My Soul (Psalm 62)
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Pour out your hearts before Him
Trust Him at all times
God is a refuge for us
On our best days, this is what we do. We trust. We open ourselves to God completely. We believe in our heart of hearts that God is the only truly safe place for us – One who can protect us and keep us amidst the pain and sorrows and mundanities of life.
The word “pour” carries the image of spilling out; it is total – effusive.
Your hearts: the deepest, most honest part of you.
Trust: your confidence, your security; a kind of “faith.”
All times: every moment of every day; your mind’s meditations; trusting in Him only.
Refuge: a hiding place, a shelter; a place of protection.
What is true for all of us, whether you believe in Jesus or not, is that we all pour our hearts out before something. We all trust in something in every moment of every day. Our mind does meditate on something or someone, always. We all look somewhere for our sense of safety – for protection. This is not unique to religious or spiritual people; it is true of people. All people. Every kind, everywhere.
On our worst days – the days when we don’t believe God and don’t lift up our eyes to Him – we find ourselves in lock step with the unwise and wicked, trusting in our ability to wrangle what we think we need out of life, setting our hope on ways that we can game the system.
But living, active faith in God looks like active trust in Him. That being said, it is not enough (nor is it helpful) in the midst of our difficulties to simply be told to trust. We need to understand how to trust; why to trust. This psalm and the chorus of “My Soul” give us what we need.
Pour out your heart before Him. Open yourself up in His presence.
It is often true that we keep our concerns bottled up. John Calvin said,
“We are all too apt… to shut up our affliction in our own breast...which can only aggravate the trouble and embitter the mind against God.”
The solution, then? Pour out your hearts before Him. Martin Luther said,
“Regardless of what it is, just throw it in a pile before Him, as you open your heart completely to a good friend…. Come right out with it, even if all you have is bags full of need. Out with everything; God is greater and more able and more willing than all our transgressions. Do not dribble your requests before Him; God is not a man whom you can overburden with your begging and asking. The more you ask, the happier He is to hear you.”
This is how we trust. Instead of leaving our troubles in our hearts, where they are ours to solve, we take them to the Lord.
The reason we trust? God is a refuge for us.
He has spoken to us in Christ and we have heard by faith.
He has proven that He is a refuge by showing saving power and covenant love to His people throughout time.
God’s voice, God’s saving power, God’s covenant love are the wings that enable faith to both fly and find footing.
Psalm 62 ends with the declaration, “For you (God) will render to a man according to His work.” This is only good news if the one who is ultimately meant to sing this song is the Lord Jesus. The wages of our works is death. We have sown to the flesh and will reap corruption. We have not poured out our hearts before Him or trusted Him at all times. But the Lord Jesus has demonstrated flawless faith, perfect righteousness, and covenant faithfulness. So by our faith, and displayed in our baptism, we have been incorporated into the reward that was rendered Christ by His Father.
He has kept the covenant for us and has borne the covenant curse on our behalf.
He sang this song and now sings it to us, and calls us each day, at all times, to pour out our hearts before Him – to remember that God is a refuge for us, and to live in the quiet restfulness of soul that is the fruit of our faith.
