Waiting in Silence: Trusting God When Enemies Attack - Psalm 62:1-4

Good morning, and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

We are thankful the Lord has led you to hear the Word of God with us here today.

My name is Pastor Simon, and here at Dillingham Moravian Church,

we delight in making disciples for Christ as we learn God's Word together with you.

One year, while I was crewing on a drift boat, we were out by the south line

of the Newshagat District in Bristol Bay, which opens out to the Bering Sea.

A storm hit us and tossed the 32-foot fishing boat back and forth and up and

down like a toy boat in a bathtub.

I was originally in the cabin, but it was getting so dangerous in the cabin

that I had to get out of the deck.

I was thrown off my bunk, and the metal cooking equipment was literally flying around the cabin.

And when I got out onto the deck, I could not move around without being hit

by a wave and washed overboard.

So I took the example of another crewman and held tightly to the ladder rungs

to the upper deck and held on for dear life.

Thank goodness we were wearing our fishing gear because we were completely soaked

by the waves crashing into us.

There are so many times in life that we feel like a little boat that's being

tossed back and forth on the water by waves and the wind, and we feel like we're going to drown.

But the scripture tells us that we are to find our rest and security in God Almighty.

He is our stronghold and our strength in these uncertain times.

He is our stronghold and our strength because He is our God. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You.

We thank You for the mercy that You have given to us in Jesus Christ and that

You are our strong fortress. You are the one that we can run to and be safe in.

Lord, as we go to your word today, illuminate our hearts, open up our minds

and our souls so that we may be able to know what you are teaching us and use

us for your glory and honor.

I pray that people who are listening may come to know you, Father,

and may you draw them to you.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Turn with me today to Psalm 62, verse 1 through 8. Psalm 62, verse 1 through 8.

Psalms 62:1–8 Psalms 62:1–8

We're actually going to be just going up to verse 4 today, but we're going to

look at verse 5 through 8 as part of the context.

Surely my soul waits in silence for God. From Him is my salvation.

Surely He is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be greatly shaken.

How long will you assail a man, that you may murder him, all of you,

like a leaning wall, like a fence thrust down?

Surely they have counseled to thrust him down from his high position.

They find pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouth.

Inwardly they curse. Surely wait in silence for God, O my soul, for my hope is from him.

Surely he is my rock and my salvation. my stronghold, I shall not be shaken.

On God my salvation, my glory rests. The rock of my strength, my refuge, is in God.

Trust in Him in all times, O people. Pour out your heart before Him.

God is a refuge for us. Selah.

In this passage, there are three main truths that I want to show you.

The first principle that God wants us to learn is that as Christians,

we trust God's deliverance when we wait in silence for God.

Dillingham is an Alaskan bush town of 2,100 people.

Compared to the little villages in our district, Dillingham is huge and very busy.

And while we do have noise in our town and hecticness, especially in the summer

with the influx of fishermen and cannery workers, We are relatively quiet,

where a big traffic jam is around nine or ten cars long.

But when we leave the bush and go to Anchorage or we go to the lower states

with big cities and huge populations, things get really noisy.

In many places, the hum of traffic and people talking continues throughout the entire night.

Where I've been into many households and the TV is blaring loudly,

but no one is watching it.

And although listening to music is wonderful, millions of people in our country,

especially the younger generations.

Myself, at times as well, listen to music constantly.

When we go into almost any restaurant or store, music is playing, often loudly.

You see, life in our culture has become a great deal more busy and hectic in the last 10 to 20 years.

And I say all this because we have become used to or even dependent on having

constant noise and busyness in our life.

And yet the scripture in many different ways tells us that God speaks to us.

When we are quiet in our soul.

This is what David said in Psalm 62, verse 1.

Psalms 62:1

Surely my soul waits in silence for God. From him is my salvation.

I want you to see that David had come to deeply understand the truth that God

was his salvation because he waited silently for God.

And he allowed God's word to permeate his heart and soul.

This word salvation was not referring primarily to salvation from sin,

but meant a means of preserving from harm or unpleasantness.

However, this word also was used to point towards a spiritual salvation as well.

David also wrote in Psalm 37, verse 39 to 40, But the salvation of the righteous is from God.

Psalms 37:39–40

He is their strength in time of trouble.

The Lord helps them and delivers them.

He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.

However, it's important for us to realize that David doesn't just come up with

this concept that God is his deliverer.

Yes, David had experienced the deliverance of God. And we don't know exactly

what situation that David was referring to in this psalm.

David mentioned later about men wanting to attack him and spread lies and deceit about David.

This could be in referral to when David was on the run from Saul.

Saul was spreading lies about what David did to the king.

And that David was a traitor against the king. Or it could have been about his

son Absalom, who was trying to take over the kingdom and spreading lies against

David to sway the people in Absalom's favor.

Or it may be another situation. Whatever the circumstances, the situation would

have been dire and emergent, where there would be no chance to be able to sit

and pray quietly before the Lord.

Running for your life and organizing the constant moving of his men and families

that were with David would have put David in a near-constant fight or flight mode.

Yet somewhere in this situation, David takes the time to pray and waits silently for his God.

And it was through this time of reflection and meditative prayer on the truths

and promises of God and the former faithfulness of his Lord that David was able

to trust the truth that the Lord was his deliverer.

How then can we as Christians learn from this verse? Waiting silently before

God and surrender to Him gives the Holy Spirit the opening to remind us of the

truth that God is our Deliverer.

You see, God teaches us His truths through His Word.

And when we're waiting and surrendering silently in prayer before God,

the Holy Spirit can bring to our minds and hearts the truths and promises of

God that we would not be able to hear when we are busy about our own work.

This does not mean we have to get rid of music in our lives.

God can work mightily through music.

And there are definitely times when we have to be busy and productive for the Lord.

But we also need time to slow down and be quiet and listen to what God is telling us in His Word.

We may not be experiencing persecution where we're running for our lives in

response to our faith in Christ.

Yet most of us Christians have experienced trials and troubles in our lives.

Combined with the over-business and hecticness of our work, our family needs,

our kids' schooling and activity schedules, added on top of our church and ministry schedules,

the temptation for us when there's so many things reaching for our attention,

we are tempted to run our own lives under our own power and control.

And yet we're instructed by God to slow down and be quiet in our mind and soul

and let God remind us of His salvation and that He is with us.

So far, we have learned that David was singing about his own soul,

waiting in silence before the Lord.

This leads us to the next point that I want to bring to your attention,

and that is, as Christians, we are safe in God, our fortress.

When I was a teenager, I went to visit a castle in Toronto, Ontario,

Canada, named Castle Loma.

This place is a huge stone block structure built deep into a hill.

Casa Loma, Spanish for Hill House, is North America's only full-size castle.

Considered one of the grandest residential buildings ever constructed in Canada,

it has 98 rooms, opulent bathrooms, secret passageways, and 800-foot tunnel, beautiful gardens.

The castle is also 200,000 square feet.

What impressed me was the size of the walls of the castle.

Was six feet thick or more, an army could have holed up there for years in perfect safety.

There were also a variety of castle structures connected to the main castle

via underground tunnels.

The castle even had turrets and towers and battlements and stone gargoyles.

Now, a castle is strong, but they're always weak points, and nowadays,

if we were to attack them with our modern weapons, they are vulnerable.

Yet David says that God is our stronghold, and that we are safe in Him.

David continued in Psalm 62, verse 2, where he proclaimed, Surely he,

Psalms 62:2

meaning the Lord, is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold.

I shall not be greatly shaken.

This concept of a stronghold in this verse denotes an ancient city that was

a fortress where the surrounding villagers and farmers could run to for safety

in case of war or natural disasters.

In these stone fortresses, the walls were thick and strong and high,

which provided shelter against attack and strong defensive capabilities.

Sieges, even by the most well-prepared and largest armies, often took months

to break through cities' defenses.

David's point was that God is a fortified city that we can run to that will

never, ever be overcome.

I would like you to notice a progression of David in the psalm.

In verse 2, David's saying that God is his stronghold, that he will not be greatly shaken.

And David probably had in mind being holed up inside the castle fortress when

the enemy was launching boulders at the wall.

Those sieges would have shaken the walls, but they would hold.

What David was acknowledging is the reality that there will be events and challenges

in our lives that will shake us up, turn our lives upside down,

threaten to shake our faith. But as we trust Christ, you,

who is the rock of our faith, we will not be greatly shaken, and our faith will hold.

In this psalm, there is definitely the concept that God will protect us physically,

that God is with us protecting us.

And yet there are so many circumstances that God allows believers to go through

tremendous trials and horrible suffering for His glory.

Christ Jesus Himself told Paul amidst the trial that He would not take the suffering away.

But rather, Paul was to trust that Christ's grace was sufficient for him and

that Christ's power was made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, there must be a spiritual component to God's defense of his people.

In Jesus Christ, our God, we are perfectly safe in him, and no force on earth

can take away our salvation and spiritually harm us when we are in him.

Paul, in Romans 8, verses 37-39, proclaimed this, Look at verse 37.

Romans 8:37–39

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,

nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,

will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again, this does not mean that evil things do not happen to God's people.

But if we are in Christ, we can be content in Him throughout all situations.

Spiritually, we are safe in God.

Christ is the rock of our salvation, not us, not our circumstances.

And nothing in this universe can shake the rock foundation and fortress of Christ, our mighty Lord.

And if we, you and I, are trusting in Christ, the rock of our salvation,

Our physical lives may be shaken by the pounding of life's hardships and Satan's attacks,

but our faith and our salvation will hold strong.

Our salvation doesn't depend upon us. It depends upon Christ and what he's done on the cross.

And that, my friends, is secure.

At this point in Psalm 62, we have taught that David praised God for being his

rock, salvation, and stronghold.

But the question is, in what context was David praying this psalm?

It was in the context of David being attacked by the enemies of God.

And this leads us to the next overarching truth that I want you to see in this

passage, which is that in this fallen world, the enemies of God will attack us for following God.

When we just recently moved into our new house, we inherited a very nice trampoline set.

Now, this trampoline came with metal rods that stuck up in the air that went

around the trampoline and held up a nylon net wall that was supposed to protect

people from falling off the side. of the trampoline.

However, the kids, before we moved in, and then our boys and their friends later,

had pushed and pulled so hard on the net that the poles were leaning down so

far they were about to snap.

And eventually they did, similar to the poles that were leaning down and ready

to fall down and be broken.

So also David was likening the attacks of wicked people against the person of

God as the attacks to weaken a wall that would totter and lean and eventually fall over.

And this is what David sang in Psalm 62, verse 34.

How long will you assail a man that you may murder him, all of you,

like a leaning wall, like a fence thrust down?

Surely they have counseled to thrust him down from his high position.

They find pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouth,

but inwardly they curse. Selah.

It's important that we see that David changed who he was speaking about.

And who he was speaking to here. Earlier, David was singing about his own soul,

waiting in silence before the Lord, praising God for being his rock and salvation and stronghold.

Now David directed his attention to the wicked people who would attack the people of God.

And it's also fairly evident here that David was referring about the attacks

against himself as well.

And like I said in my illustration, David questioned the wicked,

asking them how long would they attack the people of God so that their attacks

weakened them as a wall would be weakened,

and lean to the point that it would teeter and eventually fall over.

But I want you to see how the wicked were attacking David. In this case,

the attacks were deceptive and devious.

The word counsel captured the calculated nature of their opposition.

This described a deliberate conspiracy.

They've strategized together to remove him from a place of prominence or authority.

These adversaries delighted in falsehood. According to one commentator,

the verse then reveals the hypocrisy underlining their scheme.

The enemy's deceptive approach is described as blessing with their mouths but cursing in their heart.

In the ancient world, curses involve the pronouncement of catastrophes on one's

enemy, made in the name of the gods who were thought to make curses effective on their victims.

So, their public words of blessing mask private invocations of harm.

They're simultaneously flattering and condemning the psalmist.

This makes me think that David was referring, at least in these two verses,

to Absalom or other political enemies who schemed to undermine David's authority

with the people while outwardly serving and blessing David.

I believe that Psalm 62, verses 3-4 gives us an important truth that we as Christians today must know,

Psalms 62:3–4

and that is that the enemies of God will attack and scheme against God's people for following God.

You see, Satan is the father of lies, and he's the master deceiver.

And one of the ways that he deceives Christians is that he deceives Christians.

Especially in the Western world, is that if we follow God and live rightly towards

others, life will be comfortable.

People won't hurt us or malign us.

Sadly, this is a lie. As Christ believers, we must understand that as we,

with faith-filled joy, obey and serve Jesus Christ as our only Lord, then attacks will come.

We must not be lulled into complacency. complacency rather we must be mentally

alert and prepared for satan's attacks when they come,

what then can we learn from the lord through david in this passage,

the first truth that we have been taught is that waiting silently and surrender

before god gives the holy spirit the opening to remind us and teach us that god is our deliverer,

and from him alone is salvation,

Secondly, we have been taught that Christ is the rock foundation of our salvation.

He is our fortress of safety whom nothing in this universe can ever shake.

And if we, you and I, are trusting in Christ, our physical lives may be shaken

by the pounding of life's hardship and Satan's attacks.

But our faith will hold strong because we know that our salvation is secure in God's hands.

Lastly, as Christians, we must know that the enemies of God will attack and

scheme against God's people for following God.

This is a reality of this fallen world, temporarily controlled by Satan.

Yet there is even a greater reality, and that is God in Jesus Christ.

We must understand, as David did, that the greatest way that we can prepare

for and be defended against the attacks of God's enemies is by trusting and waiting upon God.

Why? Because He is our stronghold. He is our deliverer, not us.

You see, as we are living by faith in God, evidenced by our obedience to His

word, God will work on our behalf.

He will fight the battles against Satan and the forces of darkness that have

gathered against us, for us.

We must remember that the wicked and the enemies of God do not attack and persecute

God's people by themselves.

They do so by the one who is ultimately their master, and that is Satan.

And we as tiny human beings cannot hope to fight Satan on our own.

But the great and wonderful truth is that we do not have to because god is with

us he is our strength he is our stronghold and he is our deliverer let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your love. Thank you for being our deliverer.

Thank you for being the one who protects us from Satan's machinations and his evil scheming.

Lord, may we continue to renew our mind in your word so that we can keep our

mind clear and pure from the deceptions of Satan.

But Lord, we pray for those who are listening,

myself included that we would all trust you and cling to you and run to you,

in times of trouble but also in the good times in the times that are easy,

for you are our stronghold you are our strength and you are our mighty deliverer,

in your precious son's name Jesus Christ we pray this Amen,

I'll leave you with this benediction from Romans 15, verse 13.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you all.