Our Souls Can Rest in God When We Trust Him.

⁵ Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
⁶ Truly he 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, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.

Reasoned Rest

David, the author of this Psalm, encourages himself, and us as well, to allow our souls to find rest in God.  He states he can do this because David, without a doubt in his heart, knows that his hope and salvation come from God.

When we truly take to heart that God is sovereign, and desires for us to be saved, and that He wants to protect us, we can find reassurance and peace in knowing that we are being well cared for by God.

Formidable Fortress

David refers to God as his Rock, Salvation, and Fortress.  God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He does not change like shifting shadows.  He is perfect in all His ways.  David can depend upon the steadfastness of the character of God.

As a picture of this, David uses a rock to signify how strong, durable, and trustworthy God is to him.  He likens God to a fortress, a well designed structure that is still used today to keep out evil and protect what is inside (think Fort Knox).  In the case of God, He is an impregnable fortress – no one and nothing can penetrate the defenses to attack or corrupt God.  God is immutable, and is able to stay that way because:

• God is all-powerful: omnipotent
• God is all-knowing: omniscient
• God is ever-present: omnipresent

We can depend upon God not only because He is sovereign, but also because it is impossible for Him to not be sovereign.

Sturdy Salvation

David reminds us here that our salvation and honor rest in God.  God and God alone is the only one who can rescue us from our sin.  Our identity is to be found in Jesus Christ.  He is the one who provides us with His righteousness.  He is the one who provides us His honor.

Since God is sovereign, David recognizes that any honor that he has been provided has been given to Him by God.  No one can claim honor, because anything that they have done or accomplished was provided by God.  God has given us our bodies, minds, and souls.  He has provided all of the physical universe.  Even the very breath we are taking right now is because God is gracious to us and is providing it.  Because of this, David is confident in his salvation, as God is the author of it and is able to sustain and protect him.

Treasured Trust

David implores us to place our trust in God and, by implication, not in ourselves, anyone, or anything else.  David can say this with great confidence, as his heart is firmly convinced in the strength, character, and ability of God to do all things needed to protect and provide for us.  David both reasons these things in his mind, and recounts from personal experience how God has been at work in his life.  We can look back on the life of David, and see how David was treated by God and through that, trust in the Living God as David did.

Prayerful Petition

David also exhorts us to pour out our hearts to God.  David implies that he has a two-way relationship with God.  God not only provides for our physical and spiritual needs, he also engages us in EVERY aspect of our lives.  The Lord God Almighty’s very name, YHWH, means “I am he who exists and is dynamically involved in your life.”

God seeks to have the very deepest level of relationship with us.  We can not only trust God with our protection and provision, but also with our innermost desires and concerns.  God waits with anticipation for us to really open up to Him and engage Him as we would our most intimate and best friend.  He delights in us pouring out our hearts to Him.  And while we can bring praises and petitions to Him, we can also share ourselves with Him – even though He already knows us!  It is for OUR benefit, not God’s, that we share ourselves at that deepest level.  God is a jealous God (in the good meaning of jealous) – there is no part of us that God does not declare – “You are MINE!”  Give yourself to Him totally and completely.  And God will satisfy the deepest, innermost part of your soul.

A Qualifying Question

Let’s ask ourselves a question:  Are we trusting God not only with our protection and provision, but also with our deepest and most hidden inner being?

A short prayer of preparation:

Father in Heaven, it is a glorious thing to know how trustworthy and faithful You are.  You reveal Yourself to us through Your word and Your creation.  You constantly pour out Your love for us in all that You do.  You seek us as a shepherd seeks lost sheep, and care for us with an everlasting love.  Help me to give myself to You in every way, shape, and form, that even my innermost being would be shared with You.  You have earned my trust, and it is my honor to share myself as fully as I can with You.  Help me when I am in need.  Care and provide for me.  And help me to release the parts of myself that I hold on to, that I cling to, and never reveal to anyone.  Help me to bring all of them out into Your glorious and beautiful light, that they would be displayed as precious jewels.  Remove the dross from my life, and if anything in my innermost being is not desirable, help me to bring it out and leave it at the foot of the cross.  This I ask and pray in the precious and mighty name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Want more?  Why not try A. B. Simpson or A. W. Tozer?