For God Alone

Daily Devotional • September 17

1 For God alone my soul waits in silence;

    from him comes my salvation.

2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,

    my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

3 How long will you assail a person,
    will you batter your victim, all of you,
    as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

4 Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.
    They take pleasure in falsehood;
they bless with their mouths,
    but inwardly they curse. Selah

5 For God alone my soul waits in silence,
    for my hope is from him.

6 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

7 On God rests my deliverance and my honor;
    my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

8 Trust in him at all times, O people;
    pour out your heart before him;
    God is a refuge for us. Selah

9 Those of low estate are but a breath;
    those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
    they are together lighter than a breath.

10 Put no confidence in extortion,
    and set no vain hopes on robbery;
    if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

11 Once God has spoken;
    twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,

12 and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.
For you repay to all
    according to their work.

Meditation

For God alone. For God, alone. Do you notice the difference in those formulations? Bonhoeffer preferred the second. Perhaps we could put it like this: While I’m lonely, I wait quietly for God. Bonhoeffer explains that it is only when we’re alone — lonely — that we’re fully aware of our own depravity. 

I hate to agree. Of course the Lord knows the secrets of our heart, but so do we. Whether we are with or without people, we are alone in the dungeons of our mind and we know

the things done and left undone. We know our vain thoughts, our predilection for idols, and our relentless desire to get what we want. Alone is a bleak picture, only made worse with silence, and yet that is the place where the psalmist instructs us to wait for God.

The thing about waiting for God is that he always shows up, with or without our permission, with or without our preparation, whether we wait silently or alone, or we wait filling every moment with all manner of pleasures. He always shows up.

But he often finds us alone, lost, and silent. By grace, he shows up, and speaks: I’m here. I love you all the way to the cross. And you are never alone.

Chase Benefiel is a friend, Tennesseean, preacher, and student (in that order) currently finishing his M.Div. at Duke Divinity School.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Iran – The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and The Middle East
The Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina