The Rest

DEVOTION

PSALMS

THE REST

Ps 62

62:1 For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

3 How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down — this leaning wall, this tottering fence? 4 They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse.  Selah 

5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah 

9 Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. 10 Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

11 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, 12 and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.

NIV

This surely makes it sound like God is the only place we can find rest. The Hebrew word means stillness, quiet, then rest. Our soul finds stillness in the Lord alone. God alone is our rock and our salvation. All the business of life is but a breath. People are not honest about their feelings. This truth in evident in the song. People speak the right words, but their hearts say different. It does not matter if people have little or a lot, together they are but a breath, and life is without meaning without finding rest in God. Men would rather set their hearts on riches, increasing their net worth in an effort to find rest. Even the being busy about church stuff can be a form of trying to find rest. But both the trust in wealth and religious activity are worthless in finding rest. The only rest is found in God. He is our rock, our refuge, our fortress, in this we will not be shaken. Everything about us depends on him. It is not about living to accomplish wealth or good deeds. Life is about being in relationship with our God. This is not just knowing about God, but knowing God. It is like a marriage, we don’t just know about our spouse, we know them, and we know them intimately, up close, personal. We know how they think, respond, their likes and dislikes. We love them. All the things we do in a marriage, is how we our life is in God. He loves us even more then our spouse does or more then we love our spouse. Then should not our lives be more than being religious, or just attending church or doing church stuff? Our marriage better be more than just showing up once and a while or just doing married stuff. If we think about it our marriage is a life-long commitment of putting our spouse before ourselves. Then we should be putting God before ourselves. He is the source of life. He is our source of eternal life. He is our hiding place. When everything in the world is nothing but a breath, where can we breathe? In God, we find the stillness for our soul in God. We find peace and serenity, we find the quietness and rest we need in a world so filled with chaos. Why would we seek anything from chaos? Why would we try to look for security in chaos? Why would we try to find purpose in chaos or a world under the influence of the prince of darkness, chaos, himself? The only rest for our soul is in God. In him alone we will find rest. We will not set our heart on anything of this world, fame or fortune, honor or wealth, recognition or success, both in the material and religious sense. However we phrase it, the point is the same. All of it is but a breath, but life, true life, is resting in God. We will set our heart on resting in him, then we will feel the peace, the joy, the calm, the stillness, the contentment in our heart. We will live in the rest of God.