Psalms 62
What Happens in This Chapter
A psalm of quiet confidence in God during a time of attack. The speaker says God alone is his rock, his rescue, and his safe place, and repeats that claim after describing enemies who bless him out loud while cursing him inside. He then turns to the people and tells them to trust God at all times, warning that people of every rank weigh nothing on the scale and that stolen money and growing riches are not worth setting your heart on. It closes with two things that belong to God: power, and steady love that repays each person according to what they have done.
My whole self waits quietly for God. He is the one who rescues me.
1Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
"Soul" in Hebrew (nephesh) means the whole living person (breath, appetite, life itself), not an inner part separate from the body. The verb behind "waiteth" carries the sense of silence or stillness, so the line pictures a person going quiet and holding still rather than one merely passing time.
2He alone is my rock and my rescue. He is my high, safe place. Nothing can shake me badly.
2He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.
"Rock" and "high, safe place" are military images from the landscape of ancient Israel: a crag or cliff-top too steep to be stormed, where people fled when raiders came. "Defence" in 1611 English meant a fortress or stronghold, not an argument or an excuse.
3How long will you keep attacking one man? You will all be struck down. He is like a wall that already leans, like a fence about to fall.
3How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.
Walls in this world were often mud brick, and field boundaries were dry stone or brushwood. Once such a wall began to lean it was finished, a push from the crowd would bring it down. The speaker is the leaning wall in the image; the attackers are the ones shoving.
4Their whole plan is to pull him down from the high place he holds. They love to lie. With their mouths they speak well of him, but inside they are cursing him. Selah.
4They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.
"Selah" is a term left untranslated because no one knows what it means. It appears mostly in the Psalms and is generally taken as a direction to the musicians (a pause, an instrumental break, or a change in volume), rather than part of the words being sung.
5Wait quietly for God alone, my soul, because everything I hope for comes from him.
5My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.
"Expectation" here is not guesswork about the future but what a person is counting on and waiting for, the thing on which hope rests.
6He alone is my rock and my rescue. He is my high, safe place. I will not be shaken.
6He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.
This repeats verse 2 almost exactly, but the Hebrew drops the qualifier: verse 2 said "not greatly moved," this one says simply "not moved." Such near-repeated refrains are a standard structuring device in Hebrew poetry.
7God is the one who rescues me, and my honor rests on him. He is my strong rock. He is where I go to be safe.
7In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
"Glory" here means honor or standing in the eyes of others, a person's public weight and reputation, which in this culture mattered as much as property.
8Trust him at all times, all you people. Tell him everything that is in your heart. God is a safe place for us. Selah.
8Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
9People of low rank are only a breath, and people of high rank are a lie. Put them on the scales and they rise: together they weigh less than a breath.
9Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
"Vanity" translates hebel, meaning breath, vapor, or mist, something real but weightless and gone in a moment. The two groups are literally "sons of Adam" and "sons of man," two Hebrew phrases for common people and people of rank. The scales are the old balance kind with two pans: the lighter side rises, so "they rise" means they weigh nothing.
10Do not put your trust in pushing people around, and do not build empty hopes on stolen goods. If your money grows, do not fix your heart on it.
10Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
"Oppression" here means extortion, wealth squeezed out of people by force or position, and "robbery" means goods actually stolen. Both name sources of income, not attitudes.
11God has said one thing, and I have heard it twice: strength belongs to God,
11God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.
"Once... twice" is a Hebrew way of counting for emphasis, common in wisdom sayings ("three things... four things"). It signals that the point has been settled and repeated, not that God spoke on two separate occasions.
12and steady love belongs to you too, Lord. You pay back each person for what he has done.
12Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.
"Mercy" translates hesed, which has no single English equivalent: loyal, committed kindness of the sort owed within a binding relationship, steady love that keeps its word rather than pity for someone in trouble.
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