On God alone my soul in stillness waits; from him comes my salvation

We have had some beautiful commentaries on the Psalms from Nicholas; I offer this from me to him.

There are so many times in our lives when events give us cause to wonder what it is all for? Why do we bother? Has God abandoned us. It can be tempting to give up, turn our face to the wall and if not actually die, then die in spirit.

Verse five of the psalm reminds us that from God alone comes our salvation. He is always there, even if we are not. That sense of the absence of God is displacement activity; it is we who are absent, not him. We say we love him, but what time to do we give him, how much time to do spend with him, talking and listening? Relationships require two parties and they require effort on our part as well as on the part of our beloved.

God is our rock, our strong tower, and in him alone is our refuge. The things of this world cannot bring us true satisfaction; it follows that its slings and arrows cannot prevail against us if we persevere and trust. We have to have that faith of which the author of Hebrews (1:1) writes: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” God will not desert us, even though we might desert him. Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal, he has his arms out though we cannot see him, and he forgives us even though we have not yet told him of our repentance.

We should pray regularly, we should spend time in stillness with God. Sometimes, when the world seems against us, endurance in God is all we have. As the King James version of the Psalm’s eighth verse has it:

Trust in him at all times; ye people pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.