Psalms · psalm 62 of 150
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Psalm 62 is a declaration of trust by David: for God alone his soul waits in silence, because God alone is his rock, his salvation and his fortress. Facing enemies who want to bring him down, David urges himself to wait quietly and calls the people to pour out their hearts to God. He concludes that power belongs to God, that steadfast love also belongs to him and that he repays each person according to his work.
The title says that it is a psalm of David, addressed to the choirmaster and to Jeduthun, a music leader of the temple. It belongs to Book II and, together with Psalm 61, develops the picture of God as rock and refuge. The word alone, repeated several times in the opening verses, is the key to the poem: David rejects other supports and trusts in God only.
David opens with a firm statement: for God alone his soul waits in silence, and from him comes his salvation. God alone is his rock, his salvation and his fortress, so he will not be shaken for good. Then he asks, almost with irony, how long his enemies will rush against a man they treat like a leaning wall and a tottering fence. They plan only to topple him from his height and delight in lies: they bless with their mouths but curse inwardly.
In verses 5 to 8 David speaks to himself and repeats that his soul must rest in God alone. Then he invites the people to trust in God at all times and to pour out their hearts before him, because God is a refuge.
In verses 9 to 10 he compares people, whether of low or high standing, to a breath that weighs nothing on the scales, and warns against trusting in violence, theft or riches that grow. He ends with a lesson that God spoke once and David heard twice: that power belongs to God, that steadfast love also belongs to him and that he repays each person according to his work.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
David affirms that his soul waits in silence for God alone and that his salvation comes from him. The word alone expresses exclusive trust: he does not divide his hope between God and other supports.
David invites the people to trust in God at all times and to pour out their hearts before him. Prayer is not a polished speech but a complete opening of the inner life to a God who is a refuge.
The psalmist warns against trusting in extortion or in robbery and against setting the heart on riches even when they increase. What is stored up cannot give anyone the security that only God offers.
God spoke once and David heard it twice: power belongs to God, and so does steadfast love, and he rewards each person according to his work. A God who is both strong and kind is the ground of secure trust.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The word alone: for God alone his soul waits, and God alone is his rock and salvation. — Psalm 62:1-2
Answer: As men who treat him like a leaning wall and a tottering fence, and who delight in lies. — Psalm 62:3-4
Answer: To trust in him at all times and to pour out their hearts before him. — Psalm 62:8
Answer: To a breath: on the scales they weigh less than nothing. — Psalm 62:9
Answer: In violence, in robbery and in riches, even when they increase. — Psalm 62:10
Answer: Power and steadfast love. — Psalm 62:11-12
Psalm 62 invites us to check where our security really rests: work, money, reputation, health or people. All of these are real, but none of them is the rock. In a small group you can take a moment to write an honest list of what gives us peace and to ask what would happen if it were gone.
It also encourages prayer without decoration. To pour out the heart means telling God what we truly think and feel, without editing. A leader can model it aloud, and the group can learn that waiting in silence is not passivity but resting in the fact that God is both strong and kind.
Psalm 62 ends by saying that power and steadfast love belong to God. Psalm 63 carries that trust into the wilderness: David, thirsty, seeks God earnestly and finds that his love is better than life.
It is a Hebrew poetic way of stressing the importance of what follows. David means that this truth is sure and settled: power belongs to God. It does not refer to two different messages but to one lesson that he has heard clearly and repeatedly.
Jeduthun was one of the musicians David placed in charge of the music for the house of God, according to 1 Chronicles 16:41-42 and 25:1-3. His name also appears in the titles of Psalms 39 and 77, which suggests that his musical tradition was kept for worship.