in the pious intro that Rollock wrote no intro, so the printer has added a patristic florilegium in praise of the Psalms –it’s a good one, too).

Rollock leads with a helpful structural note about David’s speech: “First he gloryeth of his assurance in God: Then he gloryeth against his enemies: Thirdly, hee returneth to that former glorying.” (352) ABA, such that A predominates; so the Psalm begins and ends in God, with a little sally out to apply the theocentric lesson to the pressing question of the enemies.

“My soule onely is at rest in God.” Rollock wrote in Latin; not usually the Vulgate (see preface to Select Works), but rather Tremellius-Junius. So he is looking at “Tantummodo in Deo conquiescit anima mea” and goes on to remark “Verbum ipsum Hebraeum significat silere, quod noster interpres vertit, acquiescere,” that is, “The Hebrew worde it selfe signifieth to bee silent, which our interpreter turneth to be at rest.” Because he attends to this link between rest and silence, Rollock explains that David can speak aloud about his silence: “Doth now his soule keepe silence; when notwithstanding wee see, that hee vttereth out these speeches?” Yes, because “silence” doesn’t mean soundlessness, but is rightly interpreted as being at rest before God. (Contrast “My soul makes noise within me;” Rollock quotes this without citing it as Ps 42:5.)

Rollock offers an outline of the Psalm’s arguments, and this outline also beautifully centers on God:

“Then there are three arguments, wherfore his soule taketh rest in God. The first is, because God is the author of his salvation: Then drawing neere to God himselfe, and not content with this his benefite alone, except hee possesse God him self, and sit vpon him as it were a rocke or mountaine: He is / only my rocke, (sayth he) &c. The third argument, is the effect of the second. I shall not be mooued…” (353/4)

There is a personalist impulse here at the heart of the psalm: “God himselfe,” and not just the benefit of salvation. Rollock insists on this: the benefit of salvation is a good reason to rest in God, but the soul must press on from gift to giver, “drawing neere to God himself.” The image of sitting on a rock is arresting: The LXX & Vulgate had a tendency to work around “rock” language, rendering it as “God” (here in 62:2) or as something more abstract (help, defense, etc.). But sticking with the literal “rock” (rupes mea) lets Rollock use the image: “Sit upon him as it were a rocke or mountaine.” Reality.

“I will speake this once, there is no solide quietnesse indeede to our soule, except to GOD alone.” (354)

“Nothing therefore which is in our selues, can properly be the cause of the tranquillity of our mind; no, albeit thou shouldest speake indeede of faith it selfe, or of hope; if by the name of faith thou vnderstand onely the instrumēt of the apprehending of christ. For whatsoever thinges in vs, yea, even the regenerate, they are imperfite, all faith, hope, loue, and workes flowing from these, as from their beginning.” (356)

“He denyeth not altogether a commoving, but hee denieth that it shall not bee any great or notable commoving.” (357)

Now he tur∣neth himselfe to the enemies, and be∣ing set as it were in a castell, hee glory∣eth against them all. 358

For that ioy which ariseth in the mean time that any resteth himselfe in God, it deuoured vp all feare and sorrowe altogether, yea, it maketh confidence to arise, whereby wee glory against all contrarie afflictions. But contrariwise, when the soule quieteth not the selfe in God, it is moved, yea with the most trifling thinges, 360

Paul repeats himself in verse 8 about how great God is because he must amplify, say more, “that fee∣ling of rest in God, cannot bee suffici∣entlie expressed by wordes 363

second part https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A11005.0001.001/1:4.10.2.2?rgn=div4;view=fulltext

good point: he warneth them that they shoulde not put their confidence in men, for although this be not expresly set downe, notwithstanding it is to bee vnderstood. 366

hee admonisheth vs to put our trust in God, and that wee powre out our mindes before him. These two are so coupled among themselues, that he who trusteth in God, of necessitie hee powreth out into his bosome as it wer all the secretes of his minde. But con∣••ariwise he who trusteth not, this man albeit hee seeme at some time to praye / and to open vp his minde vnto GOD, notwithstanding he never dealeth ear∣nestlie and freely with GOD, but the thing that he doeth, he doeth it coldly and for the fashion onelie. 368/9

Honorable Mention: Andrew Murray (Waiting on God). It’s a great book, classic Murray. But he hangs so much on the word “wait” (which is not explicitly in the Psalm) before launching out in to a broader set of meditations on the theology of waiting. Great, and not irrelevant, but a little oblique.

Bonhoeffer sermon 1925, “The Soul’s Silence before God.” About ten pages on verse 1. “We live in perpetual fear of suddenly being seized and called to task by the infinite and would rather socialize or go to the movies or theater until we are finally carried to our grave, anything rather than having to bear a single minute before God.” (37)

Musical Settings

An especially nice Metrical version here:

But thou, my soul, on God rely ; On him alone thy trust repose ;
My rock and health will strength supply To bear the shock of all my foes.

God does his saving health dispense, And flowing blessings daily send:
He is my fortress and defence, On him my soul shall still depend.

In him, ye people, always trust, Before his throne pour out your hearts ;
For God, the merciful and just, His timely aid to us imparts.

Der Psalmen Davids Gesangweis, a metrical german psalter. Schutz composed settings for some of these. See Wikipedia entry on Psalm 62!

recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-QoM0X6IBU

.

.

Playlist:

I’ve started a Spotify playlist of the CCM variety here. 18 tracks, 1 hour 20 minutes. What strikes me is how these different songwriters fasten on to different aspects of the Psalm. It makes for a very effective help to meditation, because no song can capture everything in the Psalm.

• Psalm 62, John Michael Talbot. From 1980’s album Come to the Quiet, a daringly sparse set of songs.
• My Soul Will Wait (Psalm 62), Keith & Kristyn Getty, Sovereign Grace Music, etc. Big, live, second half in Spanish, etc.
• I’ll Not Be Shaken (Psalm 62), Wendell Kimbrough. Kimbrough takes “I will not be shaken” (2b & 6b) as his chorus, then builds verses freely from the Psalm’s ideas.
• My Soul (Psalm 62) – Studio Version, Worship Initiative, Writers Well, etc. This song is built on a strong, direct chorus take from 8:2, “Pour out your hearts before him, trust him at all times.”
• My Soul Finds Rest (Psalm 62), Sandra McCracken. There’s a very determined sensibility here, almost polodding forward step by step.
• Psalm 62, Simple Hymns with Aaron Keyes. Pushing toward classic hymn structure; kind of turns into “All Creatures” toward the end.
• Psalm 62, Shane and Shane. Pages, 2007. The vocals on the verses don’t sit right with me, but I love the way they’ve picked out the idea of resting on, reclining on God: “On God I rest my salvation…I lay my head upon His chest, on God I rest.” This is an image just barely present in the Psalm, but worth highlighting.
• For God Alone (Psalm 62), The Worship Initiative, Writers Well, etc. “I will pour out my heart, pledge all my trust, for God is a refuge for us.”
• God Alone (Psalm 62), Will Reagan. “My salvation comes from him” refrain.
• Psalm 62, Ayanda Khumalo, The Shoshin. Simple and restrained.
• Psalm 62, Poor Bishop Hooper. Plaintive, minimalist.
• Psalm 62 (Pour Out Your Heart), The Psalms Project feat Bethany John. Worship leaders are predetermined to focus on “Pour out your heart.” Nice conclusion w/”twice have I heard this.”
• Psalm 62, Robbie Seay Band. “God is a refuge.”
• Psalm 62, DeAnn Mendes. B3, bluesy vocal. “My soul finds rest”
• Psalm 62 (I’ll Wait), Young Presley, Kolbe. “Viral and vibey” but um not in the bad sense
• Wait on God (Psalm 62), Spillhouse Collective. Gospel/spoken word elements, but may just be ai. Or just ai boosted?