Rest in God alone, O my soul, for my hope comes from Him.My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from him.My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.My soul, wait thou in silence for God only; For my expectation is from him.
4 sermons cite this verse
… Testament, we see God used to refer, referred to as a rock. I'll show you just a couple of them. Look at Psalm 62, verse 2 and 7. God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. In verse 7, on God rests my salvation and my glory, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Hannah is saying, in my God, I am always safe. Because my God has all power. You jump down for a minute to 1 Samuel 2, 4. Hannah prays, the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. And the verses that follow, which we'll look at in a minute, show God's power that is infinitely greater than the mighty of this world. And as I was reading this this week, just think about it. My mind immediately went to wars happening in the world right now and different countries flexing military might. And I just want to remind us of something we've seen before in Isaiah chapter 40, verse 15, when Isaiah is talking about God's holiness, his incomparable perfection and unshakable power. And Isaiah says, he puts it this way, behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. …
strength. If we fell back upon the strength of God, we would be strong when we are weak, but when we fancy we are getting stronger, we are very much weaker and might very often measure ourselves in the inverse ratio of what we think! III. DAVID IS TO BE IMITATED IN ANOTHER RESPECT, NAMELY, THAT HIS EXPECTATION WAS ONLY FROM GOD. Notice the text—"It may be that the Lord will look upon my affliction." There was Abishai ready to take off this man's head, but David said, "It may be that the Lord will look upon my affliction." He thought that when he was in such great trouble, God would surely have pity upon him! Oh, you tried ones, look away, once and for all, from man to your God! "My Soul, wait you only upon God, for my expectation is from Him." There are two ways of going to a place. One is to go round and the other is to go straight. Now the straight road is the shortest way. And there are two ways of getting help. The one is to go round to all your friends and get disappointed—and then at last go to God! The other is to go to God first. That is the shortest way. God can make your friends help you afterwards. Seek first God and His righteousness, and the help of friends will be added afterwards. Straight forward makes the best running. Out of all troubles, the surest deliverance is from God's right hand. Therefore from all troubles, the readiest way to escape is to draw near to God in prayer. Go, not to this friend or that, but pour out your story before God. Remember how the poet puts it— …
… And quietness is essential to listening. My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him. Which brings me to the third attitude, and that is patiently. My soul wait there upon Him in quietness, expectantly. There are some things God is not going to tell us instantaneously. There are some things He's only going to tell us after we have waited a season of time. One of the reasons is because we're not always ready. Every time you and I wait upon the Lord or listen to Him, does not mean that we are ready to hear what He has to say. Sometimes he will tell us some things that we're not ready to hear Sometimes he will withhold some information until we are prepared to listen to what he's saying But to be willing to listen to him patiently That is, there are times when God may draw out our faith and stretch our faith He's promised to speak to our heart so we can expect him to speak to us Therefore when we come to him expectantly and quietly We must likewise exercise patience because he is not compelled to tell us everything we want to know instantaneously. …
"Ah, but I labor under such a sense of personal weakness." Just so, dear Brother, but is that a novelty? Did you not know at the beginning that you were weakness, itself, but that the Eternal God faints not, neither is weary? If you had cause to suspect Him of weakness, then there would be a reason for doubting Him—but to find out that you were weak was stale news, indeed, for you are weak as water and were always so! Did the Covenant run thus—that you were to fight the battle alone at your own charges and carry yourself to Heaven? Was it not stated in another place that God, Jehovah-Jireh, would preserve His people to the end? "Why did you doubt?" For a man to say, "I doubted because I was weak," is simply to give an unreasonable reason for perpetually doubting! If I doubt you, my Brother, because of something in myself, that is an absurd thing to do! I can only reasonably doubt you because of some failure in you/If I doubt because of some weakness in myself, I put the saddle on the wrong horse! I may be led to doubt and despair about myself—that is right enough, it is clear and logical—but to doubt God because I am weak is fantastic and ridiculous! Oh, be rid of that, I pray you! "But my doubt," says one, "arose from another reason. I lost so many friends, one after another They died or they deserted me." Well, was your faith dependent upon your friends? If so, it is little marvel that your faith failed you! Have you learned that wonderful 62nd Psalm which we call the "only" Psalm because it has the word, "only," so many times, beginning with it, indeed, though our translation has it, "Truly my soul waits upon God"? You know how David there says, "My Soul, wait you only upon God, for my expectation is from Him." If you built your hope on God, alone, and He was the one pillar of your confidence, what if God's Providence knocked away all those useless buttresses of yours—it could make no difference to the real strength of your faith! If a man trusts in God andhis friends, he has no secure trust. He is like one that has one foot upon the rock and another on the quicksand. Betwixt two stools, we know what comes, even though the two stools are good ones. To trust in God and to trust in friends is poor trusting! O Beloved, if our faith was what it should be, it would lean only upon the Lord, so that if we had none left to comfort us, we would still be able to say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." There is no reason to doubt God because friends fail us. …