Psalm 62:8 "Trust in Him at all times, you people, pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.
Trust (batach) - to have confidence in; to be secure; to be bold; to feel safe
all (kol) - the whole of; any; each; every; anything; totally; everything
pour out (shaphak) - to be poured out; be shed; cast
hearts - (lebab) - inner man; mind; will; heart; soul; understanding
Him, God - (elohiym) - the true God
refuge (machaceh) - shelter, hope, trust
Lest you think there is more to me than there is, I was introduced to the blueletterbible.org a while back and it does all the work for you ;) How exciting to be able to see the Hebrew/Greek words and their uses/translations in the Bible.
This verse is within a Psalm written by David. His advice to us...to follow his lead as he has learned 'to be at rest in God alone' (vs. 1), recognizing that 'God alone is my rock and my salvation' (vs. 2), 'my stronghold' and 'I will never be shaken' (vs.2). 'Rest in God alone, my soul, my hope comes from Him' (vs. 5).
Read Psalm 62 when you get a chance, look at how David practices what he says for us to do.
David shows us by example that we must declare our trust in God, repeatedly, and not only declare it but place it in him...this takes action, this takes faith. All of which comes from the Lord. We don't have to 'work it up'. We can ask Him for it and for His strength to trust. Our choice to ask, our choice to believe, our choice to have confidence in, to be secure, to be bold, to feel safe. Our choice. We can either choose to trust Him or chose not to trust Him...each and every time the opportunity arises! Please God, give me strength to chose to trust You...AT ALL TIMES!!! When I fail to trust You, reveal it to me right away, bring conviction and give me the strength to repent and obey You and not my own will.
I love that little word 'all.' It occurs 4,703 times in 4,122 verse in the NIV! Ok, so I am getting carried away, but look for that little word, especially in the Psalms and perhaps you will find yourself intrigued by it as well. I will focus now ;-)
Do you realize that the only ONE we can place our full trust, confidence in is God? I mean we know this in our heads but are we growing in the knowing this in our hearts? Our inner (wo)man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding. Are we living out this trust in our God daily? Moment by moment? I so want to, don't you?! He is the only One who is always trustworthy, He never changes, He never leaves us or forsakes us, He is so much....one day we will look at some of His characteristics!
When it says 'you people' put your own name there. Trust in Him at all times, Tammy!
I love this next part too. Pour out your heart to Him. He can handle it all!!! I love the fact that He wants to hear from me. That He is willing to hear all I have to say. That is huge! I mean typically I have so much to say that most people tend to tune at some point, it's ok I am self aware :-))) But I am realizing more and more with more and more confidence that God loves to hear from me! All of it! He can handle it! He doesn't grow tired or weary, frustrated or angry. He will not ignore or abandon. He listens. He cares. He loves. And then...He slowly teaches how to listen! That is even better! To hear His voice, to know His direction, to be able to follow His lead! He is our refuge, our shelter, our hope, our trust!
This verse began with trust and it ends with Him being our trust! Do you see that? He is the beginning and the end! He is ALL WE NEED!!!
Our choice, remember? Will we chose to trust Him as David challenged us? Will we pour out everything to Him? Will we allow Him to be our refuge? Our trust?
Father God, You are so amazing! Thank You for covering it all for us! You are He in Whom we can place our trust and You then become a place of trust, a refuge. Mind boggling, really, Lord. Teach us to trust You more often and more deeply. We so often want to tell everyone else our 'stuff' when You are willing and able to hear it and handle it all! Thank You just doesn't seem sufficient. Thank You for being our Daddy. May we depend on You with the abandon of a little girl running into her daddy's arms. With that kind of abandon!
Tammy, I love this. The word "rest" particularly resonates with me. It's something I know I don't do enough of and when you don't stop and look around, how can you expect to see where God wants you to go and, more importantly, what He is already doing. I've been working hard lately at balancing the need to rest with getting everything done. In general, I fail miserably at both. I have no more than anyone else to do... I think it's a general problem in America, particularly for women, but for men too. Expectations have gotten so high, there's no oxygen up there for people to take a breath and rest. The question is, how do we lower the bar of expectations without feeling like a failure... Or accepting failure if that's what it is?
ReplyDeleteI don't have the answer, but definitely have a lot of thoughts churning with this post. Thank you for doing this!! Jill
Thank YOU for sharing my friend! What a lot you have given me to consider! Tammy
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