PSALMS SERIES: WEEK 07 - PSALM 62 - WAITING IN SILENCE

This morning, I'm going to talk to you about the theme of silence. What is the place that silence has in our lives and in a special way in our praying to God?

Eugene Peterson once wrote that: “Language consists in equal parts of speaking and silence.”

Equal parts…that’s significant. What does this mean then about prayer? If prayer is our language, our communication with God, then according to Peterson’s insight, prayer must include more than just what we say to God. But how often do we actually discipline ourselves to be quiet and to wait?

Often I hear people complaining that they’ve prayed and God just hasn’t shown up, hasn’t done what they’ve asked of Him. For some, that is the last straw in their wavering faith, and they walk away because they aren’t getting “what THEY want out of God.”

It’s interesting to stop and think through that phenomenon: that perhaps they aren’t finding any power to prayer because THEY’VE done all the talking - and maybe if they’d just shut up and wait and listen for God to actually speak to them, they’d see the power that God is offering to them in whatever situation they are seeking help in.

But to learn how to LISTEN to God, rather than just speak, is difficult, because, as we saw at the beginning of this message, too many of us are incredibly uncomfortable with silence. I know some of you introverts think that you love silence, but when I say silence, I don't mean you sitting on your couch, flipping through your phone, reading tweets or looking at Instagram. That's not the kind of silence we're talking about. We'll get into more of that a little bit later. But the kind of silence that I think we're invited to in God's Word in Psalm 62 is a silence that takes a lot of practice and hard work. And it's in that that we learn how to truly communicate with our God.

Psalm 62, which we are studying this morning, carries with it this idea of using times of silence in our communication with God to deepen our faith in who He is and what He does in our lives. What if your prayer life could consist not only of what you say TO God, but what you HEAR from Him as well? I believe this is one of the key things we learn from reading through Psalm 62.