Biblion Bible Commentary
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My Soul Waits in Silence
Psalms 62:1-12
1 For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by David. My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from him. · WEB
One word runs through the psalm — alone — and everything else is weighed against it and found light.
My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from him Psalms 62:1.
The Hebrew word translated alone opens six verses of this psalm, and it is the psalm's whole argument. The first line is literally: only toward God, silence, my soul. What is described is not the absence of noise but the end of arguing.
He alone is my rock, my salvation, and my fortress. I will never be greatly shaken Psalms 62:2.
The qualifier in the last clause is unusually honest. Not never shaken — greatly shaken. The psalm allows for being moved and denies being overturned, and when the line returns at verse six the qualifier is dropped, which is what happens to a person's estimate over the course of a prayer.
How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? Psalms 62:3.
He sees himself as they see him: a wall already out of plumb, needing one push. And their method is named exactly — they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly Psalms 62:4.
My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from him Psalms 62:5.
The psalm turns to address itself, as the forty-second does. What was stated as fact in verse one is now commanded, because the fact had evidently stopped being felt.
Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him Psalms 62:8.
The instruction widens to a congregation, and the two halves are not in tension. Silence before God and pouring out the heart are the same posture: what is emptied is the complaint, and where it goes is into his hands rather than into the argument.
Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath Psalms 62:9.
Both ends of society weighed and both found insubstantial. In a balance they go up, which is what the light pan does. The powerful are not more solid than the powerless; they are simply better at appearing so.
Don't trust in oppression. Don't become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don't set your heart on them Psalms 62:10.
The third clause is the sharp one. It does not forbid the increase — it forbids the heart moving with it, which is the harder discipline and the one nobody notices themselves failing.
God has spoken once; twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God. Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness Psalms 62:11–12.
The conclusion is two things, not one, and the psalm insists on hearing both. Power alone would be terrifying; loving kindness alone would be helpless. The one who has both is the only one worth waiting in silence for.
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