Rest in God Alone

    Psalm 62 always has held a special place in my heart. I have loved reading it and singing it for years. (Not that I am extraordinarily old or anything, but probably a good 8 years.....) As with all of God’s word, there is so much to be discovered and learned in this passage of scripture. No matter how many times I read this psalm, I always come away from it with a new understanding. The Word of God truly “is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword...it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart...” (Hebrews 4:12)

      Psalm 62 came as both a challenge and comfort to me last school year, in the midst of finishing up my junior year. My younger brother started having unexplainable seizures around Christmas. A flurry of doctor appointments, MRIs and a slew of medications followed. It seemed like we were practically living at the hospital and the worst part was, the seizures just kept getting more and more frequent, until he was having up to twenty or more a day. It was a frightening time where we all felt completely helpless. This time, I couldn’t even fool myself into thinking I, or anyone else in my family, had control over this situation. The hard truth was....we didn’t. And it was scary. However, God is so faithful to His children. He gave us the strength to endure, even when we were so tired that when we went to pray, we couldn’t even think of words to say. The Holy Spirit interpreted the wordlessness, the groans and tears on my heart to a prayer before the Lord, who hears our prayers.

    God used Psalm 62 to give me encouragement during this time. There have been many times when the Lord has used this psalm in my life, but this is the time that stands out the most clearly to me. 

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.” (Vs. 1)

    Let’s face it. Waiting is hard. I absolutely hate waiting. (Guess how many times I’ve heard: “Patience is virtue”? Oh, and, more importantly, it’s a fruit of the spirit.) It’s even harder to wait when I’m not in control of anything, which, actually, is all the time.  In God’s grace, He has provided a way for sinful mankind’s relationship with Him to be restored. It came at a heavy price. A perfect, unblemished sacrifice had to be offered up in the stead of all those who would come to faith. That sacrifice was the sinless son of God, fully man yet still fully God—Jesus Christ. Death could not hold him, however, and after three days, Jesus rose again from the grave, triumphant over death and sin- victorious over that which has held His chosen in bondage. “...From Him comes out salvation.” (Vs. 1b)

   Men still sin, though. This is evident in everyday life. Even worse, we still have that prideful sin that was evident in Adam and Eve that makes us think we know just as much as God, or more. We don’t want to have to depend or rely on God for anything! We are bombarded by the world with the lies that we have to make a way for ourselves and there’s “no such thing as a free lunch” type of mentality.   

   Well, here’s something that is hard for us to swallow:

    We have nothing worthy in and of ourselves that would cause God to choose us as His children. I have no righteousness on my own. I can’t come to God on my own. There is such a thing as a “free lunch” when it comes to grace. It’s called free grace. And God bestows it on those who He has chosen since before the beginning of time. This understanding of grace is the basis of understanding our own depravity.

     Waiting on the Lord in silence, as it says in verse 1 of Psalm 62 is to rely on Him fully for salvation-not trusting in my own “power” or “righteousness” to save me. Isaiah 64:6 says that “...all our righteous acts are as filthy rags...” More than just that, it is also waiting for the Lord’s answer in prayer. Waiting in silence does not mean to aimlessly wait around or adopting an “oh well” type of attitude. It means waiting for God to answer our prayers in His time and continuing to pray and seek His face, even while we are waiting for the answer. The answer is not always the one that we are expecting, however. God commands us to pray and when we pray, we do have to resign ourselves mentally that, ultimately, God’s will, will be accomplished even if it isn’t in the means that I want or expect.

    I’m going to blow a big part of the story with my brother and tell you something about God working out prayer in unexpected means. I prayed that the Lord would bring healing to my brother, and if healing wasn’t in the plan, that He would continue to give my brother strength and faith to endure the seizures. The doctors put him on all different type of medications to try and control the epileptic attacks. There was one medicine that we thought was working for a while, but it actually inhibited his ability to talk and process things. Obviously, he wasn’t on that one very long, but that shook up my family and I even more.

    I was beginning to wonder if my brother was going to struggle with uncontrolled seizures for the rest of His life. That was not a comforting thought. I struggled hard with waiting on the Lord and relying on Him. (You would think I was the one having the seizures here....)
   Then, the doctors came across a medication that worked.  It worked! Praise the Lord! My family was absolutely awed at the way the Lord worked through the medical team to provide this healing.

    We found out later that it wasn’t total healing. It was merely a way to control the symptoms, but the problem was still there. We discovered that Colton has a benign tumor on his brain and that was what was causing the seizures. So far it hasn’t grown any more, but he still has regular MRIs to monitor the tumor.

    The Lord provided an answer to our prayers that the seizures would stop, but it was not in the way that we expected. My brother still could have trouble with this tumor, and thus seizures, in the future. But praise God for stopping the seizures for now, and my brother is now able to get back to his schoolwork and normal life.   

   Waiting on God is not easy. When you come to saving faith, it’s not like there’s a big BOOM, and your life is perfect. It actually gets harder, because you have to battle against the pride and selfishness that exists in our hearts. Jesus evens warns us, “I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart: I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) The key words being here: I have overcome the world.

   In Christ, we are victorious over sin. “...From Him comes my salvation.” (Psalm 62:1b) Waiting on the Lord is a lifelong process, but in Him, we have victory.