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Josh Combs · 7 Jun 2026

Josh Combs · Sunday, 7 June 2026 · 32:17 · 3,717 words

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Psalm 62 shows David turning his soul’s longing to God alone, declaring Him his rock, salvation and fortress, not to be shaken by life’s pressures. The sermon warns that trusting in people’s approval, wealth or personal plans leads to instability, and impatience can erode faith. It urges believers to return quietly to the Lord when hardships and enemies attack, pouring out their hearts at all times. Listeners are invited to fix their hope solely on God, the only unshakeable refuge.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

david 30 alone 22 approval 11 rock 16 shaken 11 soul 17 masses 6 chronicles 6 wait 18 trust 19 fortress 8 finally 9

Topics

Salvation 6 Sin 2 Hope 2 Prayer 1 Faith 1

Scripture referenced 16

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 62 0:35 Psalms 62 1:03 Psalms 62 1:24 1 Chronicles 16 1:53 1 Chronicles 16 1:56 1 Chronicles 16:33 1:56 Psalms 62 2:39 Psalms 62:42 2:54 Psalms 62 3:23 Psalms 62:1 3:57 Psalms 3 9:49 Psalms 3:8 9:49 Psalms 20 25:36 2 Chronicles 20 28:46 2 Chronicles 20:12 29:23 2 Chronicles 20 30:23

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Mitchell, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Let's open our Bibles this morning to the book of Psalms, Psalm 62.

If you don't have a Bible, I want to encourage you to share with someone sitting next to you.

Or you can take out your phone, you can download a Bible app or the River Church app.

There's a Bible feature there. You can follow along.

If you're a guest, I want to welcome you. Thank you for being here.

Honored to have you here today.

The Bible says to the choir master, according to Jaduthun,

Psalm of David.

So David is the writer here, and he is sending this song to the leader of the choir, choir master.

And it is according to this man's name mentioned.

And if you want to just jot in your notes or you can turn there, hold your spot in Psalms,

and just go to the left to 1 Chronicles very quickly.

1 Chronicles chapter 16.

1 Chronicles chapter 16 and verse 33.

We'll read this a little bit, and you'll recognize the name.

So David left Asaph and his brothers there before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord

to minister regularly before the Ark as each day required.

And also Obed-Edom and his 68 brothers.

Just let that settle in for just a moment.

While Obed-Edom and the son of Jaduthun, or Jaduthun, and Hosah,

were to be gatekeepers.

So here we know a little bit of indication of the man who's mentioned at the beginning of Psalm 62.

He is one of the gatekeepers near the Ark of the Covenant,

the place where God would be worshipped.

Jump down to verse 42.

And I love this verse because it says he-man in it.

So he-man, probably not how you pronounce it, but I'm going to.

And Jaduthun had trumpets.

And symbols were the music and instruments for sacred song.

The sons of Jaduthun were appointed to the gate.

And we can go back to Psalm 62.

And that was at the time of David.

Later on, during Solomon, King Solomon's time,

Jaduthun is mentioned as well.

And his sons, his heirs, his family were gatekeepers.

They were also musicians.

So we see them leading in the worship and praise of God.

So he is included as part of the instruction of this psalm.

So Psalm 62, verse 1.

David says,

For God alone my soul waits in silence.

From him comes salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.

And I shall not be greatly...

David says it is for God and God alone that my soul waits.

God and God alone that my soul is longing for.

I would ask you, what are you, what is your soul longing for?

Or waiting for?

Or anticipating?

Certainly nothing wrong with hopes and anticipation.

The Bible is saying here, David is writing that his soul is,

is hanging on, is hoping for God and God alone.

Waiting for God and God alone.

What are you waiting for?

Meaning, when you think, when that happens,

when this happens, I'll be content.

Or when this happens or that happens, I'll be at peace.

Or when this happens in my career, my life, I'll feel successful or fulfilled.

When that finally happens, I'll feel stable.

When this happens in my life, I'll finally feel...

Maybe for you, that's marriage.

Maybe it has something to do with your children.

When we finally have children or when our children graduate

or when they move out or when they get that scholarship.

When this happens, waiting for that.

Certainly nothing wrong with waiting for things to happen

or children to come.

It's beautiful and wonderful.

But is that the longing, the core soul longing of your soul?

Maybe for you, it's...

When the right job comes or the right career.

Where I finally get that promotion, I'll feel content.

I'll feel successful.

I'll feel stable and safe.

Maybe it's when we finally get the house that we're dreaming of.

I hear people say sometimes, we just found our forever home.

And certainly don't want to discourage you finding a house that you love.

But no home on this earth will be forever.

Sorry to break that to you.

Maybe for you, it's financial.

It's a certain dollar.

When I see that on my financial statement or in the bank account

or my portfolio or my advisor finally says,

you've reached this spot.

Then I'll feel a certain security.

Maybe it is retirement.

When I finally retire, when that happens,

oh, just can't wait.

Maybe for you, it's more personal or physical.

When I finally lose that weight, when the scale says that number,

I'll feel happy or I'll feel beautiful.

Or I'll feel something I've been longing for my whole life.

It's the idea, a thought that if I could just get that or when that happens,

David says, for God alone, my soul waits.

David says, for God alone, my soul waits in silence.

One writer says, God's delays are not God's denials.

But our impatience can be used.

By the devil to lead us on dangerous and destructive detours.

Pray, we long, we ask the Lord and the Lord does not show up in the exact time

or in the exact way that we want him to show up.

When we see that as God's denial or we see God delaying

and his timing isn't what we demand or what we expect.

And that can lead us to impatience that can lead us to an erosion of our faith.

And our faith and our trust in the Lord.

So David says, for God alone, my soul waits in silence.

From him comes my salvation.

Here's this word again, alone.

He alone, singularly, God is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.

I shall not be greatly shaken.

Twice there, David says, the Lord is his salvation.

Psalm chapter three, verse eight says, salvation.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

His ability to save, to save us from what?

To save us from the eternal consequences of our sin.

Sin meaning breaking God's laws, God's rules.

Here's God's perfect standard laid out in the Bible.

And we see the commandments of God.

And then we take our life and we compare it for just a moment.

Even if you were to compare my life for one hour to God's commandments,

I would still be guilty.

And so would you of sin.

And if you said, no, no, I made it with an hour without sinning this week.

I would know that you also struggle with lying.

Because the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

First John says, if any of you, if anyone says they have no sin,

they're a liar and the truth is not in them.

What does God do?

God and God alone offers salvation.

And he offers that to us through the gift of Jesus.

That God so loved the world that he gave,

his only begotten son,

that Jesus came and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.

And that Jesus was buried and Jesus rose from the dead.

And he offers to every person sitting here,

every person watching online,

he offers to you the forgiveness of your sins and the hope of eternal life.

The Bible says that if you'll confess with your mouth,

Jesus says, Lord,

and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead,

you will be saved.

Not might be saved,

not hopefully will be saved,

but you,

you will be saved again,

saved from the eternal consequences of our sin.

Who alone does that?

It is God.

It is not religion.

It is not good deeds.

It is not family connections,

not country of origin.

It is God and God alone who offers to us forgiveness of our sins and the hope of eternal life

through the gift of Jesus.

David says from him comes my salvation.

He alone is my salvation,

but also not just my salvation,

but my rock and my fortress.

When David is writing here in ancient times,

a rock was a place of stability,

especially in a desert land.

It was a place of safety.

You could build upon it.

It was a place where things would not be eroded.

You could live there.

You could build a home upon it.

David says of God that he is my rock.

He is my rock and my fortress.

I shall not be greatly shaken.

What God does for me is he provides a foundation,

a place of stability,

meaning I will not be shaken.

The world will not,

I cannot be shook.

I'm not going to be rocked by circumstances

because my life is built firmly on the rock

and enclosed and safe in the fortress that is the Lord.

So David is writing here.

It's a bit of a prayer,

but I love the detour of verse three and four.

It's this wonderful song,

this wonderful prayer in verse one and two,

and then a strange kind of left turn.

how long will all of you attack a man to batter him?

Like a leaning wall, a tottering fence,

they only plan to thrust him down from his high position.

They take pleasure in falsehood.

They bless with their mouths,

but inwardly they curse.

This is Selah.

Selah is a pause.

It's a included pause in the Psalms.

When you come to that word there,

the writer is saying,

ponder this for a moment,

think about this for a second,

and then continue reading.

So verse one and two,

wonderful song.

I imagine it as a Sunday morning high moment.

we're singing together.

The Lord is great.

My, oh my,

the sun is shining.

Just life is fantastic.

And then three and four,

is you get in the car

and someone pulls out in front of you.

Life hits you in the face.

God, you're awesome.

You're my rock.

You're my salvation.

I shall not be greatly moved.

I am firm.

This is awesome.

God, oh, what is this over here?

Oh, that's right.

I have a horrible boss.

Oh, that's right.

We have that bill.

Oh, that's right.

I have that person that for some unexplicable reason hates me

and I don't get it.

So David is singing.

God, you're awesome.

And then he begins to think about those who attack him.

Looking at verse four,

says they take pleasure in falsehood.

They love to lie about me.

They're liars through and through.

Meaning when I bump into them,

I see them.

they bless with their mouths.

Oh, they're nice when I get to see them.

They pretend to be kind,

David says in verse four,

they curse.

So I know they're talking bad about me behind my back,

making up stories

and don't listen to them.

They're indulging in the gossip,

lying about me,

undermining me at work

or in the neighborhood

or at school

or whatever it might be.

But then when I see them,

they pretend that we're just the best of friends,

but inside they are cursing me.

So here's David Sunday morning.

God, you're awesome.

God, you're my salvation.

God, you're my rock.

I'm not going to be deterred

or shaken by things in this world.

And then Monday comes

and smacks us in the face

and we deal with the reality of life.

Look at what David says.

What David does in verse five.

He goes back to repeating essentially verbatim

verse one and two.

wait in silence.

It's as if it's this Sunday morning awesome

reality of life distracts

and what do we have to do?

We have to discipline ourselves

to turn back to the Lord.

Not be distracted

by circumstances.

Those are real.

Those matter.

That's life.

But say,

God and God alone

is who my soul waits for

and I'm going to wait in silence.

I'm going to be still before the Lord

for my hope is from him.

Meaning my future is secure in him.

I don't have to attempt to secure that

from somebody who might want to destroy that

or hurt me or undermine me

or see something bad happen in my life

because God and God alone,

he has secured my hope.

My hope is from him.

He,

here's the word,

only is my rock.

He only is my rock

and my salvation,

And now look at faith growing.

David says,

I shall not be greatly shaken.

Oh, I might be shaken a little bit.

Now in verse six,

he is more secure

because he's come back to declare who God is

and he says,

I shall not be shaken.

I'm not going to quiver,

I am stable because

of who the Lord is to me.

He only is my rock

and my salvation.

God and God alone.

You see the phrase from him.

You see the phrase in verse six,

he only.

on God.

End of verse seven,

my refuge is God.

This is who David's faith is in.

So he has this beautiful moment of celebration.

My interpretation of it

is he begins to see the reality of his enemies

and goes,

no,

I'm not going to be shaken.

I'm not going to be bothered.

I'm not going to be upset.

I'm not going to be anxious

or stressed about all these things.

I'm going to come back

and once again declare

that the Lord is who my soul waits for.

He's my rock.

He's my salvation.

He's my fortress.

And because of those,

I will not be shaken.

Now he invites.

this is a song written by David

sent to the choir master.

Here's the invitation to others,

maybe who are struggling,

trust in him at all times.

So people trust in God at all times.

So people pour our out your heart before him.

God is a refuge for us.

As simple as I can say this,

God is our safety.

God is our safe place.

We don't have to come to the Lord and pretend.

He is our refuge

and we can come and pour our hearts out before him.

We can trust him.

Love this phrase in verse eight.

At all.

All times.

At all times.

We can trust him.

Those of lowest state are but a breath.

Those of highest state are a delusion.

In the balances they go up,

they are together lighter than a breath.

Put no trust in extortion.

Set no vain hopes on robbery.

If riches increase,

set not your heart on them.

As I began to study this psalm,

sometimes I read the psalms and I'm like,

I don't,

I'm trying to connect these.

Like why?

We talked about the Lord.

Okay, I see you get distracted.

We come back and talk about the Lord.

You're going to invite other people to trust in the Lord.

I don't know what you're saying in verse nine.

So pondering and praying over this.

Here's why.

David is inviting.

He is talking to himself to trust the Lord at all times.

He's inviting other people to trust in the Lord at all times.

Because here's why.

We often trust in everything else.

In all kinds.

In all kinds of other things.

That becomes what we depend on.

We rely on.

We find our security in.

That's what verse nine and 10 means.

Those of lowest state.

He's talking about everyday people.

He's talking about the crowd.

David says those of lowest state,

they're but a breath.

The Bible will say that over and again.

Life is but a vapor.

It's here one moment and it's gone the next.

But often we put our security,

our value,

how we feel about ourselves,

in what the mass of people say.

Social media provides a perfect illustration for this.

I'm going to put this out there

and I'm going to feel good about my vacation.

I'm going to feel good about this.

I'm going to feel good about what happened in my life

because the amount of approval that I got

from the masses of people.

The problem is that's like a breath

and I don't feel good anymore about that.

I have to do something awesome

and then I have to post it out there

so other people can see that

and I need the approval of the masses.

David is saying as king,

he knows that the masses of approval

are going to ebb and flow.

It's but a breath.

So I won't look for,

it's kind of the pivot here,

I won't look for the approval of the masses of people.

I will look for,

those of high estate,

those of important people.

It's not the amount of people that approve me.

It's specific people that give me the thumbs up,

that give me the approval,

that say that thing to me.

So now I'm living for the bosses,

or I'm living for this woman's approval,

or I'm living for this man's approval.

I'm living for that person to take notice of me.

I'm waiting on that.

That's what my soul is craving.

David says those of high estate,

they are a delusion.

Their influence is a fiction.

It's more than just fleeting.

It's fabricated.

So David says you can trust in the approval

of masses of people

or you can trust in the approval

or the dependence.

Lots of people can be your reference,

your refuge,

your salvation,

your rock,

or influential people,

those of high estate.

That can be your salvation.

That can be your rock.

That can be your fortress.

The problem is it's but a breath

and it's a delusion.

Or because in the balances,

they go up.

It all evens out before God.

they are lighter than a breath.

put no trust in extortion.

Set no vain hopes on robbery.

If riches increase,

set not your heart on them.

The invitation in verse 8,

is to wait for and trust in

God and God alone at all times.

The problem is we look for people's approval,

whether it's masses of people

or influential people,

or we look for the safety net,

the perceived safety net of money.

And we, verse 10,

often set our hearts on them.

Psalm 20 says some trust in chariots,

some in horses.

Now you might hear that and go,

I have never trusted in a chariot.

And that would on the surface,

be true,

I think for all of us.

Point of the passage is some trust in their own strength,

their own abilities,

their own schemes,

your own plans,

your own brilliance,

or your own riches and resources.

Don't set your heart on them

because it will always fail.

God will never fail.

So David says,

Not that investment,

not the crowd's approval,

not that influential person,

not some soul,

not some scheme or some plan

to finally come to fruition.

It's okay to plan.

It's okay to invest.

That's not what the passage is saying.

What it is saying is that our hope,

the hope for our soul,

rests on God and God alone.

David says,

once God has spoken,

twice have I heard this,

that power belongs to God

and that to you, O Lord,

belongs steadfast love.

For you will render to a man

according to his.

Charles Spurgeon,

British scholar,

British preacher in the 1800s,

says faith can hear the footsteps

of coming salvation

because it has learned to be silent.

Meaning you want to hear from the Lord talking.

Last word of verse 8.

Take a little selah.

Take a little pause.

Say, Lord, I need to hear from you.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible

is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

And it is a story of King Jehoshaphat.

Makes me uncomfortable

because my name is Josh

and that word is Jehoshaphat.

And that word ends with fat

and I just feel like it's my name

smashed in together.

And it offends me.

But this is King

and he is going to be attacked

and he has no idea what to do.

And in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 12

he says this.

He says,

we do not know what to do

but our eyes are on you.

I love that passage.

How many times in our life

we just don't know what to do

and we feel like it is up to us

to figure it out.

A lot of our young men and women

are graduating high school right now

and looking forward to life

and a lot of our high school

and again our college students

are home for the summer.

And I love asking them

what do you want to do with your life?

Not because I want to put pressure on you at all,

But I want to hear about

what you're dreaming about.

But I want you to know this.

It's okay to look me square in the face

and quote 2 Chronicles 20 12.

I don't know what to do

but my eyes are on the Lord

and that's okay.

It's okay.

I want you to know

if you're over the age of 22

it's also okay for you.

Something's happening at home,

It's okay to say

I don't know what to do

but you can look at the Lord

and say but my eyes are on you.

I'm not going to be shaken.

It's also okay

in verse 8

to pour out your heart

and say God my feet aren't shaking

but my heart is shaking a little bit

and I don't know what to do.

You know that you can trust.

I want you to know

you can trust the Lord.