Let us turn again to God's Word
and directing you to the Book of Psalms. I want to read Psalm
62. The 62nd Psalm. To the Chief Musician, to Jeduson,
the Psalm of David. Truly, my soul waiteth upon God. From Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock, and my salvation
he is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.
How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain,
all of you. As a bowing wall shall ye be,
and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellency. They delight in lies, they bless
with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. See lo! My soul wait
thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock
and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times. Ye
people, pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us,
see thou. 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. Trust not
in oppression, and become not thine in robbery. If riches increased,
set not your hearts upon them. God hath spoken once. Twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord,
belongeth mercy. for thou renderest to every man
according to his work. And I want to direct you to the
words that we find in the middle of the psalm at verse five. These words then for our text,
Psalm 62, five, my soul waits thou only upon God, for my expectation
is from him. and to say something with regards
to the believer's expectation. As the old year is fast passing
from us, and we anticipate in God's goodness the coming of
another year, or to say with David in the psalm, my soul wait
thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him. You hardly need
me to tell you that of course here in Holy Scripture we have
a special revelation from God. God speaks. God has spoken in
a general way in His works, His works of creation. His works
of providence, we often refer to those words of David again
in the opening part of Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory
of God. And the firmament showeth his
handiwork, day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth
knowledge. There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through
all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Now there is that revelation
that is so general where any person is found there is evidence
in all that is around of the works of God and so even those
who never had the Holy Scriptures are without any excuse. The invisible
things of Him are clearly seen, even His eternal power and His
Godhead. His work of creation, His work
of providence. But then we are favoured to have
a special revelation, and we have it here before us tonight,
in the words of Holy Scripture, all Scripture given by inspiration
of God, says the Apostle to young Timothy. It's all of the breathings
of God. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Spirit of God. And now we see it in the language
of the prophets. Isaiah, there in chapter 42 at
verse 5, Thus saith the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God. We come to the last book of the
Old Testament, Malachi, and there in the opening words, the burden
of the word of the Lord to Israel. It is God's words. Holy men spake. Yes, it's the words of men in
some way. but primarily it's the words
of God, the Holy Scriptures. God speaks, and he speaks here
in his words. But how remarkable are the Book
of Psalms, because so different in many ways to all other parts
of our Bibles, because the beauty that we see here is that we have
not so much God speaking to men, but men speaking to God. Men speak to God. The content
of the Psalms, they're really prayers to God. And yet, through
the prayers of these men, God speaks to us. Look at the language
in the Psalms surrounding this 62nd Psalm. If we go to Psalm
61, David says there in words, Hear my cry, O God. attend unto
my prayer from the end of the earth. Will I cry unto thee when
my heart is overwhelmed? Lead me to the rock that is higher
than I. He addresses God again in Psalm
63. O God, thou art my God. Early
will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is to see thy power. and thy glory so as I have seen
thee in the sanctuary." Men are clearly speaking to God and yet
through these prayers of these men God is speaking to us. It's
all part and parcel of the words of Scripture. Yes, God speaks
but also we see that men speak and strangely here in the words
that we've announced of our text It's not so much that David is
speaking to God, but David is speaking to himself. David is
addressing his own soul. My soul, he says. Wait thou only
upon God, for my expectation is from him. It's a soliloquy,
of course. The man addresses himself, and
yet it's God's word to us. We have an amazing example of
it previously in those two in Psalms 42 and 43, where we have
that refrain that's repeated, I think it's twice in Psalm 42
and again in Psalm 43, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in
me, hoping God? For I shall yet praise Him who
is the house of my countenance, or sometimes the help of my countenance. There are slight variations,
but three times in those two Psalms we have that lovely little
soliloquy of David. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And here, in the word that I
want us to take up for a little while this evening, in Psalm
62 and verse 5, my soul Wait thou only upon God, for my expectation
is from Him." The believer's expectation. The believer's expectation. Three things that I want to try
to address from the Psalm. First of all, to say something
with regards to the object of David's prayer. And he is, of
course, looking to God. waits only upon God, he says. He is looking to God alone. And it's interesting how the
psalm opens really with that first verse. Truly my soul waiteth
upon God. And you might observe there in
the margin that we're told the opening word truly could equally
as well have been rendered only. Only my soul wait upon God. It is to God alone that he would
address himself to wait upon. It's interesting the remark that's
made by that quaint old Puritan John Trapp in his commentary
on scripture. He says, I trust God not at all,
who trust him not alone. What a statement that Trapp is
making. They trust God not at all, who
trust Him not alone. In verse 6, He only is my rock
and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. Always to look to God alone. And we're to look to God in all
that He is, as God. Of course, we often refer to
those words in Ephesians 2.18, where we see the doctrine of
God in relation to prayer. Through Him, through the Lord
Jesus Christ, we have access by one Spirit unto the Father. God is known in our praying.
We address our prayers to God. We are to address Him as our
Father which art in heaven. We come by and through the mediation
of the Son of God, the only mediator, the great high priest of our
profession. We can only come by and through the gracious ministry
of the Holy Spirit who helps us in all our infirmities for
we know not what to pray for as we ought Or do we not learn
in our prayers our complete and utter dependence upon this God? He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. We read here
in the sixth verse of the psalm. And dear old Dr. John Hawker says, do we know
Christ in these covenant characters? Or do we know Him? as he is spoken
of here in this sixth verse. He's spoken of as the Rock. And
of course, in that portion that we read in Deuteronomy 32, we
see throughout his song, Moses will make mention of God the
Rock. Verse four, he is the Rock, his work is perfect. For all
his ways are judgment, the God of truth. and without iniquity,
just and right is He. But then he goes on later, doesn't
he, to speak of although God has so favoured Israel and delivered
them out of Egypt and watched over them through the 40 years
of wilderness wanderings, and made every provision for them,
they did not plough, they did not reap, but God sent the manna
day by day, He sent quails from heaven, He fed them, He kept
them, And then they provoked, or they provoked the Lord. Verse
15, but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. They weren't waxing fat,
they weren't growing thick, they weren't covered with fatness.
Then he forsook God, which made him and lightly esteemed the
rock of his salvation. Verse 18, of the rock that begat
thee, they weren't unmindful. And that's forgotten God. that
formed thee. Oh, Moses will repeatedly remind
them of who God is. He is the rock. He is the rock. Verse 30, How should one chase
a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock
had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up? For their rock
is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. And who is this one who is the
rock of salvation? Well, the reference surely is
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle reminds us of that
in the New Testament Scriptures there in 1 Corinthians 10. That
spiritual rock that followed them was Christ. All that rock
was Christ. And Peter makes his great confession
there in Matthew 16. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And the Lord says upon this rock,
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. He only is my rock, says David. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ the Lord. And
there you see in Peter's confession, the Christ, the son of the living
God, or the wonder of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, God
manifest in the flesh, the God-man. Do we love to ponder that blessed
truth, that great mystery of godliness, our God contracted
to a span, incomprehensibly made man in all that he does, We must
never lose sight in the Gospels that one being spoken of is never
anything less than true almighty God and yet he's a real man. All the mystery of that union,
that hypostatic union, the two natures in that one person. The
man Christ Jesus, true almighty God, Jehovah Jesus. He is the
rock of our salvation. What does David say here in verse 7? He speaks of him as the rock
of my strength. The rock of my strength. That's a tremendous verse. We've
already referred to it there in Psalm 61 and the second verse. From the end of the earth, David
says, will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed lead
me to the rock that is higher than I. This is one of the covenant characters
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Hawker is right. Or do we
think upon that then? He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. He's not only the rock, he's
the defense, he's the refuge. He's a refuge of his people.
Again in verse 7, the end of that verse, he says, my refuge
is in God. What a comforting truth. And
the familiar words of King Solomon in the book of Proverbs, the
name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth
into it and is saved. Oh, that's our strong tower,
the name of the Lord. And again, it's the Covenant
name, isn't it? It's Jehovah. It's the God of
the Covenant, Lord. As we're so familiar with in
our authorised version when that name is set before us in capital
letters. The name. of the Lord is a strong
tower, a place of refuge. All that God is in terms of that
eternal covenant. How God has revealed himself,
you see, as the covenant God of his people. All his attributes. I am the Lord, he says. I change
not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. There is so much in the name
of the Lord. when we begin to contemplate
that name or that he declares and the wonderful thing is that
as we're told later in Psalm 138 God has magnified his word
above all his name so all that he is himself as the covenant
God of Israel that is also true of his words He's magnified his
words. When he gave promise to Abraham
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.
That's how he confirms his promise. He swears by himself. He takes
an oath upon his own name. And so his word is as dependable
as God is himself. Isn't that our comfort, friends? When we come to the Word of God He's not a man that he should
lie, he's not the son of man that he should repent, hath he
said it, shall he not do it? Hath he spoken it? Shall he not
make it good? It's a word of comfort, surely.
All those promises, they're yay and they're amen in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But also it's a solemn word of
warning. We're to take account of all
his threatenings. as well as his promises. We're
not to be partial in his law. His word is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, and for correction, in righteousness, that the man
of God may be perfect, throughly furnished to every good work.
Oh, it's about then, before the authority of God's Word, we find
refuge in this God who has revealed Himself so fully and so graciously
here in Holy Scripture and He keeps His people. How are we
kept? We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. He is my defence. I shall not be moved. My refuge
is in God. He's the rock. He's the refuge
of His people. He is the salvation of His people.
He is the salvation of His people. Again here in verse 6, He only
is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. My salvation. Now it's the language
of appropriation. to say, my salvation. And you
know, when we come to address God in our prayers, we're to
use language of appropriation, aren't we? How are we to address
Him? We're to say, our Father. Our Father, which art in heaven. This is how the Lord instructs
His disciples to pray. When you pray, say, our Father.
What a blessed privilege it is to come and to address Him in
all the intimacy of that relationship like as a father pitieth his
children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him he knoweth
our frame and he remembereth that we're dust he's seen us
made as not we ourselves all we know is better than ourselves
and in him is salvation that's the greatest of all the works
of God yes God reveals himself as we said at the outset in that
general way, in works of creation, works of providence. But the
greatest of all the works of God is that that we find here
in the pages of Holy Scripture, which all directs us to Him who
is the Word of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that
blessed work of redemption. What a revelation, when mercy
and truth are met together, and righteousness and peace have
kissed each other, and God is seen to be just and the justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus he is the salvation of his people
or the wonder of the grace of God my soul wait thou only upon
God for my expectation is from him he only is my rock and my
salvation he is my defense and again Observe that word at
the beginning of the psalm. We said how the opening word,
truly, might have been rendered only, as is indicated in the
marginal reading, only, my soul waiteth upon God. But the word
waiteth also, we're told in the margin, the Hebrew is literally
silent. Truly my soul is silent before
God. Is this how we come before God
in prayer? Silent? What does it mean? God
says elsewhere that we're to take with us words and we're
to say take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. What
is it to come then in silence? Well, I understand it like this. We're not to come murmuring.
We're not to come murmuring, complaining. We're to come in
that spirit of meekness. We're to come as those who would
bow down before divine sovereignty. We don't come to dictate to this
God. We come to wait upon Him. How
do we pray? What do we say? Well we learn
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself and how he prayed in the garden.
If it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless he
says not my will but thine be done. The Lord had a human will
but how that human will was subject to the divine will. And so when
we pray we are to say thy will be done. In earth as it is in
heaven we come with that spirit of meek submission to all the
sovereignty of God. Oh, truly my soul is silent. How are we to come to Him then
in our prayers? How are we to come to Him in
our praises? We find something similar, you
see, at the beginning of Psalm 65. Praise waiteth for thee,
O God, in Zion. Again, that word waiters, we're
told, in the Hebrew is literally is silent. Praise is silent. What does that mean? How can
we praise God if we're silent? Well, we think of the language
of Ecclesiastes 5. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God, be more ready to hear than to give the
sacrifices of fools they consider not what they do. Be not rash
with thy mouth, let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before
God for God is in heaven thou upon earth therefore let thy
words be few. The great cacophony of noise
is not true word and we witness so much of that. Where is the
reverence? Where is that spirit of awe to be silenced in the
presence of God? Or what is our praise? compared
to all that God is and all that God is deserving of. Surely our
praises can hardly begin to reach this God who is good and this
God who does so much good. He's high above and beyond our
praises. Do we feel like that? Praise
is silent for your God. We want to praise Him and yet
words fail. when we come before a God so good and so gracious
as our God is. This is the object then of David's prayer. The object of his prayer, nothing
less than God and God as he has revealed himself and revealed
himself ultimately of course in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus in these last days God that's spoken unto us by
His Son. But in the second place, what
does that say with regards to this waiting, the waiting of
prayer? My soul waits thou only upon
God, he says. What is this waiting? We think
of waiting maybe as doing nothing at all. But this waiting is not
passive. This waiting is not passive.
Or there is a great deal of inward activity in the soul of David,
in this psalm. There is even agony of soul.
We see time and again in the prayers of this man. So many
of the psalms of course, Davidic in their authorship. To wait on God in prayer is not
to do nothing at all. This is not waiting in unbelief, this is
waiting in faith. Is there not encouragement here?
Is there not encouragement in God's Word when we come to wait
upon Him? They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk
and not faint. Those precious words that we
have at the end of Isaiah 14. They that wait upon the Lord.
There's encouragement. It's not waiting then in unbelief,
but it's waiting in faith. And what is faith? What is faith? Well, Paul speaks of faith which
worketh by love. And again, writing in 1 Thessalonians
1 and verse 3, the same apostle speaks of the work of faith,
and the labor of love, and the patience of, or the endurance
of hope. These graces, these graces of
the Spirit, faith, love, hope. What blessed activity there is
here, Steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Labouring in prayer
is involved in this waiting in prayer. It's interesting, isn't it? Really
so difficult to define what faith is. That's why I like those words
of the apostle where he speaks of it in terms of the work of
faith. Or faith that worketh, my love. I think in the articles of the
Reformed Church of England there is an article that speaks of
good works subsequent to faith. Of course there's no good works
that prepares us for faith. All our righteousness is our
filthy rags. Salvation is not of work, salvation
is of grace. We know that. But I'm sure, I
don't remember which of the articles it is, but one of the 39 articles,
I believe, does speak of those good works that follow faith.
And isn't this part of that waiting upon God in faith? So difficult
to define it. We do have a definition. I acknowledge
that at the beginning of Hebrews 11, of course, that chapter that
deals with the faith of those signs of the Old Testament Scriptures,
that great catalogue that we have in Hebrews 11. The opening
verse, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. That's how the Apostle speaks
of faith, the substance, the ground, the confidence. of things
hoped for, but I can't think of any other scripture but that
that gives any sort of definition of what faith is. The remarkable
thing with regards to faith is that the scripture really sets
before us more regularly the object of faith, where we began. The object of David's prayer
is praying to God. And when we read through Hebrews
11 and come then into the 12th chapter, what do we read? It's
looking onto Jesus. The author and finisher of our
faith. It's looking onto Jesus. And we've said many a time before,
that's a strong verb. That look. It means you look
away from every other object. That's the force of the language
there. You take your eye off every other object. There is
one object only. You look to Jesus, and you look
to Jesus alone. Only my soul waits upon God. My soul waits there only. upon God, there is no other object
that we can look to than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And
this waiting of prayer then, it's not waiting in unbelief,
it's waiting in faith because there's that looking, and that
longing, and that yearning after the Lord Jesus. But then also
it's not in any sense a waiting in slothfulness. If faith workers
by love, There's no sloth there. No, it's not waiting in slothfulness,
but in hope. In expectation, really. My soul
waits only upon God for my expectation. It's from Him. Oh, there's something to be expected
in this waiting upon God. The very word expectation reminds
us of that. There's something to be looked
for, anticipated. My expectation is from Him. Think
of the language of the Apostle in Romans 8 at verse 24. He says we're saved by hope.
But hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth. Why
does he yet hope for it? but if we hope for that we see
not then will we with patience or endurance wait for it I commend
those verses there Romans 8 24 and 25 I commend them to you
those remarkable words of the Apostle concerning what it means
to come in that spirit of hope and expectation and that's how we're to approach
we're saved by hope But hope that is seen is not hope for
what a man seeth. Why doth he yet hope for it says
Paul? But if we hope for that we see
not, then with endurance we wait, we wait for it, we wait for it. The going the language of dear John Trapp
he says waiting is nothing else but hope and trust lengthened
waiting is nothing else but hope and trust or faith being lengthened
we look to Abraham as the father of the faithful the father of
all them that believe and of course is the principal character
that we see in that great fourth chapter of the Epistle to the
Romans where the Apostle is speaking of justification by faith, that's
the faith of Abraham. But we have that statement there
in Romans 4 concerning the faith of that man who against hope
believed in hope. Against hope he believed in hope.
He's an old man, he's a hundred years old. And Sarah is long
past the age of childbearing, but God has given the promise.
Sarah is to have the son, the son of promise. And Sarah has the son. Isaac
is born to Sarah. He is the very son of promise. He's a remarkable type of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it was a miraculous
birth, the birth of Isaac, of course it was. His mother Sarah
was past the age of childbearing, yet she's with child. And she
has the child. And he's a type of the Lord Jesus
and a far greater miracle. Because the Lord Jesus, of course,
is born of a virgin. All but the faith of that man,
Abraham, who against hope believed in hope. And he saw the outcome
of his faith. The son of promise that was born
Isaac. And here is David, you see, how
he would encourage himself in waiting. Waiting upon his God. My soul, he says, waits thou
only upon God. And observe here the the emphasis
he doesn't just say my soul wait only upon God he inserts the
personal pronoun the word thou, the singular pronoun how he speaks
so immediately and directly to himself, to his own soul wait
thou he says we see the same in Psalm 42 where, as I said
at the outset, we have that lovely soliloquy, Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? And twice, twice in Psalm 42,
verses 5 and 11, we have the expression, Hope thou in God. Not just hope in God, but the
emphatic thou, hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise Him, who
is the health of my countenance, and my God, says David." Oh,
there is a blessed waiting there in prayer, and it's not inactivity,
it's not passivity. There's all that holy exercise
in the soul of a man like this, as he's calling upon his God,
waiting upon his God, not in unbelief, but in faith, in hope,
in trust, that the Lord will hear and answer his cry. And
so finally, the expectation of prayer. The expectation of prayer. We are to expect answers. We're to expect an answer. My
soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. It's from Him. He does not say to the seed of
Jacob, seek ye my face in vain. He never says that. Look at the words of another
psalm, Psalm 85 and verse 8, I will hear what God the Lord
will speak. We speak and we are to expect
that God will answer. And that's what the psalmist
says there, I will hear what God the Lord will speak for He
will speak peace to his people, but let them not return to following.
Oh, how foolish we are. When we speak to God, God will
come, God will answer that prayer. He gives us every encouragement
to pray to Him. You know, I think it was that
verse in Psalm 85 that the great Puritan divine, Thomas Goodwin,
preached a whole series of sermons and it was published under the
name, The Return of Prayer. The Return of Prayer. To see the return of our prayers.
God hears prayers. You think of the prayers, maybe
you pray through the year, maybe the beginning of the old year,
the year is nearly gone, but do we not often begin the year
and we have prayers? We present our prayers, we want
God to appear in the course of the year, and you can look back
and God has appeared in many ways. Then you say, well, there are
things I prayed about and prayed for and I've not seen them yet. Well, maybe you're not going
to see them in this year. But next year, it will be in God's
time. It's not in our time, is it?
But we have that assurance. God has said, I will yet for
this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. God is going to do it. I will
do it for them, He says, but they have to inquire of Him.
Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you." The words of the Lord Jesus.
Well, what do we know of that blessed, earnest expectation? I like that expression. It's
words that we find there in the 8th chapter. of the epistle to
the Romans Paul speaks of the earnest expectation of the creature
waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God the earnest
expectation the believers expectation it's interesting because we're
told there with regards to that expression in the Greek it literally
means the stretching forth of the neck or you're looking for
something You're looking, you're stretching your neck, you want
to see it, you can't see it, it's far off. That's the sort
of expectation that's earnest. Believing that God will appear,
but God will appear not in our time, not in my time, not in
your time, but God will appear in His time. Isn't that our comfort,
friends? We're to be looking, we're to
be watching, we're to be waiting. Oh God grant us grace that we
might in some measure enter into the experience of the man after
God's own heart, this man David. And to come even as David comes
before God and addresses his God, yes, but addresses his own
soul to encourage himself. He says, my soul, Wait thou only
upon God, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock
and my salvation. He is my defense, I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Amen.