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.