Psalms 62:1–2

The word "only" is the mark of this Psalm. The first verse should read, "My soul waits only upon God," and the word comes again in verses 2, 5, 6. Weigh it. Think it over in the presence of God. The soul can never be at rest until it grasps the meaning. The Psalm opens with the soul in difficulties, surrounded by enemies. But it has learned the lesson that salvation — deliverance — can only come from God.

Almost all of us know what it is to turn to human help under the stress of conflict or temptation. In doing that we lose the blessedness of waiting only upon God. The fact is this. We never reach this blessed place of complete dependence until we come to the end of ourselves and of man. We have to find out by experience how empty all human help is, and be shut up to God alone. Once we reach it, even in the smallest measure, we pass into a new circle, outside of man, where the presence of God is our home.

Word for word, the first verse reads, "Only unto God my soul is silence." That is, hushed in His presence, in confident submission. Expect everything from Him and nothing from man. Look away from self and magnify the Lord. That is the secret of a life of rest and victory.

Waiting on God is the subject of this psalm. It implies dependence and confidence, and both in such a way that we wait for God's time. Dependence, because we cannot do anything without Him, and ought not. What He does is the only thing the soul desires. Action without Him, even in self-defence, is only the action of our own will, and to that extent it leaves us without God. Saul did not wait upon God. He waited nearly seven days. If he had felt that he was dependent, and that nothing could be done without God, he would have done nothing till Samuel came. He did not. He acted for himself, and lost the kingdom.

If the moving of his finger would have set him on the throne, he would not have taken advantage of it. We have the fullest proof of this. He twice saved Saul's life when, to all appearance, the Lord had put him in his power. David waited on God alone. Here was his strength, his elevation — his entire dependence.

When trouble comes, men clamour loudly for their own rights. The believer may instead wait quietly on God, the only One through whom salvation comes (v. 1). All others are set aside completely. He remains the solid Rock, and He is not only One who saves, but "my salvation." Simeon said the same of the child Jesus: "my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:30).

No doubt we have here the path and experience of the Lord Himself. That makes it all the more valuable and instructive for His people. He was the first to walk the path of faith in all its completeness and perfection.

Salvation, and the assurance of it, however blessed in itself, is not an end, but a means to an end. The end is that God may make the saved soul His own, and that the saved soul may make God its own.

The special character of Psalm 62 is more easily seen if we notice that one word — "only" — occurs in it no less than six times. In our Authorized Version this is a little obscured, since the word "truly" is used in verse 1 and "surely" in verse 9.

We shall also see that this trust in God only, to the exclusion of every other hope, is the way of salvation, and also the basis of the assurance of salvation. Distrust of man works the other way. In him there is only evil, and no good at all. So distrust of man brings us face to face with our need of salvation, and shuts us up to God.

The psalm opens with the soul in difficulties, surrounded by enemies. But it has learned the lesson that salvation, that is deliverance, can only come from God... We never reach this blessed place of entire dependence until we come to the end of ourselves and of man. We have to find out by experience how empty all human help is, and be shut up to God alone. When we reach it, even in the smallest measure, we pass into a new circle, outside of man, where the presence of God is our home.

The psalmist is very emphatic on this point. His soul waited upon God alone. Literally, it is that his salvation came from Him, and that He, and no one else, was his Rock and his Tower of defence. Since this is so, we might take it for granted that he was in a place of absolute security and full assurance.

In the last psalm, the godly man, though looking to God, is still overwhelmed in spirit. Here, looking only to God, he is revived in spirit... In the last psalm he looks with confidence to be led to the rock. Here he has reached the rock, and so can say of God, "He only is my rock." Resting upon the rock, he can say, "I shall not be greatly moved."

He is not going to say more than he is absolutely sure of. He is sure that he will not be greatly moved — moved a little, perhaps; but greatly, no. Many of us have been just like the psalmist. Our trust has been in God, indeed in God alone; and yet we could not altogether forget ourselves. So an element of uncertainty stayed in our minds.

With God as the Object of the psalmist, he might well say, "I shall not be greatly moved" (v. 2). He does not say, "I shall not be moved," as the Lord Jesus says (Ps. 16:8). Frail man cannot usually speak about himself with such absolute confidence. But he knew that God would keep him from being greatly moved.

"I shall not be greatly moved" (v. 2) had been the words of his mouth; "I shall not be moved" (v. 6) is the assurance of his heart. It is God's battle, so the victory is sure.

No doubt we have here the path and experience of the Lord Himself. That makes it all the more valuable and instructive for His people. He was the first to walk the path of faith in all its fullness and perfection.