Psalms 62:4
“They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.”
What does Psalms 62:4 mean?
The psalmist describes people who are working against him with a particular kind of cruelty: they smile to his face while harboring genuine hostility underneath. Their words of blessing are hollow performances, covering up inner contempt and active plots to damage his reputation or position. This captures something painfully familiar to many people, the sting of discovering that someone you trusted was never genuine with you at all. The "Selah" at the end is a musical pause in the psalm, inviting you to sit with the weight of what was just said. Rather than moving quickly past this painful reality, the psalmist asks you to feel it, acknowledge it, and let it settle before moving forward. Many of us know what it's like to be betrayed by false friends, and sometimes naming that hurt clearly, exactly as the psalmist does here, is the first step toward not letting it destroy us.