Psalm 61 - When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I!

 

Psalm 61 A Psalm of David  -  Commentary by Dennis Edwards

The psalm may have been written when David had fled from Saul or from his son Absalom. As in many of the psalms, David starts out in great despair, but ends up praising God for His mercy and truth.

Psalm 61:1-2 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.  From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

We are usually overwhelmed when some emotional event has taken place, such as the death of a close family member, or some other great loss. The emotions overwhelm us and we sink down in great despair. We see a similar picture in the first verses of Psalm 69.

Psalm 69:1 “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.”

Like flood waters which carry away everything with them, when despair enters into our soul no hope can be found. David cries out to God to save him, because he cannot save himself.

Psalm 69:2 “I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.”

Like a man sinking in quicksand, David is sinking spiritually and emotionally. He cries out to God to save him.

Psalm 69:3 “I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: my eyes fail while I wait for my God.”

David is weary of his crying out to God for help, but has not lost all hope. He waits in desperation and at the border of hopelessness for God to answer.

In those moments when our heart is overwhelmed because some tragic event has hit our life or family, we must seek for that Rock that is higher than we are. A Rock that is not going to be moved by the flood waters whirling all around us. A Rock upon which we can stand above the raging waters that are trying to carry us away in all their furry. That Rock is Jesus. He is the Rock cut out without hands which shall smash the systems of the world and become a great mountain that fills the whole earth, Daniel 2:34-35. Jesus is that spiritual Rock, 1 Corinthians 10:4.

In moments of great distress and despair, we need to climb onto Jesus. We need to call out to Him with all our heart, soul, body, and mind. He will lift us up upon the Rock above the waters. We will find rest and peace in His safe and sure arms. He is the Rock that is higher than I. All other ground, or belief systems, are sinking sand. “On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

Apostle Paul reminds us that if we bring our anxious thoughts and fears to God in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, He will hear our prayers and send the Holy Spirit with peace and understanding which shall keep our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord, Philippians 4:6-7.

Psalm 61:3  For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

It’s the name of the Lord, Jesus the Christ, which is the strong tower. We shall run to that name and be safe. Proverbs 18:10. Because we have set our love upon Him, therefore, will He deliver us: He will set us on high, because we have known His name,” Psalm 91:14. He is that Rock that is higher than we are.

“For You are a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,” Isaiah 25:4

Psalm 61:4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

If we are abiding in Jesus, when our time of trouble comes, He promises to be a refuge, and a fortress. He promises to deliver us and to cover us with His feathers, that under His wings we may trust, Psalm 91:1-4.

To the ethnic Jewish nation, Jesus sadly said the following:

Matthew 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, You shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is He (Jesus the Christ) that comes in the name of the Lord.”

Until the Jewish people give up their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, and accept Him as such, they will end in desolation. Likewise, if we, too, reject the words of Jesus, we are in danger of ending in desolation, also,

Psalm 61:5 For thou, O God, has heard my vows: thou has given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

God hears our vows that we make to Him. He reminded Jacob of the vow Jacob had made when he was fleeing from the face of his brother Esau.

Genesis 28:20-21 “And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God.”

When it was time for Jacob to return to the Land of Promise the angel of God spoke to him in a dream and said, “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, and where you vowed a vow unto Me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of your kindred,” Genesis 31:13.

I made a vow to the Lord in my youth, not so much with my lips, but within my heart. I prayed to God to save me from having to go to Vietnam and fight in that war. If there was a God and He would save me, then I would live and die for Him the rest of my life. He answered my prayer and delivered me form the mouth of the American military machine. I have tried to be faithful to him in turn, in spite of my sins and failings.

The inheritance that he has given us, is He Himself. We should not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth where mouth and rust do corrupt. We should seek Him first. Like the tribe of Levi, the priests, who received no land by lot when Moses divided the land among the tribes of Israel. We that follow God have no certain dwelling place. We look for a city made by God whose foundation is Jesus Christ. Because we desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: God is not ashamed to be called our God: for He has prepared for us a city, Hebrews 11:16. That city, new Jerusalem, will one day come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, Revelation 21:2.

Psalm 61:6 Thou will prolong the king's life: and his years as many generations.

King David’s life was prolonged. Both Saul and Absalom who rose up against him were defeated in battle. In David’s prolonged life, and remember David is a proto-type of Jesus, we see the foreshadowing that God would prolong Jesus’ life. Jesus is the son of David who has ushered in eternal life to all that will believe.

Psalm 61:7 He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

It is Jesus, the son of David, who sits at the righthand of the Father, eternally. It is Jesus who came in mercy and truth. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace (which is mercy) and truth came by Jesus Christ,” John 1:17. David, also, is preserved by the mercy and truth found in Jesus. Though David’s sins, like ours, were as scarlet, yet now are they white as snow. The blood of Jesus, like a snow which covers the landscape, has covered our sins, and we have put on the righteousness which is found in Jesus, alone.

Psalm 61:8 So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.

That is why we and sing ang give thanks onto the Lord. His name, the name of Jesus the Christ, is wonderful. He is the “Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” Isaiah 9:6b. “There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4:12. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Romans 10:13.

“For God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Philippians 2:9-11.

Have you called upon Jesus the Christ. Call upon Him and He will answer. “Call upon Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you have not known,” Jeremiah 33:3. Today is the day of salvation. Make the call.

Here's a previous article on the same Psalm.