If you will, turn with me to
Psalm 62. I'll come back to this. This
will serve as my text. Psalm 62. 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 you imagine mischief
against a man? You shall be slain, all of you,
bowing wall shall you 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 you. My soul wait thou only upon God,
for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He's 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. 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. Become not vain in robbery. If
riches increase, set not your heart upon them. God has spoken
once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth
mercy, where thou renderest to every man according to his worth. I invite you this morning to
turn again with me to Psalm 62, the subject of this psalm is given to us
at the outset. Truly, David writes, my soul
waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation. Now the word cometh was added
by the translators to make it more readable. You can see in
there how it's written in your Bibles. That means you can lift
it out with any damage to the text. I like it in the original. From Him, my salvation. My salvation. God Himself is
our salvation. Let that sink in. Men and women are saved. Children
are saved. by doctors, by individuals from
drowning and death and cancer and this and that and the next
thing. But what is it to be saved by
God? God Himself. Oh, I thank God
for doctors. Thank God for doctors. Boy, I've
been hurting at times and doctors helped me. I'm thankful for them. But when it comes to salvation
of the soul, God is our Savior, and what a Savior He is. While
it's true that salvation cometh to all His saints, it is also
true that God was, is, and ever shall be their salvation. God has saved us. Paul wanted to tell Timothy,
he wanted some impact to this, to go home to this young, God
has saved us. It wasn't a Baptist church. It wasn't religion in general.
God saved us. He saved us. When did that start?
In eternity back. Then He called us. He saved us
when He put us in Christ. He saved us when Christ came
into this world as a represented man. He saved us when Christ
died on the cross. He saved us when He raised Him
from the dead. When he walked on that cloud
and God received him into glory and he sat down at the right,
God saved us. And then he called us. What did he call us? How did
he call us? He told us what he did. Who is this man? Why did he come? What did he
do? Where is he now? He called us. He called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace. God is our salvation.
That's what David's rejoicing in, God. God is our salvation. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God's elect. Boy, that has a
ring to it, don't it? There's no part of our salvation
that's not owing to God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. In the book of Judith it said
we're sanctified by God the Father, set apart by Him from all eternity. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. I love to can stuff out of the
garden. And I can them beans or whatever
it is and I sit around and listen and pretty soon I hear that pop. Pop them lids on that jar. It's
good to go. I can put it on the shelf and
next year I can open it up and eat it without fear. It's preserved. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. And we're called by the Holy
Ghost. He said to the only wise God our Savior, be glory, all
the glories to Him, majesty, Oh, who is the majesty? Huh? Well, he's not in England. His majesty seated on the throne
of glory. Dominion, is there anything he
doesn't rule over? And power, both now and forever,
Paul said. Amen. I have four things that
I want us to see in these verses. I want us to see here a precious
commitment. That's the first thing I want
us to see. And then I want to show you here a grand expectation and a divine trust and a sure
effect. So let's begin where the psalmist
begins with a precious commitment. What's he talking about here?
He's talking about your soul. My soul? There are many things
in this life that become precious to us. Our families, our wives. Husband, love your
wives as Christ loved the church. Houses, jobs, friends, the list
goes on. Things become precious to you.
You know, we planted some trees when Kathy and I First built
our house up in Kentucky, we planted some trees. Hopefully
Yvonne and I are going to be doing that before too long. In a few years, it wasn't just
a tree, it was my tree. Don't you just love our trees? Things become precious to you,
don't they? Bring back memories, too. But none is more precious
than my soul. I just have one soul. Tree dies,
I can buy another tree. What about my soul? I have one soul and it's eternal. Death is not the end of the soul,
just the end of the body, just the end of life as we know it
here. Our Lord said, fear not them which can kill the body.
That's all they can do. They can chop it in pieces. They
can make it painful. They can do all these things.
But that's as far as they can go. They can't touch my soul.
But He can. Fear rather Him which is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell. Our souls are eternal. The rich man said he thought
within himself without concurring with the Word of God, without
consulting the purpose and will of God, and without asking for
divine guidance. He consulted with himself and
he said, I know what I'm going to do. I've got these little
piddly barns out here. I'm going to tear them down and
I'm going to build some big barns. And I'm going to fill them up.
And then I'm going to say, soul, take thy knees. But God said,
thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Our soul is eternal. It belongs
to God who gave it. And of our bodies, he says, then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it. Our souls could at any minute
be required of God. I tell you, I've been in a church
service. I've told you about this. Old pastor, the one who
established that church years ago, he came in. Pastor stopped. He just began his message, and
he stopped and welcomed him in. And he said, this is the man
who founded this church. He said, how are things between
you and the Lord? And that old man went up to throw
two fingers up in the air. We're just like this. God killed him. He never got
his hand up. He got it up to about here. He
fell over and a few of them was dead. Just that. Your souls can
be required of you at any minute. We like to look way down the
road. You know, one of these days I'm going to get old and
I'm going to do it. Huh? Thou fool. Ain't that what the
Lord said to that man, Balfour? This day shalt thy soul be required
of thee. Our souls are eternal. They're
in the hand of God. And our bodies will return to
the earth, and the spirit shall return unto God. Does our souls
even enter into our decision-making? Does my soul, does it enter into
my everyday affairs? Does it enter into my decision
making? Does it enter into my planning?
How does it affect my future? Am I even concerned about my
soul? Well, the writer of this psalm
is a man after God's own heart, and as he sings, he sings of
a precious commitment to God. He says, my soul, my soul, what
will it profit me to gain the whole world and lose my soul?
What will you give in exchange for your soul? You can't buy
it. You don't have the price. What lies in the balance? is
our souls. Anything else you lose in this
life, you can do without or replace it, but not your soul. Here's
where salvation begins in men with a commitment of the soul.
It's the most precious thing you have. Now who you gonna trust with
this? Huh? Some hot dog preacher? Some Hollywood
evangelist? Somebody that's there for his
own glory and his own name preaching another gospel? Who you going
to trust with your soul? There's only one worthy. That's
God our Savior. Here's where salvation begins
in men with a commitment of the soul. Paul said, I know whom
I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him. What did he commit to him? His
soul. The eternal welfare of my soul.
If you give yourself, you've given everything. If you trust your soul to him,
you're trusting everything. In this life, he said, you'll
have tribulation, troubles. In Psalm 25, 22, he prays for
God to redeem Israel out of its troubles. In Job 14, 1, he says,
man that's born a woman is of a few days and full of trouble.
Trouble within, trouble without, trouble from above and trouble
from beneath. It's not in a calm that our commitment's
born, but in trouble. In trouble. That's why you can't
talk to people about their soul today. They ain't in trouble.
They're not in trouble. I ain't no sinner like that.
God said you are. Fact is, you can't even begin
to imagine the depth of your sin. and what you're capable
of. You may not know it, but you
and I are sinners. And sinners are men and women
with real trouble. They need saving from the wrath
to come. God's wrath is coming. I don't
know what you want to call it. This day of mercy, this day of
grace is drawing to a close. It's not going to go on forever.
There's an end. There's a period. It's going
to stop. We're living in the day of grace, in the day of mercy,
in the day of the light of the gospel. We need saving from the wrath
to come. We need saving from this prison
evil world. We need saving from an untoward
generation. We need saving from our fallen
nature. We need saving from the vanity
of our minds. We need saving from our sins. This psalm is about a commitment
of the soul to God, their Savior. So here's the first thing I see,
a precious commitment. What about you and I? Can I take my soul? I have no
power, no real power over it. But I tell you, it's involved
in salvation. I'm going to take my soul and
commit it to Him. Why? Because I'm persuaded He
can keep it. And I'm persuaded I can't. And the world won't. So who are
you going to commit to? You're going to commit it to
Him. You're going to commit it to Him. Second thing we see in
these verses is a grand expectation. What's He say? God. God, my soul
waiteth upon God. The word waiteth here means to
be still. That's what it means. Just be
quiet. What did Moses tell that crowd?
Moses, you led us in here and look, here comes the Egyptians
and the whole army. We could have died back in Egypt.
Why'd you bring us out here for? Stand still. Be still. That's what Moses said. Be still
and see the salvation of the Lord. See what your Lord can
do. If you could just get people
to be still for a little bit. Just be still. Oh, that's what that word wait
meant. Quietly wait. Not get involved
in the mix. Wait upon God is to trust in
Him alone for the outcome. When I was a young preacher,
I told Brother Mahan, the hardest thing for any man to do is nothing. Isn't it? I just have to get
my hand on it somehow. I'll show Yvonne how to do something,
some kind of carpenter work, and pretty soon, I'll say, yeah,
well, let me do it. Can't keep your hands off, can
you? Can't keep your hands off. They would say, be still, be
still. Oh, hardest thing to do, nothing. To commit his soul to the Lord
and silently wait on him for deliverance. If the soul be a precious commitment,
then God himself must be the grand expectation. The earnest expectation of all
creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. There's an
expectancy even from creation. But oh, the believer, what an
expectation he had. God's going to save my soul.
But you really believe, yeah, I believe I'm going to die and
they're going to bury me one day. If the Lord don't return,
they're going to bury me in the ground just like I buried my
wife. They're going to shovel dirt over the casket. They're
going to say a few words and everybody's going to go home.
Hopefully somebody put a marker up. He lived here. This was his
name. Actually, the marker's already
there. They're just waiting for the date. That's how sure death
is. They don't need to put it off. The only thing left to do is
put the date on there. He died this day. They're going
to put me in the ground. But I ain't staying in the ground.
That's what Job said. Well, I know my Redeemer lives
here. And I'll stand with him on this
earth in the last day. I'll be with him. That's an expectation,
ain't it, Russell? I could die of a heart attack.
I could die of cancer. Oh, all creation expects God
to save his people. Looks like I could, don't it? And oh, what of the victorious
Christ? This man, Hebrews 10, 12, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth doing what? Expecting. You see what David's talking
about? This is a grand expectation. Christ sat down expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. If the Lord of glory can sit
down expecting it looks like I could. There is in the salvation of
sinners a grand expectation, and that expectation is that
God will intervene on your behalf. God will do for us what we cannot
do for ourselves. And he said in Psalm 62, 5, Oh
my soul, he said, wait thou, listen, only upon God. God's not a part of your salvation,
He is your salvation. Why would a sinner commit his
soul to the Lord? Because from Him cometh our salvation. Because He only is my rock and
my salvation. Because He's my defense. If the
Lord be for us, Who can be against us? Ain't that what it says over
there in Romans 8? Whom he did for, no, he also did predestinate. Whom he did predestinate, then
he called. Whom he called, he justified.
Now if God be for us, who's going to be against us? Who's going
to lay anything to the charge of God? Heed my defense. I don't have
to defend myself. God defends me. Because, verse 7, he's my salvation
and my glory. I can't glory in anything that
I do. The temptation's there, but the
reality's not. The only thing I can really glory
in is what God does. And then he said he's my refuge. Why would I commit myself? He's
my refuge. Because unto Him, mercy, verse
12. Mercy. Oh. All right, thirdly,
I see in verse 8 a divine counsel. He said, trust in Him at all
times. If there's one thing above all
others in a relationship, it's trust. When trust is gone, a
relationship is gone. Is that right? If love abides,
trust abides. They never come alone. What is the essential ingredient
of faith? Trust. Trust. That's what it boils down
to. In Psalm 118, verse 8, he said,
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
men. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in princes. Men and women sometimes come
to me for counsel, and here's the only counsel I can offer.
Trust in the Lord. Trust in Him. He's your defense. What's going to happen? What's
going to happen? Trust in Him at all times. What's
that mean? That means in every situation
and every circumstance. We live in a fix-it generation,
don't we? Go to YouTube. I had a helper
come over. He was helping me, probably listening
to the message this morning. And every time he talks about
doing something, he tells me, you can go on YouTube and he'll
tell you how to do that. You can. I know you can. I have
lots of friends who do. They'll tell you how to fix it.
And you might fix your refrigerator or your pump, but you ain't gonna
fix your soul and you ain't gonna find out how to on YouTube. If you'd have God's counsel,
trust in Him at all times. What's that mean? That means
when the roof's falling in. When the lightning fries everything
in the house. That means when the doctor comes
in shaking his head. Last time I said that, he did.
And he may do it again. Trust in him at all times. This
time, next time, every time, in all times. Trust in him. What's the situation where you
couldn't trust in him? And if you don't trust in him,
who are you going to trust in, you? You're the reason you're
in that spot. You ain't gonna get yourself
out. Oh, the heart of faith is trust,
and the object of faith is God. Listen to this verse over in
1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, 18. He said, for as much as you know,
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver
and gold from your vain conversation, that is, your daily walk and
hope, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. Now listen to
this. Who by Him, do believe in God, who by Him do believe in God
that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God. His appearance in the flesh,
His godly walk, His ministry, His suffering and death, His
resurrection, His ascension into glory, His mediation presently. This is how we believe in God
and why. Who by Him do believe in God
that your faith and hope might be in God. His appearance here was to do
His Father's will, to satisfy His Father's demands, to promote
His Father's purpose, and to reveal His Father's glory. And
that He did. And by Him we believe in God. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. The heart of faith is to trust,
the object of faith is God, and the source of faith is Christ,
who by him do believe in God. Peter said, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name unto heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved. And then fourthly,
I see in these verses the sure end of this trust. Verse 8. Trust in Him at all times, you
people. Pour out your heart before Him. It was said to those who questioned
the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, they said, Behold, he prayeth. He prayeth. That proud Pharisee
who never Eyes wide open, looking up into heaven, looking back
at a sinner saying, I thank God I'm not like him. Now he's praying. He's praying. Acts 9-11. Prayer is the breath of the believer. If God is the object of your
faith, the heart of your faith, and the source of your faith,
if you truly trust Him, you'll pour out your heart to Him. That's
what you'll do. You reckon God's gonna save my
children? Maybe I ought to ask Him. Huh? Maybe I ought to ask Him. How
often do I call out their names to Him? Oh, the revelation of our unbelief. If you truly trust Him, you'll
pour out your heart to Him. Let me ask you something, where
else are you going to go? His disciples said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? He said, you're free to go. They
said, where are we going to go? Now that's the words of eternal
life. Where are we going to go? And then lastly, I see in these
verses a hiding place. God is a refuge, he said, for
us. There's a day coming in which
men and women will cry for the rocks and the mountains to hide
them from the face of Him with whom they have to do it. Where
can a sinner go to find a hiding place from God? Here's what he said, Moses, there's
a place by me. Oh, thank God there's a place
by me. And it's a rock. And I'm going
to put you on the rock. But that still ain't enough hiding
place. I'm going to put you in the rock. There's a cleft in
it, and I'm going to put you right down in the rock. You're
going to be one with the rock. And then you still can't look
on my face. But I'll show you my hinder parts.
That's his finished work. God is our refuge. I had a great
big old satellite back in the days when satellite TV came out.
Seemed to me like that thing was eight or ten feet. It was
huge. Set out in my backyard. And back then you could get,
anybody could get it. It's just a thing that opened
up all these things for you. I could get anything, anywhere
in the world, any kind of TV program, anything that there
was, I could get it. And so I turned it on, and I
got all involved in these California fires. Man, California was burning
down that year. I can't remember what year it
was. But anyway, I was watching these things, and just every
spare minute, I'd turn it on, and I was just fascinated by
them. And there was a story on there about a man, and this fire
had changed directions. And he'd come back toward his
house, and he had nowhere to go. And he grabbed that little
boy up, his son, and took off running. And he was running through
there. That fire was jumping through
the trees, jumping through the brush. And it was almost ready
to catch up with him. And he spied a big opening out
there. It was all black and burnt. And
he run out there in the middle and threw his boy down and laid
down on top of him. And the little boy just shaking
and quivering. And he said, Daddy, why have
we stopped? He said, son, there's only one
safe place to be. That's where the fire has already
burnt. Trust in Him. Because in Him,
the fire has already burnt. And it burnt itself out. Not
a hot ash left. God is our refuge. This is the place where judgment,
judgment's fires have already burned. We did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. What about you and I? Are we
in trouble? Do we know it? We've been made aware of the
crisis of sin. Are we aware of an impending
judgment? Trouble within, trouble without,
a troubled past, troubled present, and a troubled future. In this
life, what you're going to have is trouble. My soul, he said, wait thou upon
God for my expectations from him. A preacher, what do you
expect? I expect God to save my soul,
because that's what he said he'd do. He said, if you trust me. How much do I trust him? Not
very much. To my shame, not very much. But
he said, if my faith is as a grain of mustard seed, that's sufficient,
because of who it's in. Who it's in. Can you trust him? Oh, not like I want to. That's
not what I'm asking. I'm asking, do you trust Him?
Natural man don't trust Him at all. The whole thing's foolish
with Him. Whole thing's a charade. Do I trust Him? Oh, why should
I? He's my refuge. He's my rock. He's my revelation. He's my salvation. He's my glory. Oh, may the Lord
enable every one of us to trust in Him. Thank you.