Psalms 62:8
EXPOSITION Verse 8. Trust in him at all times. Faith is an abiding duty, a perpetual privilege. We should trust when we can see, as well as when we are utterly in the dark. Adversity is a fit season for faith; but prosperity is not less so. God at all times deserves our confidence. We at all times need to place our confidence in him. A day without trust in God is a day of wrath, even if it be a day of mirth. Lean ever, ye saints, on him, on whom the world leans. Ye people, pour out your heart before him. Ye to whom his love is revealed, reveal yourselves to him. His heart is set on you, lay bare your hearts to him. Turn the vessel of your soul upside down in his secret presence, and let your inmost thoughts, desires, sorrows, and sins be poured out like water. Hide nothing from him, for you can hide nothing. To the Lord unburden your soul; let him be your only father confessor, for he only can absolve you when he has heard your confession. To keep our griefs to ourselves is to hoard up wretchedness. The stream will swell and rage if you dam it up: give it a clear course, and it leaps along and creates no alarm. Sympathy we need, and if we unload our hearts at Jesus' feet, we shall obtain a sympathy as practical as it is sincere, as consolatory as it is ennobling. The writer in the Westminster Assembly's Annotations well observes that it is the tendency of our wicked nature to bite on the bridle, and hide our grief in sullenness; but the gracious soul will overcome this propensity, and utter its sorrow before the Lord. God is a refuge for us. Whatever he may be to others, his own people have a peculiar heritage in him; for us he is undoubtedly a refuge: here then is the best of reasons for resorting to him whenever sorrows weigh upon our bosoms. Prayer is peculiarly the duty of those to whom the Lord has specially revealed himself as their defence. SELAH. Precious pause! Timely silence! Sheep may well lie down when such pasture is before them. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 8. Trust in him, etc. To trust in God is to cast our burden on the Lord, when it is too heavy for our own shoulder (Psalms 55:22); to dwell "in the secret place of the Most High," when we know not where to lay our heads on earth (Psalms 91:1); to "look to our Maker," and to "have respect to the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 17:7); to lean on our Beloved (Song of Solomon 8:5 Isa 36:6); to stay ourselves, when sinking, on the Lord our God (Isaiah 26:3). In a word trust in God is that high act or exercise of faith whereby the soul, looking upon God and casting itself on his goodness, power, promises, faithfulness, and providence, is lifted up above carnal fears and discouragements; above perplexing doubts and disquietments; either for the obtaining and continuance of that which is good, or for the preventing or removing of that which is evil... Trust in him at all times. This holy duty is indeed never out of season; so much the original word for time, t[, imports. True, indeed, our Saviour saith, and saith truly, "My time," i.e., my time of discovering myself to be a wonder working God, "is not yet come." Yea, but all time in respect of trust in God, as an appointed, yea, and an accepted time. The wise man tell us (Ecclesiastes 3:1), "There is an appointed time for every purpose under heaven:" a time to kill and to heal, to plant and to pluck up, to weep and to laugh, to get and to lose, to be born and to die. In all these trust in God is not, like snow in harvest, uncomely, but seasonable, yea, necessary. There may be, indeed, a time when God will not be found, but no time wherein he must not be trusted. Nullum tempus occurit regi, saith the law; let me add, nec fiducae, and it is sound divinity. The time of trusting in God cannot be lapsed. But more expressly. There are some special instances and nicks of time for trust.- 2 Chronicles 20:12Psalms 56:3
- Proverbs 17:17Psalms 44:8Isaiah 26:4Psalms 52:8
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