David relied wholly on the Lord. He chose not to get caught up in circumstances, but to confidently entrust himself to the Lord. Waiting on the Lord became a key feature of David’s life. What does this mean? It means that David was not concerned with the timing—He left that up to the Lord. He did not sit around in despair or worry or fear. He did not become anxious or seek to step out of God’s will. Rather, he entrusted himself to it. He waited, because he understood that God’s timing was not always his timing—but God’s timing is always better. Only by waiting on His timing can the fullness of His power be manifested. Consider if Jesus had rushed to Jairus’ house and healed his daughter. Yes, she would have been healed, but she would not have been raised from the dead. But the Lord allowed a delay so that the miracle glorified Him in its full potential. It also served to stretch Jairus’ faith, for he certainly believed Jesus could heal his daughter—that is why he came to Jesus. But his faith was stretched when Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” And the result was an incredible and stunning miracle!
In order for God to have the complete glory, David was willing to “trust and obey”—and that included waiting if necessary. There was no one else that David could trust so completely but the Lord, he knew. And he takes charge of his soul—notice verse 5, in which he literally commands his soul to “wait silently for God alone.” No doubt David’s soul, like ours, was subject to inner turmoil and despair. But he was not willing to allow that, and he chose instead to take charge of his being and submit it to the will of the Lord. So often we as Christians view anxiety, turmoil, fear, and despair as unavoidable, but the truth is that we can take charge of those things by giving them over to the Lord. If we are to succeed through the hard times, we must deny authority to these emotions and place them in the hands of the Lord, with the rest of our life. We cannot give Him everything else and hold onto these things. Like David, we should seek to “not be moved” from our resolve to trust wholly in the Lord.
David shares with his readers why his trust is in the Lord and not in men. Men are nothing more than a vapor, he says. In fact, if you were to weigh them all together on a scale, they would weigh less than a vapor. What they do is temporal and will not last apart from the Lord. They trust in riches, oppression, and robbery—but they will all fall away. David admonishes those who hear him to not engage in these temporary things. If your riches increase, don’t allow your trust in them to increase, for power and mercy come only from the Lord.
David’s final word in this passage echoes a similar statement that Jesus made in the parable of the talents—God will render to each person according to his work, by the fruit of his life. We cannot expect to share in God’s blessings and inheritance if we do not share in the labor of seeing His kingdom come to pass. But for those who do faithfully and obediently use what God has given, God has prepared great eternal rewards.
—Mark Knoles