Control Your Soul

He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. In God is my strength and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us, sailaam. Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie.

To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not in oppression and become not vain in robbery. If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. For thou rendest to every man according to his work. Would you pray with me tonight? Our Father in heaven, we thank you for, first of all, for the opportunity to pray for these requests and for one another, Lord help us to be faithful in that occupation of being priests of God that is interceding for others.

You have called us to be kings and priests, and indeed we are. And so Lord help us to fulfill that ministry that you’ve given to each and every one of us. And as we study Psalm 62 tonight, bless our study, help me to know exactly what to say, and to help your people to receive it as it is in truth, the Word of God, that they might be strengthened and edified.

Lord work in our hearts, we ask in Jesus’ name, amen. Now you’ll notice in the Psalm that a number of things are repeated. I won’t spend a lot of time on this, but notice he talks about waiting upon God and how God is his rock, his salvation, his defense. It’s in verse two, it’s in verse six. God is my salvation is repeated several times throughout the Psalm.

And then notice what he says, if you go back up to verse number two, he says, he only is my rock. And then you go a little bit further down, verse six says, he only is my rock and my salvation. Verse number, let’s see, let’s see, trust in him. I had another verse written down, but here it is, verse number five, my soul wait thou only upon God.

You notice that, the only, the mentions of the only. And so kind of the thrust, if you look at the Psalm as a whole, the thrust is to put one’s trust in God and only in God. Now this is a key thing we have to understand as believers, as God’s people, is that God sometimes chooses to use means, that is he uses people, he uses things to supply our needs and to help us and to deliver us and sometimes even to be our salvation.

For instance, I’ll give you an example. If you remember when Hezekiah was the king of Judah and they were surrounded by the king, remember Rabshakee, who was sent by king Sennacherib, and he came and surrounded the city and he cried out to God and he laid the letter in the temple, you remember that in the scripture? And he depended, he did this, he trusted in God and he set his hope in God and God was his defense, but God used means to get rid of that threat and to save him.

So it wasn’t necessarily like miraculous as in God sent fire from heaven, no, he used something to answer that prayer and so that’s exactly what we see here. But even though sometimes God uses means to do the things that we call upon Him for, we must never forget that He is to only be our rock and our salvation. In other words, ultimately and finally, it is God alone that we trust.

We know He uses things to do what we ask, but ultimately God alone is our trust. Now if you’ll notice verse number eight says, trust in Him at all times, you people, pour out your heart before Him. That’s the idea of prayer. And then it mentions men of low degree and men of high degree and sometimes the men of high degree are those upon whom we might trust, right?

Especially in scripture, you know, when they had an issue, they would take their matter to the judge and if they had a problem, they would want the judge to relieve them, but they can’t trust in that judge. The Lord says even men of high degree are a lie. And man, in this season as elections ramp up, these men of high degree who think they’re something, right? But they’re a lie, they’re a lie.

And the best politician is the one who will say, you know, Psalm 62, 9, that’s me. I don’t know if you’d say that publicly because, you know, especially if you’re in the midst of an election, but I mean, but it’s still true. You know, it’s still true. But that might be something that we trust, especially in our country, right? We think, well, if we just got the right guy in, no, the Lord only is our trust.

Then you go to verse number 10, trust not in oppression. That’s wrongdoing. Become not vain in robbery. Of course, you can’t trust in those things. The Lord must only be your trust. But then it goes on to say, if riches increased, set not your heart upon them. What happens when we what happens when we have a a windfall, right? An abundance. Maybe we get that tax return if you get a tax return, right?

Maybe you get that tax return and Uncle Sam gives you some of your money back. He’s so gracious. You get some of your money back and you feel like I’m good. Everything’s good. And the tendency when you have when you’re in that situation is to trust in that. But you got to remember and remind yourself, God only is my rock. Right. That’s what he says. Trust. If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.

So even if they go up, it’s not something we we really put a lot of put a lot of stock in. Pardon the pun or put a lot of we put we don’t not to put trust in that knowing. And the Lord, if even if you tend to do that, the Lord will convince you otherwise, because it will not be long and all of that money will be gone.

Is that not true? Those who have been around a while, would you say, oh, I’ve had good times when things came in and all the bills are paid and there was extra and we can do this and do that. And then that was followed by a low time when things got tight and unexpected bills. And all of a sudden you were reminded.

Next time that the finance is bettered. Right. You had the knowledge that, you know, I don’t need to pay much attention to this because it won’t be long and it’ll be gone. And that’s just that’s the way it is. That’s the way life works. And so the Lord wants us to make sure that our only trust, he is our only source of trust, not in men, not in those in places of power, not in finances, and certainly not in evil doing, but God alone is our trust, even if he uses other things to help us.

The other, the next thing I want you to see is I want you to just notice, and this is more of a something to help you in your Bible study, especially in the Psalms, is ask yourself this question, who in the Psalm is addressed? In this Psalm, there are five different groups that are addressed. Of course, you have the reader like verse one, truly my soul waiteth upon God, from him cometh my salvation.

So the psalmist is speaking to those who are reading the Psalm, and he’s telling about how God is his salvation. And of course, that’s throughout the Psalm. But then you also see in verse number three, he says, how long will you imagine mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain all of you. So in verse number three, the psalmist, dear David, directs his Psalm at the wicked, or at the evildoers who imagine mischief.

And then you go down to verse number eight, and you see he says, trust in him at all times, ye people. So maybe he’s talking to his, the congregation, maybe he’s talking to those under his care.

And then lastly, in verse number 12, he says this, also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. So he directs his Psalm to God. There are five, and I missed one on purpose, but there are five addressees in the Psalm. Now, when you read the Psalms, if you pay attention, and sometimes it’s hard to know exactly who the psalmist is talking to, but if you pay attention, you can really come across some good and meaty and rich truths by just paying attention to who is being addressed.

And there’s all kinds of things in there, and I’ll just leave that to you. I just want you to point it out. And in fact, tonight, I’m going to spend the rest of our time looking at one of those addressees, and that’s in verse number five. Look what it says.

He says, my soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Isn’t this interesting? The person to whom David is speaking in verse five is his own soul. And this is, you’ve seen this before, oh my soul, right? You’ve seen that many times in the Psalm. But isn’t that kind of an odd person to talk to? He’s kind of talking to himself. But what is the soul?

What is the soul? The soul is the inner man. The soul is the inner man. Whenever you see the soul, it’s primarily in the Old Testament, you’re referring to, it’s sort of like saying the heart. It’s referring to the inner man. And how do we know that? Well, just listen to these things. And I just went through the Psalms. I did a search for my soul in Scripture as a phrase, my soul in the Psalms.

And these are some of the things I came to. Listen to these. The writer in these verses talks about what his soul is thinking or how his soul feels. In Psalm 6-3, his soul is sore vexed. In Psalm 31-9, his soul is grieved. In Psalm 35-13, his soul is humbled. In Psalm 42-2, his soul thirsts. In Psalm 42-11, his soul is cast down. In Psalm 57-6, his soul is bowed down.

In Psalm 77-2, his soul has refused to be comforted. In Psalm 84-2, his soul longs. In Psalm 88-3, his soul is full of troubles. In Psalm 119-20, his soul breaks. In Psalm 119-25, his soul cleaves to the dust. In Psalm 119-28, his soul melts. In Psalm 119-81, his soul faints. In Psalm 141-8, his soul is destitute. In Psalm 143-12, his soul is afflicted. That’s a bunch, and that’s not all of them.

So what is the thing, why did I read all those to you? It’s very simple. When the psalmist talks about his own soul, he’s talking about what we would say, and in the way we talk in modern English, we would say that he’s talking about how he feels. He’s describing his emotions. He’s describing his heart. And how many of you know what it’s like to have a heart or be in an emotional state where you’re cast down or you’re vexed or you’re grieved or all the other things that I read?

How many of you know what that’s like? Well, you know when you wake up in the morning, you’re not happy, or you are happy. And you know when things are going well, you’re happy. And when you have that windfall I mentioned a minute ago, or when you have an unexpected bill like I had today, and you gotta pay that, and that makes you unhappy. And you know what it’s like to be grieved in that case.

And so when the psalmist describes his soul, he’s describing his emotional state. How we feel, what is in our heart. But here’s the thing you have to remember, and we all have to remember, is this. Whatever our feelings are, whatever our soul feels, like David describes, our soul is to also be subject to God’s truth. Okay? Now I know that might seem obvious. Let’s look at his scripture.

Look at 2 Corinthians, and we’re gonna come back to the Psalms in just a minute. But look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Verse number three. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 says this, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

You’ll notice verse four is all in parentheses. So I’m gonna read three and connect it with five, and I’m gonna read four and connect it with five. And I’m gonna read four and connect it with five. And I’m gonna read four and connect it with five. And exclude the parentheses so we get the full sentence here. Okay? For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Now it’s interesting in verse three he mentions the flesh. Verse four he mentions the flesh. He mentions carnality. And then in verse five he talks about the thoughts, right? Which is really what we’re talking about when we talk about the soul, the inner man, the heart, what goes on on the inside. And it says in verse five, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God.

Do you ever have feelings that assert themselves in your heart and in your mind that are against the knowledge of God? That are contrary to the knowledge of God? Well, I might be the only one, but I often have feelings, you know, in my soul, like David’s describing, I often have feelings that are contrary to the knowledge of God. In other words, to what God has revealed as the truth in Scripture.

What must yield? Well, I feel this way. But God says this. It is our feelings, it is our soul that must yield. God’s word must not yield. Even our feelings must be subject to God’s truth. It says, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. So not only our thoughts, like what we consciously think, but anything that passes through our mind and through our heart.

In other words, the way we feel is also supposed to be under the obedience of Christ. Here’s the problem. Here’s what I’m getting to here. The problem with our feelings, oh my soul, remember the psalmist is talking to his soul. The problem with that is, in our world, we have been taught that feelings should be feelings should hold the steering wheel of our life. We have been taught that if you feel a thing, it is true and it is right.

Second Corinthians chapter 10 tells us, verse 5 tells us, the thoughts of our heart, the innermost part of our heart is also supposed to be subject to Christ. Even the way we feel is supposed to heal before Christ.

That means that our feelings are not supposed to reign in our life like we’re taught. These days it’s all about validation. It’s all about validation and affirming someone’s feeling. If you have any doubt, and this is not something people are taught overtly, but if you have any doubt, if we have any doubt whatsoever that people are taught that their feelings must always be affirmed and validated, then just tell them that what they feel is wrong one time.

Well, this is the way I feel. Well, that’s wrong. The way you feel is not right. And the look and the response you’ll get will make you feel a certain way. Because people are taught, we’re all, all of us are taught that if we feel a thing, it is right. Because we feel it. And here’s the problem with that. The problem with that is when we think our feelings aren’t to be challenged, we think our feelings can rule and we feel thing, if we feel a thing, it is right.

It’s like getting into the back seat of a car and letting the other person feel it. And letting our feelings take the wheel, our soul that is, take the wheel, and we just along for the ride. In other words, we’re a victim of our own feelings.

That’s dangerous. That’s dangerous. Now there are times when, I mean, you can’t, you can’t always control the way you feel. Right? You can’t always. I mean, there are things that, you know, you know, as far as our inner man, our inner man, our outer man are connected. Health problems exist that can affect the way you feel. That’s, it’s true. It’s a scriptural truth. It’s a medical truth.

And so that’s just a fact. So you can have health issues that can affect the way you feel. You can wake up in the morning in a bad mood and it affect the way you feel. You can, you can have bad feelings because you’re hungry. Right? Hangry, they call it. But you can also have bad feelings as a result of outward circumstances. Can you not? Things happen that over which you have no control that influence you and affect you.

So it’s not like, it’s not like we’re saying every thought, every feeling that you have is, is, is evil or, or other things should never affect it. No, things do affect it. And there’s nothing in the world you can do about a lot of that. But that does not mean that you say, hey, soul, get up in the front seat and you, you just, you just take it and I’ll just ride in the back.

Well, that’s going to lead us to some bad things because our soul is going to think some things and feel some things that are not right in response to some of this, if I can call it stimuli that’s around us.

Now, so that means that you should not, you should not let your soul, let your feelings and your emotions be in the driver’s seat and you in the back seat. Now think about, think about it in another way.

Think about your outer man. Now we’re talking about the inner man with the soul, but think about your outer man, your body. Are there any times when you have to force your outer man, your body, to do things that it doesn’t want to do?

No, I mean, you tell me every morning you want to get up and go to work or every, every day you want to go and do exercise or every day that you’re on a diet, you want to eat just exactly what’s on the diet. Yes, none of that. Who said that?

Exactly. You know, you’re on a diet and you got to stop eating. It’s time to go exercise, time to go walking, get up in the morning, go to work, cut the grass, clean out the garage. These are things I, you know, I wrote down and so, you know, I’m telling all myself here. Even things like pray or read our Bible or come to church. We don’t feel like it.

In other words, our, our body doesn’t want to cooperate. But what do we say? What do we say? Oh, well, okay. Well, it doesn’t feel like it. So we’re just not going to do it. If you, if that, if you put your body, if you put your outer man in the driver’s seat and you get in the back seat, is that going to go to a good place?

Of course not. It’s not. In each of these cases and many, many more, our outer man is not interested in doing the things that it should do. It wants to sleep in. It wants to be lazy. It wants to eat like a glutton and take it easy and rest and stay at home and, and do, and, you know, it doesn’t want to pray. It doesn’t want to read the Bible.

And if we just let the outer man determine what we did, the end would not be pretty. But this is exactly what we do with our inner man. We say, I’ll get in the back seat. You drive. If you want to do it, do it. If you feel it, go for it. If it feels good, do it. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t.

But it’s just like the inner man. It’s just like the outer man. Just like we have to get out of the back seat and jump in the driver’s seat of our outer man to force him to do things that he’s not interested in doing. So we must get in the driver’s seat of our inner man and do the same. We cannot just be alone for the ride in our soul.

And our Lord in verse five encourages us to get in the driver’s seat of our soul and steer him, him where you want him to go. What do I mean? Look at verse five again, back in Psalm 62.

Psalm 62. Verse five. Notice what he says. He says, my soul, this is imperative now. My soul, wait thou upon God. You know what he’s doing? He’s talking to his inner man and he’s telling him what to do.

But I don’t want to wait. I don’t feel like it’s going to help. I’m afraid. I’m scared. I don’t know what to do. I feel like I need to go here. I need to trust in this or trust in that. And I need to solve the problem. I’m nervous. I’m anxious. Well, okay, the circumstances might have brought you to that point. But that’s at the point where we have to look at our, we have to look, I don’t know how you look at your soul, we have to direct our address to our soul and say, so wait thou upon God.

You know what that is? That’s you in the front seat of your life driving your soul. That’s bringing it under into obedience. To Christ. So just because we feel a thing doesn’t justify it or vindicate it or validate it. What we feel, there might be reasons we feel that way, but that doesn’t mean we’re just like along for the ride, drug about like a water skier in the back of a boat.

No. No. The Lord says, get in the driver’s seat and tell your soul what to do. And sometimes that means you have to remind your soul about the truth of what God says.

And purposefully not entertain thoughts and feelings that you know are contrary to scripture. And that’s hard to do. That is so hard to do, is it not? It is. Because something about the soul, the inner man, is so powerful and somewhat even deceptive. Because we feel it, we think it’s true because we, it’s just, I know it’s true. I know it’s true. How do you know it’s true?

I feel it in my heart. I just have a few verses to read and I’ll be finished. Just listen to a few of these. Psalm 16, verse 2, oh my soul, again talking to his soul, thou I said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee. Psalm 42 verse 5, why art thou cast down, oh my soul? And why art thou disgraced, oh my soul?

And why art thou disquieted within me, hope thou in God? You know, that’s a perfect example. He’s anxious, he’s depressed, he’s downtrodden. Maybe things, bad things are happening. But the psalmist speaks to his soul and says, what are you doing? Don’t you remember God?

Get in the driver’s seat, grab that steering wheel and go where you know God’s word wants you to go. Psalm 43 says the same thing. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God. Psalm 62 verse 5, my soul, wait thou only upon God.

Psalm 103, one, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Have you ever had a time in your life when you did not feel like blessing the Lord? You did not feel like giving God thanks and praise?

Right? At that point, he says, soul, give God praise. Grabbing that steering wheel, I will praise him. Right? But I don’t feel like it. Did you feel like getting up and going to work in the morning? But you went. Now do that very same thing with your soul. Right? It’s hard to do. I know it’s hard to do.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh Lord my God, thou art very great. Psalm 116, seven, return unto thy rest, oh my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. He’s telling his soul to rest, to rest. And of course, Psalm 146, verse one, he says, praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord, oh my soul. So, you have to remember, we all have to remember this.

Whatever we feel, for whatever reason we feel, we must get in the driver’s seat and grab the steering wheel of our heart and of our soul and tell it where to go. Amen. Let’s pray.