For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall never be shaken.For God alone my soul waits in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah
Only in God do I find rest;
my salvation comes from him.
Only God is my rock and my salvation—
my stronghold!—I won’t be shaken anymore.Oh, I must find rest in God only,
because my hope comes from him!
Only God is my rock and my salvation—
my stronghold!—I will not be shaken.All you people: Trust in him at all times!
Pour out your hearts before him!
God is our refuge! Selah
“If only such and such were the case,” or “if only such and such were not the case.” How often do our thoughts and wishes for inward peace go back to circumstances? We think all would be OK if only circumstances or things were different. We’re forgetting that living in the broken world in which we live means inevitable trouble, inescapable problems.
Where do we find rest? On whom do we wait in silence? The psalmist makes it clear: On God only. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that no matter what we’re facing in this life, the list including some of the darkest and worst experiences, that nothing, nothing, nothing at all in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It’s not enough to try to be faithful in doing the right thing, though that’s an important beginning. We indeed do have to position ourselves in the place in which we can experience God’s blessing so that we might be a blessing. That’s not enough. We have to come into the experience where anxiety isn’t a constant weight on us, in fact an experience where we find rest in God in spite of what otherwise would fill us with anxiety.
Do we believe that God is for us? That God delights in us? That God is sheer love through and through? And that whatever we’re facing, God will take care of everything? Even through the darkest times and death itself? Do we really believe that?
What is more important than our faith is the ever-faithful God. God is present for us and wants us to do what the psalmist is getting at. To wait in silence before God and for God. And to find our rest in God alone, not in good circumstances, in fact in spite of bad circumstances.
That is an important legacy that would be good for us to leave to others. How God can help us, as normal and struggling as anyone else to experience something of the fullness of God that God wants to share with us in this life. So that we’re no longer troubled but learning to live more and more at rest. In God alone. In and through Jesus.