Day Fifty-nine

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” (Ps. 62:5)

Scripture Reading: Psalm 62

David was not only a deeply spiritual man; he was a deeply emotional man. His psalms are God’s glorious concoction of both. David wrote out of great feeling, whether ecstasy, amazement, fear, love, pain, or anger. When he wrote Psalm 62, he dipped his pen deep in the well of disappointment. This is a psalm of dashed expectations. Over and over David trusted people who let him down. No doubt you have, too.

Surely nothing compares to dashed expectations involving a person of God. When a favorite leader falls, we quickly discover how much our relationships with God are feeding off others. The foundation beneath our feet quakes.

When David was scarcely more than a teenager, his eyes were unwillingly pried open by King Saul. He never imagined a man of God could descend to the depths of sin he witnessed in Saul. David later discovered that he too was not immune to sin.

Our church rolls are filled with names of people who no longer darken the doors because someone disappointed them. The infractions vary. It doesn’t always take adultery or deceit by a leader. All leaders have to do is fail to live up to expectations.

Dashed expectations can devastate, but something wonderful can come from it—something I’m not sure we can adequately discover any other way. The motivation for Psalm 62 was disappointment—but the theme of David’s psalm was GOD ALONE.

Read aloud verses 1–2 and 5–8 and emphasize every repetition of the words God, He, or Him. Do you hear it? Because he poured out his heart to God, David’s experience with shattered expectations did not produce bitterness; it produced a lifelong benediction: God alone. The fifth verse is climactic. “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” Notice the word hope. The Hebrew term literally means “a cord, as an attachment.” Every one of us is hanging on to something or someone for security. We hold a knotted rope and depend on whatever is on the other end to keep us from falling. Picture that rope in your hands. Then close your eyes and imagine looking up the rope and seeing the other end. Who or what do you see?

As wonderful as that person or possession may be, if it’s someone or something other than God alone, you’re hanging on by a thread—the wrong thread. You may be “a leaning wall” or a “tottering fence.” God alone can hold us up.

GOD ALONE—the next time someone disappoints you, whisper those two words to yourself. If you agree to let that person off the hook and allow only God to grasp the other end of the rope, two things can happen: you’ll attach yourself to Someone with an arm strong enough to hold you up; you’ll be secure enough to let one arm go free to help the one who disappointed you back to his or her feet.

These kinds of results are worth the painful learning experience. God alone.