Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome to another guided reflection.
On the Psalms of Refuge today.
Looking at Psalm 62.
As we begin,
I invite you to just tune.
Bring yourself fully into this time.
Into this stillness.
Allow your body to become comfortable.
Notice the gentle movement of your breath,
The rise and the fall.
The receiving and the releasing.
Nothing forced.
Nothing hurried.
Just breathing.
Just think.
And as you become aware of your breath,
Become aware of the presence of God,
The God who is already here.
The God.
Who's here not waiting for you to become more spiritual or to get everything right,
But who's present now in this moment,
In this breath,
With you,
Simply because You are a child.
Of God.
Let's take a nice slow deep breath in.
And out.
And rest.
As we continue in the Psalms of Refuge with Psalm 62.
A Psalm.
That's really unlike many others.
There's no dramatic images of mountains falling into the sea,
No armies,
No battles,
No great stories.
Rather,
There's a simple and profound invitation.
The psalmist has discovered something that many of us spend our whole lives searching for,
A place of deep inner stillness.
A place beneath the anxieties of life,
Beneath the striving,
Beneath the endless need to prove ourselves.
So let's just listen to the psalmist's own words in the psalm.
Psalm 62.
For God alone my soul waits in silence.
From God comes my salvation.
God alone is my rock and my salvation.
My fortress,
I shall never be shaken.
For God alone my soul waits in silence.
For my hope.
He's from God.
God alone is my rock and my salvation.
My fortress,
I shall not be shaken.
Trust in God at all times,
O people.
Pour out your heart before God.
God is a refuge for us.
Those of lower state are but a breath.
Those of higher state are a delusion.
If riches increase,
Do not set your heart on them.
Once God has spoken,
Twice have I heard this,
That power belongs to God and steadfast love belongs to you.
O Lord.
First of all,
Notice how the psalm begins.
For God alone my soul waits in silence.
There's no talk here of the mind or of circumstances.
But of the soul,
The deepest part of the soul.
Of who we are.
The soul.
Whites.
In silence.
Now understand that this is a silence that isn't empty.
It's a silence of trust,
A silence that comes when we stop trying to hold everything together.
This is the silence that comes when we stop demanding answers from life.
Silence that comes when we realize we don't have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders every day.
We all know how to be busy.
We know how to solve problems.
We know.
How to worry.
And yet many of us have forgotten.
How to rest,
Not just physically.
But spiritually too,
Deeply.
At the level of the soul.
So take a slow breath and ask yourself gently.
When was the last time your soul truly rested?
The psalmist continues,
God alone is my rock and my salvation.
My fortress.
So rock.
And fortress are images that speak of stability,
Something that doesn't move,
That remains.
Something dependable.
So the Psalmist has discovered that much of what we build our lives on is generally unstable.
Our circumstances change.
Opinions change.
Success comes,
Success goes.
Health changes.
Relationships change.
Even our thoughts and emotions shift.
Even from moment to moment.
But beneath all of this,
There's something deeper.
The presence.
Of God.
Imagine standing on solid ground.
Not the shifting sands of fear or the changing tides of circumstance,
But solid ground,
A place of stability,
A place that remains.
And did you notice the psalm repeats itself?
Again and again,
God alone.
God alone.
God alone,
And this repetition is important.
The psalmist is reminding themselves.
Of where true security is found.
Human beings are always tempted to seek refuge somewhere else.
Success,
Approval,
Wealth.
Certainty,
Our intellect,
Being right,
Being admired,
But These things can never carry the weight we place upon them.
So Wanda,
What do you tend to lean on when life feels uncertain?
What do you instinctively run towards?
Just notice.
Don't charge it.
Just be aware of it.
The Psalmist.
Then offers us a beautiful invitation.
Trust in God at all times,
O people.
Pour out your heart before God.
Now that pour out your heart is important.
There's no editing here.
No improving,
No making it sound better or spiritual.
Just pour out your heart as it is.
The psalm assumes an honesty.
Real prayer begins.
Where honesty begins.
And so maybe for a moment,
Imagine pouring out your heart right now before God.
Your joys.
Your fears,
Your frustrations.
Your hopes,
Your questions,
Everything.
Don't hide anything.
Don't hold anything back.
Everything.
And then comes one of the most important lines in the psalm,
God is a refuge for us.
Now I want you to notice the simplicity of this.
There's no qualifications,
Conditions or achievements that you need to tick off.
Before it becomes a truth.
God is a refuge.
And the invitation is simply to enter.
That refuge to rest there.
To trust their.
To dwell there.
And then the psalm turns towards some of the things that we often trust instead.
Status.
Wealth.
Power.
Achievement.
The Psalmist doesn't condemn these things though,
Just simply reminds us that they can't ultimately save us.
They can't give us the peace that we're seeking.
They can't provide the rest.
That our souls are longing for.
And there are many contemplative teachers who speak of this as the great spiritual discovery that everything that we're searching for is already present in God.
The peace,
The belonging,
The security,
The love,
The refuge.
Near the end of the psalm.
The writer says,
Power belongs to God and steadfast love belongs to you,
Oh Lord.
What a beautiful pairing,
Power and love.
Not power and dominion or power and control.
Power and authority.
No.
Power and love.
Steadfast love.
Faithful love.
Enduring love.
The kind of love that remains.
The kind of love that doesn't leave.
The kind of love that can be trusted.
So for the next few moments just rest.
As you breathe in,
Just gently say my soul rests.
And as you breathe out in God alone.
Breathing in,
My soul rests.
Breathing out.
In God alone.
Just allow the words to become slower.
More gentle.
Something you're not just repeating.
But that you're also receiving.
My soul rests.
In God alone.
My soul rests.
In God alone.
So as we prepare to finish.
Just once more hear those opening words of the psalm.
For God alone my soul waits in silence.
Maybe this is the deepest refuge,
Learning to rest in the One who's already holding us,
Learning to trust the presence that remains beneath every changing circumstance.
Learning to rest.
Let's pray.
Loving God.
You are the refuge of our souls.
When we become restless,
Teach us to rest.
When we become anxious,
Teach us to trust.
When we search for security in things that can't last.
Gently draw us back to you.
Help us to discover the silence beneath our striving.
Help us to discover the peace beneath our fears,
To discover that we are already held.
By your steadfast love.
May our souls find rest in you.
Thank you so much for spending this time in prayer and reflection.
May you move through today with a quieter heart.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you and remain with you today and always.
Amen.
And may you remember,
For God alone,
My soul waits in silence.
Until tomorrow,
My friends.
Go in peace.
Bye for now.
