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Study Guide

When you are weary, the LORD gives you rest

This session addresses the modern struggle with weariness, anxiety, depression, and loneliness, offering Psalm 62 as a path to ultimate rest for the soul. Despite having all the stress of being a king, judge, and family man, David finds solace in God, who alone provides true rest. The study explores how repetition, self-talk, and trust in God, rather than social status or wealth, lead to peace. It compares David’s rest with the greater rest Jesus offers in Matthew 11:28-30, highlighting the importance of trusting in God and practicing sabbath for rejuvenation. Other psalms of rest include 3, 4, 11, 16, 23, 31, 34, 57, 61, 63, 92, 116, 130, and 131.

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**Session 5: When you are weary, the LORD gives you rest (Psalm 62)**

**Summary:** Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The pursuit of rest in the modern age can be exhausting. In spite of our labor-saving devices, holidays, and vacations, Americans say that they are more weary than ever with anxiety, depression, and loneliness at record levels. Psalm 62 offers us a path to ultimate rest for the soul.

**Background**: While we can’t be certain when David wrote this psalm, the content suggests that he was weary. Even on the best of days, David had all of the stress that goes with being king, leading a country, serving as a judge, and being a father and husband with a very dysfunctional family. The psalm describes men who were trying to topple him (vs. 3), using slander and curses to do so (vs. 4). For more context, read Psalms 61-64, a group of four psalms of trust, similar in length and content to one another.

**Opening Questions:**

1. On a level of 1-10, what is your stress level right now?

2. What keeps you awake at night these days?

3. What is the most restful vacation you’ve had in the last ten years? What made it so?

4. How do you deal with stressful situations? Fight back? Retreat? Whistle and walk on?

**Study Questions:**

1. What were some of the causes of David’s restlessness?

2. The Hebrew word “ak” (translated only, alone, surely) occurs six times in this psalm as the first word of verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 9. What do you think is the effect of this repetition and position at the beginning of each of those lines of poetry?

3. David seems to be telling himself to rest. How can self-talk help us “find rest”?

4. Read Matthew 11:28-30. How do Jesus’ words both echo and complete those of David?

5. In what way is the rest that Jesus offers us greater than that which David experienced?

6. What are the dangers of trusting in your social status? (vs. 9) in your wealth (vs. 10)?

7. What two things has David heard about God (vs. 11)? Are these in conflict with one another or do they complement one another?

8. How will God judge (vs. 12)? See also Romans 2:6-8; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 16:27. Is this in conflict with God’s grace?

**Application Questions:**

1. What circumstances, people, or forces are pressuring you now? What are you learning from their pressure?

2. How can you know if you trust in God or in money?

3. Have you ever blessed someone with your lips and cursed them in your heart?

4. In what do you trust ultimately: yourself, your reputation, others, wealth, power?

5. When was the last time you poured your heart out to God? What was the result?

6. In finding rest for his soul, David reminds himself of these qualities of God: my rock, my salvation, my fortress, my hope, my glory, my refuge. Which of these qualities do you need most right now?

7. How consistent are you at practicing “sabbath”, reserving a day of the week for rest? What would it take to make this a habit?

**Other psalms of rest: 3, 4, 11, 16, 23, 31, 34, 57, 61, 63, 92, 116, 130, 131**



When you are weary, the LORD gives you rest

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When you are weary, the LORD gives you rest Instructions