Sept. 18

Psalm 62

I was reading this Psalm in the Hebrew translation and as while reading, I was curious as to why verse 2 and verse 6 repeat. When I studied it a bit more, I learned it's to emphasis the "stillness", and "only". "My soul, wait in stillness, only for God".  That emphasis on the surrendered stillness where we meet God "alone" is for us to know that He alone can answer our prayer.  There are too many times when we come to a place and things just don't make sense anymore. Our natural tendency is of course to ask God "why", but we need to shut out the noise and quiet our souls first if we expect to hear His voice. This is an intentional time when all the words have all been said or perhaps no words will come, all the tears have been cried and there just aren't any left,and we get to a place where whatever the issue is, it rests with Him alone.  The problem we face though is that our natural mind is prone to reason. We want an answer when God wants us to believe a promise. We try to rationalize when we ought to just believe. We tend to continue talking when we ought to be quiet, or we go our own way and run ahead of God, when we ought to follow the direction he gave us and walk in God's way. In our stillness, alone, comes the expectation of His answer. That's where we see God as our anchor, and we are not moved. "Trust in Him at all times, Pour out your heart in His presence, God is our refuge" (v9). That will never change. I found comfort in this today, as I've been wrestling with issues the past few weeks which are beyond my control and I've done all that I can do. I don't know, but maybe this is why God will sometimes keep us in a place where we "just stand". We don't know why, perhaps to draw us closer, perhaps to conform our souls more to Christ's.  When we're in that stillness and all that is of our self and our surroundings must be silent and our soul is alone with God, expect to hear God as He alone has our answer. It might be "yes", it might be "no", or it might be "just wait". Whatever it is, it doesn't change who God is, and that's where our hope and our answer is.

Randi