The Lord may graciously help
me, I turn your prayerful attention to Psalm 62 and verse 5. Psalm 62 and verse 5. My soul,
wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. Psalm 62 and verse 5, my soul
wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him. In the Psalms we have a very
accurate picture as it were of what the Lord's people pass through
in their pathway as a Christian. And it's clear from the two psalms
we read and many other psalms that the Christian life is often
pictured as a battle, pictured as a position where the soul
is attacked with many enemies. attacked by many who would try
and overcome that soul, would try and overcome the trust that
that soul has in the living God. And in our text, you see, we
have really the soul speaking to itself. We had that in Psalm
42. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? It's really us speaking with
ourselves, talking to ourselves, asking us questions, trying to
get to the bottom of why we are feeling why we are and why are
we carrying on the way we are. This questioning and this encouraging
our heart in the things of God. See at the beginning of Psalm
62 we have these words, truly my soul waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation. We often have this in the Psalms,
as it were they start off by giving an acclamation of their
faith in God and yet as we go on we see that the Psalmist is
buffeted by many enemies, by many things that are knocking
them or trying to knock them off course. and you see then
there is that necessity to cling closer, to cling harder, as it
were to the rock. Truly my soul waiteth upon God,
from him cometh my salvation. David is here claiming that his
confidence is in God, that his expectation is in God, He only is my rock and my salvation. The word only appears many times
in this psalm. There is a singularity, as it
were, that the psalmist wants to have. His hope wants to be
in God and in God alone, not in everything else, not in partly
in God and partly in man. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. Not be greatly moved. Later on
he says I shall not be moved at all. But at the beginning
he says I shall not be greatly moved. And it's often been pictured
as a ship that perhaps is at anchor. Well, if a ship is at
anchor and then it's buffeted by many different gale force
winds, it will blow this way and that way. But if that anchor
is firm and strong, there will come a point which it will go
as far as it can in the direction it's being pushed. and then it
will remain steadfast, held by the anchor. But when a wind comes
and pushes it another way, it will move then, until the anchor,
once again, the rope joining the anchor to the boat gets taut. So there is a movement, but not
a great movement. It can only move as it were,
as far as it's allowed to on its tether, and then it is held
fast. I shall not be greatly moved.
You see, if our anchor is within the veil, if the Lord Jesus,
as it were, is our trust and our hope, yes, as it were, we
may be blown about, and yet there will come a point at which the
rope of faith that joins us, as it were, to God will go taut,
and we will be kept, as it were, from drifting away from God. But then you see in verse 2,
we start to have the psalmist, David, talking to his enemies
and questioning them. We don't know the exact time
that this was written, this psalm. Some people have felt that it
could have been written when David was being chased by Saul,
and all the lies and things that were told about David at that
time, or possibly when Absalom, you see, was plotting against
David. Absalom, his son, who was trying
to dethrone his father, trying to usurp the kingdom for himself. And one of the mighty counsellors
that had been David's great help was Ahithophel, a very wise man
he was. And he then fell to Absalom's
side. So David knew that he had a mighty
counsellor in natural terms against him. How long will you imagine
mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. You see, David had those enemies
that were trying to dethrone him and to, as it were, overthrow
his trust that he had in his God. his trust was in God, and
yet there was these enemies that were coming up and trying to
shake his confidence, trying to cause him to doubt whether
God would be able to deliver him. How long will you imagine
mischief against a man? You shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall. If you think of a wall with a
great big bow in it, it can't last too long before the whole
lot crumbles down. And so are they that you see
are the wicked that are plotting against the just. Their time
is limited. Yes, they may, as it were, fiercely
accuse them. They may say many wicked things
wrongly, but there will come a time when it will suddenly
be passed away. We read in Psalm 37 of the, I
have seen the wicked in great power. and spreading himself
like a green bay tree. And yet it passed away. You see, the wickedness in his
greatness is short-lived, it cannot stand, it will, it must,
it shall pass away. How long will you imagine mischief
against a man? You shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall you be, and as a totter in France. They
only consult to cast him down for his excellency. David had
that excellent, as it were, that excellent trust in his God. He was staying upon his God.
He was seeking to have his affections, as it were, centred upon God.
And yet, you see, their idea, their planning and scheming was
to knock that confidence, was to overcome him. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellency. The excellency, you see, it's
our excellency to have our minds stayed on God. If, like David
says at the beginning, truly my soul waiteth upon God. Waiting
upon God is when we have as it were, a trust in God, but also
a silence while we're waiting. The words have that meaning as
well, to be silent before God. That does not mean that we don't
pray to God, but a silence in the sense of being full of criticism. You see, if we're waiting for
something to come along, we can be fretting and complaining and
saying all manner of things because that thing hasn't come along
in the way that we expected it should. Truly, my soul waiteth
upon God. There's that submission, waiting
patiently, waiting contentedly, waiting for His time, waiting
for Him to deliver Him rather than all the people that are
around him. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellency. They delight in lies. And how
many lies were told about David? Lies to get people against him. You see, they delight in lies. They bless with their mouth.
but they curse inwardly, so they would be, as it were, friendly
to David's face, but, as it were, behind his back, they were plotting
and scheming for his overthrow. But what is David going to do?
Well, David, as it were, talks to his own soul and says, my
soul, wait thou only. upon God. Yes, you've got these
enemies. Yes, you've got these people
trying to get you, as it were, to fear them and to run, as it
were, away from the paths of truth, away from your refuge
in God, away from your trust in the One who is Almighty. But David has to speak to his
soul, you see, and we do. when we are in trouble, we need
to, as it were, speak to ourselves and tell ourselves from the Word
of God the truths that we have lost sight of. And we do lose
sight of the truths of God. We do lose sight of what is going
on sometimes when we are overwhelmed. My soul, wait thou only upon
God, for my expectation is from Him. David is telling his soul to
wait, as it were, silently, patiently upon God. Yes, there was the
enemies. Yes, there was the discouragements. Yes, there was the many things,
as it were, to make him fret. But he is saying, wait thou only.
Only, you see. There's this other word, only,
appears in this psalm. It wasn't to be half on men and
half on God. It was my soul, wait thou only
upon God. And later on, you see, he talks
about this, how unstable and how untrustworthy men are. You see, in verse 9 it says,
Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree
are a lie. To be laid in the balance they
are altogether lighter than vanity. We're not to trust in man, you
see. At a different stage, we might say, well, this man's a
person of high standing, this person's a person of low standing.
Which one shall I trust? Well, basically, it says in this
psalm, surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree
are a lie. In other words, cease from man
whose breath is in his nostrils. We're to cease from trusting
in man. So what are we to trust in? My
soul. Wait thou only upon God. You see, there's that singularity
of a soul seeking the Lord. And in the next verse, we have
these beautiful words. He only, again only, is my rock. and my salvation. You see, God
is the salvation of his people. He is the one that gives them
salvation. He is the one that gave David
salvation in the first place and he was the one that would
maintain it and bring him safely through. A salvation from all
his ills, from all his troubles. I ask you tonight, What are you doing? Are you waiting
upon God in the difficulties, in the trials, with the problems
that you have? Or are you running to man? Are
you running to this one? And running to that one? And
seeking this one to help you? And that one to help you? Or
have you come to that point? My soul, wait thou only upon
God. Don't keep looking to man. Don't keep looking to this one
to protect you and this one to stand up for you. Because, you
see, man is fickle. The best of men are but men.
David wanted somebody that was, as it were, much more stable
than another man. My soul, wait thou only upon
God for my expectation. is from Him. You see, if you
have an expectation, you have a hope, you are looking for something,
you're expecting something, you have a realisation that there
is something there to be had. David realised that God was able
to do great things for him. God had promised the throne to
David, God had promised many blessings to David, but At times
there were so many discouragements. But he says, my soul, wait thou
only upon God. Only. Not on God and somebody
else. Not on God and this other thing
and this other place. But my soul, wait thou only upon
God, for my expectation is from Him. You see, if we put our trust
in two places, we dishonour the one who is leading us. If you get asked, if you ask
somebody for directions and they start to take you to the place
that you've asked to go to and then halfway through, in following
them, you decide that you want to follow somebody else. Well,
they would be very hurt, wouldn't they? They said, well, I'm taking
you to the place that you've asked me to take you to. And
halfway through, you've jumped on, as it were, to follow somebody
else. My soul, wait thou only upon
God. You see, there is to be a singularity. with God. We're not to follow
God and something else. We're to follow God. We're to
follow Him. We're to follow, we're to look
to Him to provide for all our needs. Yes, well of course God
does use means and I'm not suggesting that God does not use means in
providing things for us. It's always a great blessing
when we do receive blessings to realise, to look beyond the
means. to look beyond the thing that
actually gave it to us and look to the God that organised it
for them. I read an account of a lady who
was a godly lady who was made fun of by her son who despised
her faith and she was short of food and this son provided food
for her when she was praying and put it on the table without
her realising that that's what he'd done. And she was so pleased
that God had provided, you see, this food for her. And later
when she spoke to her son about this event, the son and his family
all started laughing. They said, no, it wasn't God
that provided that meal for you at all, it was us. We did it
all along, trying to really ridicule her faith. to which she made
this simple comment, when the ravens gave food to Elijah. Elijah did not thank the ravens,
but he thanked God. And it's lovely, you see, when
we can see beyond the means. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't
be thankful if somebody uses a means and say thank you to
them, but the point being that beyond, you see, beyond the ravens,
was the God that controlled the ravens. My soul, wait thou only
upon God, for my expectation is from Him. You see, it honours
God. It honours God to come and say that our expectation is from
Him. If we say, well, we don't really
expect much to come from God. We've got these other avenues
of support. I think that they may be fruitful. But as for God, well, that seems
not really very probable. We had the leper this morning
that we were speaking about. You see, he came and he worshipped. He could have said this, my soul,
wait thou only upon God. My expectation is from him. He had no expectation from the
law. He had no expectation from the
positions of no value around him. But he had. His expectation was from God. And you see that leopard did
not go away disappointed. His expectation was in God. And
God granted him all that he stood in need of. What is our difficulty
tonight? What is our concern, our greatest
concern? Well in verse 6 he goes on, he
only is my rock and my salvation. He only. You see this word only
again. There's a singularity in the
psalmist speaking with God. God is not one of his helps.
God is his help. God may use others to help him
in practical ways, but he traces it all back to God. And that's
a great blessing in our lives, you see, because if it comes
through a means, you see, if it comes and we start to glorying
the means, then we are starting to trust in the means rather
than the one who gave the means. That's true with everything that
God gives us. If God gives us a a suitable
house to live in and we come to realise that this is so suitable
and such a blessing to us to live in this house, we start
to glory in the house. But that's wrong. We're to be
thankful for the God who gave us the house or what it is, whatever
it is that God has given us. But we are not to glory in the
thing, otherwise we're losing sight. It's detracting from the
one who gave it, the one who gives us all things richly to
enjoy. It's the giver that we want to go back to, not the gift,
because the gift is only a token of His love, as it were, that
He can, out of His bounty, supply all our need. My soul, wait thou
only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. What are we seeking
for? Are we seeking that he would
do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. He only is
my rock and my salvation. You see, David was able to say
that God was his salvation. Are you seeking salvation? If
you think of what we were speaking of this morning with the leprosy
as a picture of sin in all its ugliness, in all its all its way in which it deforms
and the stench that it gives and the separation that it gives. How are we going to overcome
that separation that sin brings? How are we going to get right
with God? How are we going to become in union with the church's
living head, my soul? Wait thou only upon God. You
see, God has provided a way of salvation. There was no way back
to God that humans could invent. God has made a way. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit in the councils of eternity devised a way whereby
God could be just and the justifier of the ungodly. There was a way
made whereby sinners could be made right with God. My soul,
wait thou only upon God. It's God's way. It's not us inventing
a way to become right with God. It's us being brought to see
and to love and enjoy that way of salvation. Brought into the
secret, brought to realise that we are part of that kingdom of
his dear son. My soul, wait thou only upon
God. Don't go and look somewhere else.
Don't go and seek somewhere else. But my expectation, my hope is
from Him. He is my hope. He is the one
I'm looking for. I'm not looking for it from anywhere
else, from any other quarter, but from Him. You see, that's,
we'll not be disappointed. If we put our trust in Him, we
cannot be disappointed. He only is my rock. and my salvation. A rock is something that's so
immovable, isn't it? It's something in our natural
world that we don't think will ever move, although of course
we know that they do at times move. But the picture here is
something that's solid, something that's enduring as time rolls
past it. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defence. And then you
see the psalmist is, as it were, growing in his confidence. I
shall not be moved. There is a stability, you see.
A stability with all the enemies around him. All those that are
trying to pull him off of that position of trusting in the Lord. Truly my soul waiteth upon God. And others are saying, oh but
there's trust in this and trust in that. Surely, you see, your
hope will come to nothing. You see, that is what we had
in Psalm 42. I will say unto him, this is
in Psalm 42 verse 9, I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou
forgotten us? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones,
mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, where
is thy God? Where is he? When you're in trouble,
where is he? Why has he not appeared? Why
has he not come to your help? Why is he not there when you've
been trusting in this God and now it appears that you need
him? Where is he? You see, if you're waiting for something,
And somebody kept on saying, where is it? Where is this place? Well, you see, you can't answer.
If you're waiting, for example, for a bus and somebody came up
to you, where is the bus? Where is it? Where is it? Well,
you don't know necessarily where it is. All you know is that you're
at the bus stop and you're to wait and you hope that it will
come. Well, you see, the Lord Jesus
is going to come and going to bless his people. He's going
to come and deliver them. But they are, their purpose,
what they need to do is to wait silently, not complaining that
the bus is late, not complaining why it wasn't there before, but
waiting for him, waiting, because they are debtors, they are at
his mercy. And you see, why art thou cast
down, O my soul? It does cast us down, doesn't
it? While they say daily unto me, where is thy God? And the
obvious inference from that is that your God has deserted you,
your God has left you, your God has forsaken you. Well, that's a difficult path,
isn't it? But what we need to say is, my soul, wait thou only
upon God. for my expectation is from him."
God is to be the expectation of his people. And you see, you
might think, but what a difficult path. What a difficult path to
have enemies continually saying, where is thy God? Where is thy
God? And continually have people,
as it were, questioning our faith and our own evil hearts of unbelief. as it were, throwing in doubts
and fears against us. It's a difficult path. It's a
path that we find difficult to walk. We read in the Word of God that
He was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He was tempted
in all points like as we are, yet without sin. You see, our captain that stood
the fiery test, he had those enemies. He had those people
saying to him when he was on the cross, if thou be the Son
of God, if you're truly who you say you are, come down from the
cross and we will believe thee. He had his faith questioned to
the very core. But you see, my soul, wait thou
only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. And what an expectation
the Saviour had in His God. His expectation was in God, and
his expectation was not cut off. He did, as it were, endure all
the wrath of God against sin, and he did endure the mocking
of a crowd that was around his cross. But, my soul, wait thou
only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. It was interesting,
in that hour of greatest darkness, at the end of the three hours
of darkness on the cross, when He cried out, My God, My God,
why hast thou forsaken Me? He still called His Father God.
He still claimed that He was His God. His expectation was
still in God, despite the bitterness of the trial. My soul wait thou
only upon God, for my expectation is from him. And of course, what
was the expectation that God had, the Lord had from his God? Well, we read in Philippians
that he was obedient even unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, giving Him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow. My soul, wait thou only upon
God, for my expectation is from Him." What expectation did Jesus
have from anybody else? It was only in God, wasn't it? The disciples, what use were
they? All the people that he'd healed,
all the people he had befriended, all the kindness he'd shown,
all he got from that was crucify him, crucify him. The mocking
crowd, the despising, he was despised and rejected of men.
My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from
him. His expectation was not cut off. And nor will ours be if we put
our trust in Him, because He is to be trusted. He only is
my rock and my salvation. He is my defence, I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory, the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. You see, God is able to deliver
us, is able to be a refuge, is able to highly exhort us, that
God is able to deliver us from all our enemies. It's our wisdom
then, to glory in something this world despises. You see, this
world glories in natural power, doesn't it? In natural things
that it can see. It glories in men, glories in
great men, glories in celebrities that can do many things that
please the people. But my soul wait thou only upon God. our desire, our affection needs
to be on God, the one who is able truly to deliver us, who
is able to be our God even unto death. You see we have this counsel
in verse 8, trust in him at all times, all times The times when
the enemy is reproaching you. The times when they're laughing
you to scorn. The times when they're saying,
where is now thy God? Trust in Him at all times, ye
people. You see, we are to be a worshipping
people. We are to worship the Lord and
to honour Him. and to live to his glory. Trust
in him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before him."
I said at the beginning that this word, truly, my soul waited
for God. There's a meaning of a silence
about it. A silence. We're not to be filled,
as it were, with complaining against God. But in verse 8,
trust in the Lord at all times, ye people, pour out your heart
before him. This is not forbidden. As it
were, to speak to our God, to pour out our heart in prayer
to God, to truly tell him all the difficulties, all the sadnesses,
all the disappointments, all the things that we thought would
have happened and have not. like the Lord Jesus did to those
two on the road to Emmaus, He asked them, what things? And
they poured out their story of all their sadness, that we thought
it had been He that should have redeemed Israel. Pour out your
heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. And you see, as they poured out
their heart on that road to Emmaus, God was a refuge for them. He
then stood and said and showed them from all the scriptures
the things concerning himself, that their refuge, their trusting
in God was not misplaced, that their expectation of Him was
not disappointed. We thought it had been He that
should have redeemed Israel. We put our trust in Him and now
our trust seems to have been in vain. My soul, wait thou only
upon God. for my expectation is from Him. Don't look to anyone else. Don't
look to yourself. Look to Him. My expectation is
from Him. And it says, trust not in oppression.
Become not vain in robbery. If riches increase, set not your
heart upon them. You see, there's a refuge, there's
a security that comes with riches. If we can buy this or we can
organize this with our money and we can do many things with
money and that gives a natural sense of security. Trust not in oppression. Don't
trust in being oppressing people to get power and become not vain
in robbery, that's getting money as it were illegally. But if
riches increase even in a legitimate sense, set not. your heart upon them. Don't make
them your trust. In Jeremiah it says, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that gloryeth, glory in this, that
he knoweth Me. That's the point of glory. That's the point that is worthy
of us to rejoice in. Just quote that. But let him
that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment
and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord. This is what we should be doing.
My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from
Him." And the psalmist goes on to say, God hath spoken once,
twice, have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Power. He is powerful. You see
God is awesomely powerful. God is able to do all things. He is able to overcome all our
enemies. If only, as it were, we had that
faith to believe that faith to lay hold upon the hope set before
us in the Gospel. God has spoken once. Twice have
I heard this. We need to hear it as it were
once with our ears and to hear it again with our hearts, to
believe it, to lay hold upon it, that power belongeth unto
God. Then you see, then we will be
content to wait only upon God. We will be waiting upon something
that we will truly be trusting in to provide for all our needs.
for time and for eternity, providing us with an everlasting salvation,
providing us with a place of refuge from the wrath of God
against our sin. My soul, wait thou only upon
God. There's only one place. You see,
the whole Bible is so clear in its singularity. There's not
a pluralness in salvation. It's singularity. There was one
ark in Noah's day. There was one Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, this man, this one who is the only one, the
only place of safety. And you see, we need to come
to that only one. We need to come to him and to
come to him in a time when he may be found and we're to put
our trust in him, my soul. Wait thou only upon God. It doesn't
matter, as it were, what all the other enemies are saying.
Well, we feel them and we are upset by them, but ultimately,
may we be given that grace to press on, to say, I'm going to
wait only upon God, only on Him. Everybody else, as it were, are
failing round me. I can't trust, as it were, man. You see, if the Lord Jesus had
looked at the time of His crucifixion, we read, they all forsook Him
and fled. my soul wait thou only upon God,
for my expectation is from him." What a mercy that we have a God
who is to be trusted, a God who we can put our expectation is
for the things of this life, to provide for all that we stand
in need of. but much more to put our eternal
destination in His hands, to trust in Him, to wait upon Him,
to wait upon Him with that silence, that submission, and yet simultaneously
pouring out our hearts in prayer to Him, in communion with Him,
that He may do for us all that we stand in need of, because
we believe that our expectation, our hope is not for man, It's
not from this one, it's not because this one and this one and this
one got together in a meeting and that's why the situation
has been solved. No, my soul wait thou only upon
God, for my expectation is from Him. What a blessing if we can
live our lives in this verse, expecting everything from Him,
realising cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils, that
we may live our lives waiting upon God, looking unto Him for
all things, for time and for eternity, and seeking to live
our lives before God, doing His will, seeking to obey His commands,
and trusting in Him to bring that to pass that we stand in
need of. The Lord says, seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you. We are to seek that first, the singularity first. And it
is here, my soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation
is from him. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.