Below is one of the reflections I wrote for The Message Women’s Devotional Bible, which recently published with NavPress. To learn more about this timely and ambitious project, click here.
To read the Zephaniah 1 poetry-based reflection I wrote for this project, click here.
Psalm 62 is solid poetry. The structure of the Psalm itself reinforces its message of divine strength.
One effective element of Psalm 62’s structure is the use of anaphora. Anaphora is the strategic repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of poetic lines. Such repetition intensifies the value of the repeated words. Psalm 62 engages anaphora with the Hebrew word ‘akh (“certain, alone”), which appears seven times, at the beginning of verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9. “God, the one and only!,” the English translation proclaims. The persistent repetition of ‘akh declares the central message of the Psalm: salvation comes from God alone.
In addition to the assertions of anaphora, Psalm 62 also engages metaphor. From the amorphous unknown, metaphor “ferries” ideas and images into human perception. In Psalm 62, God is not only “solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, an impregnable castle”(verses 2 and 6), but also “granite-strength and safe-harbor”(verse 7). In contrast, humans are merely “smoke” and a “mirage”(verse 9).
Good metaphor creates fresh gestalt. When women make the words of Psalm 62 our own, what new metaphors and insights arise? In her book Psalms: Books 2-3, Denise Dombkowski Hopkins invites readers to imagine women in the Bible praying the Psalms. The Hebrew Bible records the prayers of eleven women, including Hannah. As Dombkowski Hopkins notes, the words of Psalm 62 strongly reflect Hannah’s experience in 1 Samuel 1-2.
Just as Psalm 62:8 advises listeners to “lay your lives on the line” (shapak) for God, Hannah is “pouring out” (shapak) her heart to God in 1 Samuel 1:15. The cry of lament in verse 3 of Psalm 62, “How long will you gang up on me? How long will you run with the bullies?,” could easily be Hannah wailing for her rival Peninnah to stop tormenting her in 1 Samuel 1: 6-7. Yet in the end, Hannah knows not only that “nothing and no one is holy like God, no ‘rock mountain’ (tsur) like our God”(1 Samuel 2:2), but also that “my help and glory are in God—’granite-strength’ (tsur) and safe-harbor-God”(Psalm 62:7). Like the Psalmist, Hannah finds her certain salvation in God alone.
The poetic metaphor in Psalm 62 invites other connections. For example, God is a “safe place” (makhaseh) in Psalm 62:7-8, as well as in Psalm 46:1. In Hebrew, Psalms 62 and 46 both include a superscription that offers choral guidance. Psalm 62 is directed towards Jeduthun, who was one of David’s musical directors (1 Chronicles 16:41-42; 25:1-6). Psalm 46 notably includes a superscription “according to Alamoth,” which meant that maidens and young women were supposed to lead the Psalm! The metaphor of God as “safe place” found in both Psalms provides this crucial connection.
As women, what fresh connections do we notice when we join Hannah in praying Psalm 62 for ourselves? What poetry and prayers may we then write in response?
Excerpted from The Message Women’s Devotional Bible © 2025 by The Navigators. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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