Till We Are Home

The intrusion of hard providences in our life can sometimes feel quite profound. When they come, we may pause and wonder how did my life come to this? Why is this happening to me? Where is God in all this?

It’s an awkward pause to what before was normal…now is not.

How do we move forward? How do we react to days or seasons like this? Does God’s Word help us know what to do next?

The other day I read Psalm 62, finding a strange placement for a ‘Selah’. The inclusion of ‘Selah’ in the psalms is meant for us to pause during the course of our reading and reflect on what God just said. Oftentimes, a ‘Selah’ will follow a truth about God that we can relish and find rest in. Sometimes, these come at points strange and unexpected. 

The first two verses in the sixty-second psalm speak of how God is David’s fortress and salvation, the One he waits on. Then, the next two verses speak of an intrusive hard providence during that season of David’s life – deceitful enemies seemed to be attacking him, desirous of seeing his ruin. David found himself in the middle of a time when, by God’s providence, enemies seemed relentless in their pursuit of his demise. 

Then comes the ‘Selah’. 

Selah? You’re telling me of a time when enemies abounded all around you…of their restless attack against you, and now I’m to pause and consider this? I’m to pause – awkwardly pause – and reflect? Reflect on what? 

Maybe what David is getting at with this strangely placed ‘Selah’ is that life can feel like this sometimes. Maybe some of us put our hope and trust in the Lord some time ago and carried about life in fruitful and relatively easy ways. Then, one day, a calamity falls upon us. A hard providence of God comes our way. In the middle of life, difficulties may arise out of the blue that will challenge that foundation of hope we settled on in the past.

Is God truly my salvation? Is God truly my fortress and rock? Will I hide in Him when that storm comes? Or, will I instead let calamity’s waves sink me under? 

I think that particular ‘Selah’ is there in Psalm 62 to remind us that difficulties will come in the middle of our lives, and we are meant to pause and consider where to turn. 

Thankfully, a ‘Selah’ is only a pause. We don’t just close our Bible in those moments and leave off there. God intends for us to read the next line and keep moving. After this, David says, 

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
    for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
    my mighty rock, my refuge is God.”

David reminds himself of the truth he once learned…he instructs his soul how to respond! “Soul, don’t give in. Don’t give up. Remember that God is our very present help in times of trouble. This season hurts and is painful, but He is near. Run to the mighty Rock of your salvation!”

Seasons of difficulty and very painful experiences have arrested me in my place. They’ve challenged me to see where my hope truly was. During those days, the temptation would come to lure me away from my God, to respond in ungodly ways, and sometimes to give it all up to find another way. Life can feel so unbelievably painful sometimes.

But God…

David recalled the very truth the Lord taught him throughout his life. God reminded David that security and rest could still be found even in the midst of dark days. David only needed to wait on Him.

When difficult days arise in our life, we will feel the sting of a world broken by sin…broken by our sin. Those days will hurt and feel quite dark and scary. We will feel like giving up. But hear the psalmist who waited on the Lord. 

Pause and wait in silence…the Lord is near. He will be and is your very refuge and strength. He will see you through that valley, walk at your side and guide you out to find rest for your soul. And, He will lay before you green pastures and still waters. Maybe not by taking away that hard providence, but you will find He is your green pasture…He is your still waters, and that refuge you so desperately need lies with Him even in the throes of that hard providence.

Like David did in the rest of Psalm 62 when he recounted the solid truth of life in this world. We don’t put our hope in a sin-broken world that can’t sustain our joy and hope. We look instead to a time when all will be redeemed, all will be made right, when we will be at home with the Lord. So, we put our hope in our mighty rock, find Him as our refuge and fortress; that we will not be shaken as we wait on Him…

Till we are home…