Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 62 and verse 5. My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Psalm 62 and verse 5. We read in our reading from the Gospel according to Luke and chapter 19 of our Lord's coming into Jerusalem. Today, as no doubt you're aware, is known as Palm Sunday. It is the week before our Lord was crucified is when he came into Jerusalem for that purpose.

And we have the joy of those that met with him. We read in this account how they said, blessed be the King. that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.' And when the Pharisees told the Lord to rebuke His disciples, His answer was, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. In other accounts they are crying Hosanna, which really means save us we pray, which has been turned into a really song of praise.

But that was the expectation of the disciples and of those that were going before and those that were going after, those that were casting their clothes and the palm trees before him as he rode upon the ass, the colt of an ass that had been prophesied that he should come.

Remarkable how he directed the disciples to go into the village told them exactly what they were to find, a colt tied, where a never-man sat. A miracle that that colt could placidly, without being broken in at all, just take our Lord. And through all of that throng, normally an animal would buck at that. and would be very frightened about all the people around as well as having someone on his back. And yet you see the Lord's power in that, being able to tell where it was and also what they ought to say when challenged in losing him.

And all of those things came to pass. The disciples had reason for their expectation. And with all the miracles and everything that had been done, no wonder they sung as they did. But then what came after that? one of the most sorrowful, trying times that they should ever know, to see their Lord crucified and slain, to be expecting there should be great blessing and deliverance, really summed up with those two on the way to Emmaus, so sad, so despondent, and their Lord drawing nigh unto them, and they explaining all that had happened, And they said, we trusted.

It should have been he that should have redeemed Israel. But they hadn't seen that he had actually redeemed with the shedding of his blood. They had a blessing before their eyes, but didn't see it. They didn't realize it. It wasn't in the way that they expected.

But as the Lord opened up in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, then they could see, and their heart burnt within them while he talked with them by the way. But they had this expectation that in the short term, to their view, was completely disappointed, didn't come to pass.

We have in our text David charging his own soul. My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. Time to look firstly at what David charged himself to do. which is wait thou only upon God. And then secondly, there is a reason why. For my expectation is from him, or he is the author of it. It was his God that had raised up that expectation. It didn't come from himself.

Then I want to look thirdly at examples from the lives of those in scripture where they had that expectation and how it unfolded, how it worked out in their lives. God has put in this holy word those examples, those lives, for us who also must live our lives. to see what the beginning of the thing was, the end of the thing was, and what had gone on in between. But firstly, what David charged himself to do.

My soul wait thou only upon God. In one sense the charge is to wait as a servant in serving God and obeying Him and doing His will. Sometimes it can be with us. that we put things on hold when we cannot understand things, or if we're waiting for something. It's a bit like the Thessalonians. They thought at one time that the Lord's coming was imminent.

So they stopped working. They didn't work. And then became busybodies. And so the apostle had to write to them and say, if a man does not work, Neither should he eat. He must provide for his own house. There was a similar thing when the Jews went into Babylonish captivity. Then they were told, it is 70 years appointed. Don't just sit here and do nothing and wait for that time. Build houses. Be prosperous and work and do. Wait upon God while you're waiting for this that he said to do.

From a young child, I always had an expectation that I or we would come back here to this country. As a child, I thought it would be the whole family. But from four and a half, when I left this land, I can never remember a time when I did not think that we would come back. I didn't know it was just going to be myself or myself and my wife and family.

And the idea that my parents were going to be buried or buy a plot of land for a grave over there, well, you can't do that. I remember saying to them when I was young, because we're going to go back to England. You're going to die there, not here. But all that I'd got wrong.

But even though I had that strong expectation, I had my schooling. I bought my home. I did my training. I had a full potential of job as an engineer. I didn't say, well, I'm not going to do all of these things. Because I'm coming back here, they're not going to put all that on hold. I acted as if, well, for that time, that is where I was.

And so in that way, I was waiting on or serving the Lord where he had placed me to be, which was not inconsistent with the thought as well that I would come back over here. And there was those things that the Lord very specifically overruled it. One time when I changed jobs, and my father knew, of course, my exercise, my burden, and I was asked, Do you want to have a time off between you leave one job and start the other? I said, no, no, no. Finish one on Friday, start the other one on Monday. And after it started, my father said to me, why didn't you go to England then? And well, naturally speaking, I kicked myself. I thought, oh, that was my golden opportunity. I didn't do it. What was it meant to? That was not meant that time.

And the Lord just took it right out of my mind. and it's good to look back as to how the Lord has led in that way but what is before us here where David says wait thou only upon God in this way it is to be waiting on him, serving him as a servant in the place where his place is, whether it be the Jews in Babylon building their houses and flourishing there, whether it is to be Abraham where he was, in the land where he was. Occupy till I come is what our expectation is. All of us, we know we are but sojourners here.

We are passing away, I hope, a most blessed thing if we have an expectation of heaven. But before then, we've got this life, to live to the honor and glory of God. And so in that, we can be like David, to charge ourselves, wait thou only upon God. Another way It's waiting upon God to bring that to pass that we have expectation of. So what is the alternative? The alternative is we start putting our hands to things and dealing with things ourselves, and that's why the word only is here. It is easy to say, well, we are praying to the Lord, we are looking to the Lord for help, for guidance, for him to appear, to open doors, to shut doors, to hedge up our way, to bring this to pass, but we'll try and put our awe in as well, and to further it, and to bring it to pass. We hear David says, wait thou only upon God.

If we are waiting upon him as well, then there is an expecting Him to work. We can't have an expectation of something happening, being brought to pass, a hope set before us, the Lord doing something for us in the long term, and not be having an expectation that we'll see the Lord start to work or bring about things and to form things.

Very important that. The Lord warns concerning the end of the world that we learn to discern the sign of the times, that we are expecting, we are looking for the Lord's work and how he is acting, watching providence, watching our own spirit, watching what the Lord is doing round about us, being like Elijah's servant, when he's praying for rain, Elijah's praying for rain, he's sending his servant going looking. Look out towards the sea, where the rain is most likely to come from. Praying and looking, praying and watching. That is the message here, the charge for David. Another aspect in waiting. is a submissive spirit, especially under adverse providences, circumstances.

Sometimes we can get very fretful, very unbelieving, very troubled in our mind. Really what David is saying here, trust in the Lord and wait for him. patiently enduring his time, his way, and he will perform in his way and time. Why do you think David had to charge himself like this? I believe he, like us, was prone to not want to wait and to be impatient. If you and I charge ourselves of things, Very often it is because we discern that we've got a propensity to do the opposite and that we're struggling with these things.

We must never look upon the Lord's dear people who've gone before us, think their faith was easy, their trust was easy, they could easy manage things, they didn't have to struggle with unbelief, with doubts, with fears. with things that they couldn't understand and perplexing things, they did. They had to walk that out. You read of Joseph in prison, until his time came, the word of the Lord tried him. And so we must expect the same, to walk it out the same.

There's many things in scripture that the actual details are not given to us. Recently, we've been reading through at home with the making of the tabernacle in the wilderness. And we said one to another, you know, with all of that details, they must have had a wonderfully big workshop to do all that timber work. They must have had lots of benches to work on. to do all that casting of silver and gold, they would have had big furnaces. They would have had a real workshop there. It would have been a real labor. And like we are associated with a workshop or if we're working with timber, what that would look like.

But you don't read of any of that. All you read of that they made this and made that and that. And all of that detail left out. But those of us here that are used to working in wood or in gold, not gold, not us here perhaps, but in metals and things like that, our minds will go to that practical aspect, what they would have had to been doing. The same with making the temple later on. And maybe many people's minds, they read these accounts, and they don't think of that. But if you've had anything to do with building or that sort of thing, you do. And so again, it is with the expectation here.

If we've never had things that we walk through like that, then maybe we just read over it, and we just read it as a verse. But if we've walked in a similar path, Then we know about the doubts, the fears, the uncertainties, what it means to us if it doesn't come to pass, what it means if it does come to pass.

And we can put ourselves into their position. We might ask, did they really feel like me? Did they really go through what I went through? And you might say, yes, they do. And sometimes we have it written out for us in the Word. And other times we don't. Sometimes we have a little verse like in James, Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are.

A reminder, it's just he wasn't some superhuman. Like passions, all the fears and troubles and weaknesses. And you do get a picture of that, where he's strong one moment, before Ahab and Jezebel, and the next minute, he's running away from Jezebel. And he fears for his life, and he wants to die. But James says, he prayed, and the earth withheld its rain for three and a half years. And then he prayed again, and it rained. A man of prayer. And the inference is we're also the same. If he prayed, we can pray. If he had the same passions as we are, we walk the path he walked.

So may we come in with David here and see in what he is saying something may be interpreted by our own path. May we believe in the experience of the Word of God. and that which is written, until we walk in it ourselves. You might have read many things, say about an operation or someone going into hospital. Until you go into hospital, until you have an operation, you've really no idea what they've been through. And so with the things of God, the things that the Lord brings us through unlocks verses, it unlocks passages and you think, That's what he was writing about. That's what he felt. That's what he was going through, what I'm going through.

And it brings fellowship with the people of God, especially where it comes in with the Lord Jesus Christ. We can know that he is a sympathizing high priest. He knoweth the way that I take. And that's a wonderful thing to realize that. On to look secondly, the reason for waiting upon God. I said when introducing this second point, the reason was, for my expectation is from Him. He is the author of it.

We read in Genesis how God appeared to Abraham. In Genesis chapter 12, the Lord had told Abraham to get him out from the country where he was, from his father's house, and to a land that I will show them. And he said to him, I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. That was the beginning of it, if you like.

God gave him an expectation that from him would be a great nation. God was the beginner, the author of it. And no doubt, he often went back to that. It was reaffirmed as well several times. But he could clearly say, this did not come from me. It came from God. We think of Joseph. Who gave Joseph his dreams? God gave him his dreams.

And they gave him an expectation that there would come a time that his brethren would bow down to him. He didn't know timing. He didn't know how it would happen. But he could come in with David and say that his expectation was from God. We could come in with David when he was 15 to 19 years of age. And Samuel came. And he was found, brought in from the sheep and anointed the next king. But there was to be 15 years or so more before he was king. in all that time persecuted by Saul. But he could have been very clear, he was very clear, that God had given him that expectation through the anointing of Samuel. And I've no doubt in other aspects in his life that the Lord had made him understand that's what would happen.

We think of Mary and Joseph, the mother of our Lord and the father, as was supposed. Joseph was told, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. What an expectation he had based upon the name and what God had told him. Later on, when our Lord was born, when he was brought into the temple after the custom of the law, in Luke chapter 2 and verse 29, we have Simeon, or verse 27, is when Simeon came into the temple. And we're told that even he had been given an expectation It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

We don't know how long that went on, but he had that belief. So when he took him up in his arms, blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And all of these cases, though we'd have looked at it, that it was God that raised that expectation. Now, how does that then come with us?

Well, we may have things where the Lord has blessed the word to us, blessed the sermon to us, given us a very strong persuasion of something that was going to happen, going to come to pass. but especially in the actual reading of the Word of God. We can't possibly think that God has given to us inspired, infallible Word of God, and in it, there are many promises. In it, there are many things of which his works are told, his methods are revealed to us, And we don't have that expectation that this is what God will do. He said in the covenant, the new covenant, that all our children shall be taught of the Lord, great shall be the peace of thy children. Now if we have a desire, longing that we might be one of the Lord's children, then to look at such a word like that, we should have an expectation that the Lord would begin to teach us. And therefore be praying for it, be watching and waiting for it in accordance with the expectation raised from the Word of God, thou sensed.

Now, yes, in one sense, verses in certain situations need to be really applied to us and blessed to us. But as it comes to the salvation, God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When our Lord was born, the expectation, the angels from heaven, on earth, peace, goodwill toward men, are we then to say, That's not true. We can't expect that. Why is it said by the angels? Why is it recorded? Why is it set forth? The whole Word of God that is given to us, it is to raise us to an expectation of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He doesn't tempt his people. He doesn't say, well, here is a gift, but I'm not going to give it to you. Here is a hope raised up or an expectation, but it won't happen to you. There's no point because you're not elect. You're not one of God's people. The word of God doesn't mark out God's people and who are not in that way. God's people are known by their calling and by how the Lord begins with them and works with them.

We read in Hebrews 11, of those that were saved by faith, they saw the promises afar off and they embraced them. How many promises of you and I embraced in the word of God said that is what I want, that is suitable for my soul. That which was written aforetime was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Change hope might have expectation of the Lord's blessing.

That's why it was written. The Lord gave the word. Great was the company of them that published it. But the Lord gave that word. He gave the expectation through the word of God. Wherever the Lord sends the word, my word shall not return unto me void, it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it. We should then have that expectation, that word will accomplish things, it will do things.

We even read of those in Psalm 107, they got into a very low place that they abhorred all manner of meat. We think in a spiritual sense, the manner of meat is the word of God, and you might be in that dark, low situation. You say, I abhor the word of God. I find it hard. I find it dry. I find I can't get any profit or any benefit from it.

You know how the Lord saved them in Psalm 107? He sent his word and healed them. The very thing that they were abhorring, that's what he sent. The remedy was even that which they weren't relishing themselves. But the Lord uses it. It's the Lord's blessing upon it that makes all the difference.

You know what it is to be reading a passage of scripture, perhaps a hard, cold, distant heart. You come across one word, one verse, and it stands out upon the scriptures. The Lord shines a light on it, and you stop, you look at it. I've never seen that like that before. It touches your heart.

And you know, when these things then are given us, we have a reason for waiting upon God, because He has given that expectation. He is the author of it. My soul, wait thou only upon God, For my expectation is from him. We tell the most solemn word that the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

There are those who have expectations that are not based upon the word of God at all. They're not based upon what God has said. They're their own thoughts, their own imaginations. They're inconsistent with the word. They think that they'll have an easy life. They think that they don't need to pray. They don't need faith. They don't need a personal faith.

And they'll just get to heaven with a few good works and a few charitable works and many funerals that you go to of those who have lived most ungodly lives. They're all sent to heaven. But that expectation, and Bunyan portrays that with his ignorance. and Christian and hopeful they could see it, and they tried and tried to warn him, but he wouldn't listen to them. He'd rather just have his ignorance. And then he found there was a byway from heaven to hell. Our expectation needs to be based upon the word of God. And a poor sinner that is pleading the word, thou saidst, For a sinner that is looking to the Lord to perform and to do, that expectation will not be cut off.

I want to look at some examples in our third point from Scripture. There's some things that are common with all these examples that I will give. The first thing is there is a time, a time from expectation to fulfillment. In one sense, the whole idea of giving one that expectation is to carry through a period of time. You can think of even some simple illustration.

Someone might be having a birthday coming up, and you're expecting certain things to be given or to happen. Or perhaps a holiday is planned, but it might be six months ahead. But you have some expectations and looking forward to it, or what it will be like, or where you're going. We're all used to in our lives having something in the distance that we have a reason to believe will come to pass, and we're thinking of it over a period of time.

So a time factor is in it. The second is that very often there's a trial of faith. In that time, there are things that seem to go completely against that expectation. They're very discouraging things, things that, maybe naturally speaking, will put an end to it. That is common with all those that I want to look at.

Another thing that is common is those that, with that expectation, at times they got very, very low. Times they said, like David, One day, I will perish at the hand of Saul. David, you've been anointed king. You expect that you'll be a king, but in his feelings, he says, I'm going to perish one day. And not only him, but others got very, very low.

Remember this. If we were to walk this path, these things will be in it for us too. I've got really three headings of examples. The first one is this, an expectation looking at the wrong person. And this is where we're looking at a person, but we look at the wrong one.

When Eve, had been given the promise, Adam and Eve, the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Naturally, she would expect that she would be saved through childbearing the seed of the woman. So when she gets Cain, she says, I have a man-child from the Lord. But he's not from the Lord. He proved to be. one that wasn't the Lord's, a murderer. And he slew Abel, his brother. But then she bore Seth, and then men began to call upon the name of the Lord, and there was the line through to Christ started.

Her expectation at first was on the wrong, We think of Joseph. Joseph has two children. He has Manasseh, he has Ephraim. Manasseh is the oldest. He goes to his father when his father is dying, and he guides those youngsters in a way that Jacob would have reached out his right hand and put his hand upon the head of Manasseh and gave him the firstborn blessing. But instead, Jacob gave a cross-handed blessing, and he put his right hand on Ephraim. And when Joseph saw it, he said, not so, my father. This is the firstborn. Jacob, he says, I know it, my son. I know it, my son. He also shall be great, but his brother shall be greater than he. Often remembered in this way.

I picture the map of Israel with the tribes on. And you will see Manasseh is divided. It's got much more land than what Ephraim has got. Half of the land is one side of Jordan. Half of the land is the other side of Jordan. But Ephraim is all over Jordan.

And I always think about it like this. Manasseh is like the Lord's people. At the moment, half are here below, or not even yet born, and half are in heaven. The church is divided. But Ephraim is like all of the church in heaven. They are all as a city compact. They're all in the land of Israel, all over Jordan. And that's how I remember.

I thought, Ephraim, he got the firstborn blessing. But for Joseph, his expectation was on the wrong one. He thought, well, Manasseh's the firstborn. He will get the blessing. You might say, Isaac, he was the same with his son Esau and Jacob. But Jacob have I loved, Esau had I hated.

We can make that mistake. We think of when our Lord came, and there is John the Baptist said before, and the people are musing, is this the Christ or not? They were thinking he might be the Christ. But John Baptist said, no, I am not he. There cometh one whose shoe is latched, I am not worthy to unloose. That is the one. It's easy to have our eyes set upon the wrong one.

If we go back to even Abraham, Abraham who'd been given that expectation from God. This is a lesson in waiting only upon God, because he hadn't got a child. Then he said to his, or Sarah said to him, well you take Hagee, you take my maid. You have a child by her, and they did. They had Ishmael. But God said, not in Ishmael, not in Ishmael. This shall not be the heir. And so then Isaac is born. That shall be the heir. And at first, there's Abraham saying, let Ishmael live before that. No, says the Lord, not Ishmael, but Isaac.

And yet, Abraham had a real expectation from God that he's looking at the wrong person, the wrong line, or wrong way that it was to come. And the mistake, putting his own hand to it, trying to further it along. instead of waiting for the Lord to appear. There are lessons for that. Maybe with us then. We've got an expectation and it's set upon the wrong person. Sometimes we can get half a thing right.

We can be like Jonathan and David. Jonathan goes out to David in the wood and he encourages his hand in God. And he says, thou shalt be king. over Israel, my father shall not find thee, and I shall be next unto thee. He was right about David being king, but not right about him being next to him. Jonathan was slain with his father in battle. So we can get half things right, but not all. We need to remember that sometimes. You can interpret things wrongly.

But was Eve disappointed? No, she was given Seth. Was Joseph disappointed? No, Ephraim was blessed. Was Abraham disappointed? No, Isaac was given and blessed. Were the people disappointed it was not John? No, it was the Lord Jesus Christ. John did no miracle, but this man that raised the dead, healed the sick, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second one is an expectation met with great disappointment at first. We've already spoken of our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. At first, what a disappointment, what a trial, what a sorrow, when instead of Him triumphing as the King, He was crucified. and almost mockingly over his cross, Jesus, the King of the Jews. But if we go back, we go back to those like Moses, where the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told him to go to Egypt and to bring the people out of Egypt. He gave him signs to work before them, and he worked those signs, and the people believed. There was joy, there was thanksgiving.

But then what happened? Their burdens got harder, they got worse, and even Moses goes back to the Lord and says that Thou has not delivered them at all. Even he expected And yet the Lord had warned him that he would harden Pharaoh's heart. And then when Moses tried to speak to the children of Israel and encourage them, they would not hear. For the trial and the wounds and what they were going through, they would not even listen to him. Was it a wrong expectation? It was wrong to think they would immediately be delivered and go straight out.

They'd have nine signs, and then the Passover, and then they were brought out, and then they had to be delivered at the Red Sea. They were brought out, and were brought out with a high hand. And yet at first, there was real disappointment. It looked as if, as Moses says, thou hast not delivered them at all. And so we can have that expectation, and it met with a great disappointment at first. Given the time, they were brought out, they were delivered. The last one I bring before you is an expectation that men sought to destroy.

Joseph, we'd sold about his dreams that God gave him. His father rebuked him for them. His brothers envied him. When they saw him coming to them in the field, they said, behold, this dreamer cometh. We will destroy him, we'll kill him, and then we'll see what we'll become of his dreams. They thought that they would stop these dreams.

They were finishing. So he's cast into the pit. Then instead of being killed, he was sold. And in what they did, they furthered and brought about the very thing that the dreams were pointing to. It was a vital step. They'd moved the place where they were.

Joseph couldn't find them. He's wandering in the field. A man found him. And that man had happened to hear them say that they were going to Dothan. So he was able to tell Joseph, what if that link wasn't there? And Joseph went back to his father. And all the history, that all fell down. But short term, Joseph would be saying, I wish I didn't meet that man in the field. If only I'd gone back to my father instead of chasing after them.

And we read that, until his time came, the word of the Lord tried him. He was falsely accused, he was put into prison, he was forgotten in prison. Many things came in between the expectation given And to bring it to pass, when he saw his brothers come in, and he saw his brothers bow down before him, he would remember the dreams. All came to pass. But man thought he would destroy it.

Then going back to David himself, anointed as king. And immediately after that anointing, we have the case of Goliath. And David is propelled into the spotlight of Israel and the Philistines. You picture Philistines on one side, Israel on the other. 40 days, not a single one in Israel could be found to go out against Goliath. 40 days, a testing time. And then David, at the bidding of his father, goes and sees the battle. He is the challenge.

And he fights Goliath, beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ, singularly going out in front of all his enemies, in front of all the people of God, on his own at Calvary, fighting Goliath, if you like. David prevailed, our Lord prevailed. But from that time, David was envied by Saul, and Saul sought to kill him, sought to destroy him, casting javelins at him, pursued him with thousands of men, tried to put a stop to this anointing, the stop to this. He knew that David was appointed the next king, but he couldn't destroy it. He couldn't stop it.

We need to remember that, where God has given an expectation, not man, not devils, none will quench it. And none can stop the work of God in a sinner's heart, or where the Lord has one that is loved with an everlasting love, to stop him putting forth his hand and plucking that one as they brand from the burning and saving that soul. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it against until the day of Jesus Christ.

Who is he that will harm you? If ye be followers of that which is good, if ye are looking unto the Lord, look unto me, and be ye saved, or the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. We will expect this, that there will be that fight of Satan, the world, the flesh, all against the expectation that he's raised up in a poor sinner, that God is their God, that he has begun with them, he's given them a desire, he's given them to see the darkness they're in by nature, and he's given them light upon their path, and a hope is raised up, that they are the Lord's, and the Lord is teaching them, and the Lord will bring them safely home to glory, but then comes Satan, Then comes man, then comes providences. Satan says, if you were a child of God, that wouldn't happen, and that wouldn't have happened, and you wouldn't have done this. And all of these things try and fight against what God has raised up, hope and expectation in the heart.

These things are written for our learning. They're written to encourage us, encourage us to wait upon the Lord, Look to him for his work. He will have regard to the work of his own hands. And if he does, may we do as well. And watch his hand and watch his work. And that we be like David, especially if we feel the opposition and feel the pretensity to doubt or be looking to our own hand. Charge our own soul. Go out from the Lord's house tonight. My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.