Psalms 62:5

Psa 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation [is] from him.

Ver. 5. My soul, wait thou only upon God] They trust not God at all, that is, not alone. He that stands with one foot on a rock and another foot upon a quicksand, will sink and perish as certainly as he that standeth with both feet on a quicksand. David knew this, and therefore calleth earn and earnestly upon his soul (for his business lay most within doors) to trust only upon God. See Psa 62:1.

For my expectation is from him] If he will not help me, none else shall; but it is he that saith, Look unto me and be saved, for I am God, and there is none else, Isa 45:22.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_62:5

My soul, wait thou only upon God.

The waiting soul

The text applies to every believer.

I. Consider what it is to wait upon God. It is the act of the soul. Here, the soul means the whole man.

II. It is a waiting like that of a servant upon his Master.

III. It excludes all other waiting: wait thou only upon God.

IV. It is an act of spiritual intelligence. No man waits upon God until he knows God.

V. Of childlike trust.

VI. The motive of all this--my expectation is from Him. It is a great expectation: of guidance now, of eternal life with Christ hereafter. And it is from God,. derived from, warranted by, established in God. And all on account of the redemption which is in Christ. (George Fisk.)

Silent unto God!

My soul! Here is a man communing with his own soul! He is deliberately addressing himself, and calling himself to attention. He is of set purpose breaking up his own drowsiness and indifference, and calling himself to a fruitful vigilance. There is nothing like the deliberate exercise of a power for making it spontaneously active. We must challenge our own souls, and rouse them to the contemplation of the things of God. My soul! look upon this, and look long! But let us see to it that when we do incite the attention of our spirits we give them something worthy to contemplate. Here the psalmist calls upon his soul to contemplate the manifold glory of God. Let us gaze at one or two aspects of the inspiring vision. He only is my rock. Here is one of the figures in which the psalmist expresses his conception of the ministry of his God. My rock! The figure is literally suggestive of an enclosure of rock, a cave, a hiding-place. Perhaps there is no experience in human life which more perfectly develops the thought of the psalmist than the guardianship offered by a mother to her baby-child when the little one is just learning to walk. The mother literally encircles the child with protection, spreading out her arms into almost a complete ring, so that in whatever way the child may happen to stumble she falls into the waiting ministry of love. Such is the idea of besetment which lies in this familiar word rock. It is a strong enclosure, an invincible ring, a grand besetment within which we move in restful security. He is my salvation. Then He not only shields me, but strengthens me! Salvation implies more than convalescence, it denotes health. It is vastly more than redemption from sin; it is redemption from infirmity. It offers no mediocrity; its goal is spiritual prosperity and abundance. This promise of health we have in God too. He accepts us in our disease; He pledges His name to absolute health. Having loved His own, He loved them unto the end. He is my defence. The psalmist is multiplying his figures that he may the better bring out the riches of his conception. Defence is suggestive of loftiness, of inaccessibility. It denotes the summit of some stupendous, outjutting, precipitous crag! It signifies such a place as where the eagle makes its nest, far beyond the prowlings of the marauders, away in the dizzy heights which mischief cannot scale. God is my defence! He lifts me away into the security of inaccessible heights. My safety is in my salvation. Purity is found in the altitudes. In these three words the psalmist expresses something of his thought of the all-enveloping anal protecting presence of God. He is my rock, my salvation, my defence. What then shall be the attitude of the soul towards this God? My soul, wait--be thou silent unto God. The spirit of patience is to be hushed and subdued. Our own clamorous wills are to be checked. The perilous heat is to be cooled. We are to linger before God in composure, in tranquillity. We are to be unruffled. One evening, says Frances Ridley Havergal, after a relapse, I longed so much to be able to pray, but found I was too weak for the least effort of thought, and I only looked up and said, Lord Jesus, I am so tired, and then He brought to my mind Rest in the Lord, and its lovely marginal rendering, Be silent to the Lord, and so I was just silent to Him, and He seemed to overflow me with perfect peace in the sense of His own perfect love. My expectation is from Him. The word translated expectation might also be translated line or cord. The line of scarlet thread. The line of all my hope stretches away to Him, and from Him back to me! The psalmist declares that however circumstances may vary, the cord of his hope binds him to the Lord. Ever and everywhere there is the outstretched line! My line is from Him. Whether he was in trouble or in joy, in prosperity or adversity, on whatever part of the varying shoreline he stood, there was the golden track between him and his God. Thine expectation shall not be cut off; the line shall never be broken. I shall not be moved. Of course not! A man whose conception of God is that of Rock, Salvation, and Defence, and who is silent unto Him, and is bound to Him by the golden cord of hope, cannot be moved. But mark how the psalmists confidence has grown by the exercise of contemplation. In the outset of the psalm his spirit was a little tremulous and uncertain. I shall not be greatly moved. But now the qualifying adverb is gone, the tremulousness has vanished, and he speaks in unshaken confidence and trust, I shall not be moved. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

The inexhaustible fount

This is faith with its eyes open, seeing how great and how good our God is. If only we know God, and know Him as our God, we at once pass into the possession of a great inheritance. This includes safety, rest, transfiguration of soul, victory, eternal joy.

I. The soul is our chief concernment. The body of man has a value peculiarly its own, yet the soul is incomparably more precious. The body looks down and searches the ground for its delights; the soul looks up and culls treasures from the realms beyond the stars. Its home is on high; it is destined to soar.

1. The soul has kinship with God.

2. The soul has large capacities.

3. The soul has the possibility of endless life.

II. The soul is full of need.

1. This is a patent fact. Can the tree flourish without its root? Can a house stand without a foundation? Can a babe prosper without its mother? Nor can man without God.

2. We need Divine instruction. The first cry of the soul is for light.

3. We need Gods life within. Penitence is budding life; prayer is life; pardon is life; righteousness is life; sonship in Gods household is life; hope of heaven is life. He that hath the Son hath life.

III. The source of real good--God. This is a vital discovery; for there is a sad tendency to trust in anything rather than in God. But here we have--

1. Great resources. He who created out of nothing this vast universe can as easily create more. Can we hold the Atlantic in the palm of our hand? Neither can we measure the resources of God.

2. Great promises, Gods promises are the forthputtings of Himself. They are Gods character transposed into words. What magnificent pledges have we from God! I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people; My covenant with them will I not break; With that man will I dwell, who is of an humble and a contrite heart;. . . Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

3. Great provisions. Everything is laid under tribute to serve redeemed men, viz. nature, providence, human history, angels, suffering, death, the cross of Jesus Christ.

IV. The channel of blessing, viz. waiting upon God.

1. This implies faith. In every transaction of daily life we exercise faith. We put our faith in men, though they have often deceived us. We put our faith in the processes of nature--in the revolutions of the seasons, in the stability of this very unstable globe. Shall we not much more put our faith in the everlasting God?

2. Waiting implies submission. To wait means that I defer to the good pleasure of God. Though He tarry, I will wait for Him. My range of vision is very narrow. His eye sweeps the universe. My idea of what is best is very imperfect; His idea is perfect. God is my King--my gracious Master; therefore I will wait.

3. Waiting means prayer. It is not essential that there should be words, though words are helpful to ourselves. The mightiest prayer is silent,--the outgoing of unconquerable desire. (J. Dickerson Davies, M. A.)

Waiting upon God

I. Exhortation--wait. It is easier for some to fret and fume. Waiting is a lesson taught in the school of experience. But we are often like children scratching in their gardens to see if the seeds sown yesterday are coming up.

II. Definition--upon God. To some, waiting is sitting with folded hands. This is not waiting upon God. In this, courage, resolution and other manly qualities are demanded--patient, prayerful use of moans.

III. Limitation--only. Only? yes, only! This is a limitation indeed. Is it not written, It is better to trust in the Lord than put confidence in princes? Also, Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation, and again, Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, etc.

IV. Illumination--Expectation. If the picture has been grey or dark hero is illumination. This may appear mercenary. Mercenary? Listen, was Moses mercenary? He had respect unto the recompense of reward--he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Remember Him also, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,

V. Application--my soul, thou, my: this application is personal. This is the only fitting application, My soul, wait thou only upon God, etc. (Pulpit Treasury.)

My expectation is from Him.--

Expectation

There is nothing that fills life with such joy and rest as expectation! It is the beyond of human history, and no landscape is beautiful without perspective. Davids light was dim, but there was a beyond in his life. So with Isaiah. But it was Christ that most of all kindled this expectation. Now, concerning it, note--

I. It will not be disappointed.

II. It will not be altogether defined.

III. It will not injure duty. Secularists say it will and does. But what would the present life become were there no expectation of a future?

IV. It will not die out. Man cannot else live. We have in Christ the earnest of it. (W. M. Statham.)

Psa_62:5-6

Truly my soul waiteth upon God . . . My soul, wait thou only upon God.

Silence to God

These clauses correspond: the truly of the first is the same word as the only of the second, and in each it stands at the beginning. Literally the words are, My soul is silence unto God. His whole being was one great stillness before God. This silence is--

1. Of the will. Resignation is its characteristic; is a silent will. Such will strong: it is no feeble passiveness.

2. Of the heart.

3. Of the mind. How we need to be still and let God speak. The second clause is an exhortation to the psalmists own soul, and such self-exhortation, if not the affirmation of the first clause, we can make our own. There must be conscious effort and self-encouragement would we preserve the highest religious emotion. As the constant wash of the sea undermines the cliffs and wastes the coasts, so do the wear and tear of daily occupation act upon and wear away the higher emotions of our religious life. Therefore stir up your soul to wait only upon God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

I shall not be greatly moved.--

The upgrade of faith

(with Psa_62:6):--

I. The psalmist has already attained to a good degree in the school of faith. I shall not be greatly moved. And how did he attain to this degree?

1. He began by waiting upon God. Only to God is my soul silenced is the original, and it is expressive in that form, is it not? I have no one else in view, I am listening to God alone; my soul has ears, and they are open to hear what He will say unto me, for He will speak peace unto His people. This is the right attitude.

2. Having begun by waiting silently upon God, the psalmist soon enjoyed the realization of His power, His grace, His interest. He only is my rock. That metaphor means more than we imagine. David knew what rocks were, the use and purpose and comfort of them. What the hills and the rocks were to the conies, that the caves and dens of the earth had been to the hunted king, and that God was to him in all his souls perplexities. He further calls Him his salvation, adding this to the metaphor that he had already employed, as much as to say, It is not mere metaphor. This is song, but it is not mere song; it is poetry, but it is practical for all that. God has been to me as this rock of my salvation, a Rock of Ages, a cleft rock, in which I have been secure. Further, he says, He is my defence, a high tower, a lordly castle; something even better than the caves of the earth, though they served Davids purpose well enough when occasion demanded. But God is to us the best of the best, the noblest of the noble; a tower, but a high tower as well as a strong tower, not merely a rock-hewn shelter, but a lordly castle, behind whose bulwarks we are not only safe but happy.

3. This produces firm confidence. I shall not be greatly moved. The compass trembles and wavers and vacillates, but it trembles back to the pole; it is not greatly moved. I may fall, but I shall rise again. If I am perplexed I am not in despair. If I am cast down I am not, and shall not be, distressed. With such a rock--for who is a rock like unto our God?--may we not with confidence say, I shall not be greatly moved.

II. He has made immense progress (Psa_62:6). I shall not be moved. That is not so long a sentence as the other, but if it is not as long it is as strong, and stronger, and I prefer strength to length. The omission of that word greatly marks a growing faith, and makes a world of difference. I shall not be moved. There is no qualifying adverb; it is absolute. I shall not be moved in the least degree, not an inch, not a hairs breadth. I shall not be moved at any time, while I live, nor when I come to die, nor when I stand before the judgment seat. I shall not be moved. You see there is no qualification whatever. Do you wish you could get to this? Notice how swift the growth has been. I believe that the psalmist was just speaking his actual experience, and it could have taken only a minute or so to say the intervening words. Ah, but Gods plants grow quickly. The lilies of the Lord spring up in an hour or so, when He shines upon the seed and waters it with His grace. But how can we account for this growth? First on the ground that real faith is vital. It is bound to grow. It has the life of God, it is the germ Divine, and just as in the hands of the mummy the wheat, and peas have lain three thousand years, but when brought forth to light and planted in the ground they spring to beauty, their life being in them all the time, so faith cannot be destroyed. It is Gods own life; it is bound to live and conquer. Moreover, faith rises to occasion. It is like the stormy petrel that delights in the breeze, and is never so happy as when the storm is strongest. Moreover, it grows by exercise. The more faith is acted upon, the more active it is. Now let me say that nothing short of this should suffice any one of us. I know that half a loaf is better than no bread. I know that a feeble faith is infinitely to be preferred to none at all, but on that same line of argument you may well declare that such a faith as this we have been speaking of is greatly to be preferred to that we thought of at the first. Why should we be content with small measure when God will give it to us heaped up, pressed down, and running over? (Thomas Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. (Psa 62:5). Only to God be still my soul, for from him (is) my hope. The view just taken of his fellow-men drives. him back to God, and he exhorts himself to cherish the same confidence which he had before expressed. Be till, silent, trusting, and submissive. See above, on Psa 62:1, and compare Psa 37:7. The meaning of the last clause is, from him proceeds whatever I desire or hope for.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psalms

SILENCE TO GOD

Psa 62:1, Psa 62:5.

We have here two corresponding clauses, each beginning a section of the psalm. They resemble each other even more closely than appears from the English version, for the ‘truly’ of the first, and the ‘only’ of the second clause, are the same word; and in each case it stands in the same place, namely, at the beginning. So, word for word, the two answer to each other. The difference is, that the one expresses the Psalmist’s patient stillness of submission, and the other is his self-encouragement to that very attitude and disposition which he has just professed to be his. In the one he speaks of, in the other to, his soul. He stirs himself up to renew and continue the faith and resignation which he has, and so he sets before us both the temper which we should have, and the effort which we should make to prolong and deepen it, if it be ours. Let us look at these two points then-the expression of waiting, and the self-exhortation to waiting.

‘Truly my soul waiteth upon God.’ It is difficult to say whether the opening word is better rendered ‘truly,’ as here, or ‘only,’ as in the other clause. Either meaning is allowable and appropriate. If, with our version, we adopt the former, we may compare with this text the opening of another psalm {lxxiii.}, ‘Truly God is good to Israel,’ and there, as here, we may see in that vehement affirmation a trace of the struggle through which it had been won. The Psalmist bursts into song with a word, which tells us plainly enough how much had to be quieted in him before he came to that quiet waiting, just as in the other psalm he pours out first the glad, firm certainty which he had reached, and then recounts the weary seas of doubt and bewilderment through which he had waded to reach it. That one word is the record of conflict and the trophy of victory, the sign of the blessed effect of effort and struggle in a truth more firmly held, and in a submission more perfectly practised. It is as if he had said, ‘Yes! in spite of all its waywardness and fears, and self-willed struggles, my soul waits upon God. I have overcome these, and now there is peace within.’

It is to be further observed that literally the words run, ‘My soul is silence unto God.’ That forcible form of expression describes the completeness of the Psalmist’s unmurmuring submission and quiet faith. His whole being is one great stillness, broken by no clamorous passions, by no loud-voiced desires, by no remonstrating reluctance. There is a similar phrase in another psalm {cix. 4}, which may help to illustrate this: ‘For my love they are my adversaries, but I am prayer’-his soul is all one supplication. The enemies’ wrath awakens no flush of passion on his cheek, or ripple of vengeance in his heart. He meets it all with prayer. Wrapped in devotion and heedless of their rage, he is like Stephen, when he kneeled down among his yelling murderers, and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord! lay not this sin to their charge.’ So here we have the strongest expression of the perfect consent of the whole inward nature in submission and quietness of confidence before God.

That silence is first a silence of the will. The plain meaning of this phrase is resignation; and resignation is just a silent will. Before the throne of the Great King, His servants are to stand like those long rows of attendants we see on the walls of Eastern temples, silent, with folded arms, straining their ears to hear, and bracing their muscles to execute his whispered commands, or even his gesture and his glance. A man’s will should be an echo, not a voice; the echo of God, not the voice of self. It should be silent, as some sweet instrument is silent till the owner’s hand touches the keys. Like the boy-prophet in the hush of the sanctuary, below the quivering light of the dying lamps, we should wait till the awful voice calls, and then answer, ‘Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth.’ Do not let the loud utterances of your own wills anticipate, nor drown, the still, small voice in which God speaks. Bridle impatience till He does. If you cannot hear His whisper, wait till you do. Take care of running before you are sent. Keep your wills in equipoise till God’s hand gives the impulse and direction.

Such a silent will is a strong will. It is no feeble passiveness, no dead indifference, no impossible abnegation that God requires, when He requires us to put our wills in accord with His. They are not slain, but vivified, by such surrender; and the true secret of strength lies in submission. The secret of blessedness is there, too, for our sorrows come because there is discord between our circumstances and our wills, and the measure in which these are in harmony with God is the measure in which we shall feel that all things are blessings to be received with thanksgiving. But if we will take our own way, and let our own wills speak before God speaks, or otherwise than God speaks, nothing can come of that but what always has come of it-blunders, sins, misery, and manifold ruin.

We must keep our hearts silent too. The sweet voices of pleading affections, the loud cry of desires and instincts that roar for their food like beasts of prey, the querulous complaints of disappointed hopes, the groans and sobs of black-robed sorrows, the loud hubbub and Babel, like the noise of a great city, that every man carries within, must be stifled and coerced into silence. We have to take the animal in us by the throat, and sternly say, ‘Lie down there and be quiet.’ We have to silence tastes and inclinations. We have to stop our ears to the noises around, however sweet the songs, and to close many an avenue through which the world’s music might steal in. He cannot say, ‘My soul is silent unto God,’ whose whole being is buzzing with vanities and noisy with the din of the market-place. Unless we have something, at least, of that great stillness, our hearts will have no peace, and our religion no reality.

There must be the silence of the mind, as well as of the heart and will. We must not have our thoughts ever occupied with other things, but must cultivate the habit of detaching them from earth, and keeping our minds still before God, that He may pour His light into them. Surely if ever any generation needed the preaching-’Be still and let God speak’-we need it. Even religious men are so busy with spreading or defending Christianity, that they have little time, and many of them less inclination, for quiet meditation and still communion with God. Newspapers, and books, and practical philanthropy, and Christian effort, and business, and amusement, so crowd into our lives now, that it needs some resolution and some planning to get a clear space where we can be quiet, and look at God.

But the old law for a noble and devout life is not altered by reason of any new circumstances. It still remains true that a mind silently waiting before God is the condition without which such a life is impossible. As the flowers follow the sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by his shining, so must we, if we would know the joy of God, hold our souls, wills, hearts, and minds still before Him, whose voice commands, whose love warms, whose truth makes fair, our whole being. God speaks for the most part in such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling noises, His voice is little likely to be heard. As in some kinds of deafness, a perpetual noise in the head prevents hearing any other sounds, the rush of our own fevered blood, and the throbbing of our own nerves, hinder our catching His tones. It is the calm lake which mirrors the sun, the least catspaw wrinkling the surface wipes out all the reflected glories of the heavens. If we would mirror God our souls must be calm. If we would hear God our souls must be silence.

Alas, how far from this is our daily life! Who among us dare to take these words as the expression of our own experience? Is not the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, a truer emblem of our restless, labouring souls than the calm lake? Put your own selves by the side of this Psalmist, and honestly measure the contrast. It is like the difference between some crowded market-place all full of noisy traffickers, ringing with shouts, blazing in sunshine, and the interior of the quiet cathedral that looks down on it all, where are coolness and subdued light, and silence and solitude. ‘Come, My people! enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee.’ ‘Commune with your own heart and be still.’ ‘In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’

This man’s profession of utter resignation is perhaps too high for us; but we can make his self-exhortation our own. ‘My soul! wait thou only upon God.’ Perfect as he ventures to declare his silence towards God, he yet feels that he has to stir himself up to the effort which is needed to preserve it in its purity. Just because he can say, ‘My soul waits,’ therefore he bids his soul wait.

I need not dwell upon that self-stimulating as involving the great mystery of our personality, whereby a man exalts himself above himself, and controls, and guides, and speaks to his soul. But a few words may be given to that thought illustrated here, of the necessity for conscious effort and self-encouragement, in order to the preservation of the highest religious emotion.

We are sometimes apt to forget that no holy thoughts or feelings are in their own nature permanent, and the illusion that they are so, often tends to accelerate their fading. It is no wonder if we in our selectest hours of ‘high communion with the living God’ should feel as if that lofty experience would last by virtue of its own sweetness, and need no effort of ours to retain it. But it is not so. All emotion tends to exhaustion, as surely as a pendulum to rest, or as an Eastern torrent to dry up. All our flames burn to their extinction. There is but one fire that blazes and is not consumed. Action is the destruction of tissue. Life reaches its term in death. Joy and sorrow, and hope and fear, cannot be continuous. They must needs wear themselves out and fade into a grey uniformity like mountain summits when the sun has left them.

Our religious experience too will have its tides, and even those high and pure emotions and dispositions that bind us to God can only be preserved by continual effort. Their existence is no guarantee of their permanence, rather is it a guarantee of their transitoriness, unless we earnestly stir up ourselves to their renewal. Like the emotions kindled by lower objects, they perish while they glow, and there must be a continual recurrence to the one Source of light and heat if the brilliancy is to be preserved.

Nor is it only from within that their continuance is menaced. Outward forces are sure to tell upon them The constant wash of the sea of life undermines the cliffs and wastes the coasts. The tear and wear of external occupations is ever acting upon our religious life. Travellers tell us that the constant friction of the sand on Egyptian hieroglyphs removes every trace of colour, and even effaces the deep-cut characters from basalt rocks. So the unceasing attrition of multitudinous trifles will take all the bloom off your religion, and efface the name of the King cut on the tables of your hearts, if you do not counteract them by constant earnest effort. Our devotion, our faith, our love are only preserved by being constantly renewed.

That vigorous effort is expressed here by the very form of the phrase. The same word which began the first clause begins the second also. As in the former it represented for us, with an emphatic ‘Truly,’ the struggle through which the Psalmist had reached the height of his blessed experience, so here it represents in like manner the earnestness of the self-exhortation which he addresses to himself. He calls forth all his powers to the conflict, which is needed even by the man who has attained to that height of communion, if he would remain where he has climbed. And for us, brethren! who shrink from taking these former words upon our lips, how much greater the need to use our most strenuous efforts to quiet our souls. If the summit reached can only be held by earnest endeavour, how much more is needed to struggle up to it from the valleys below!

The silence of the soul before God is no mere passiveness. It requires the intensest energy of all our being to keep all our being still and waiting upon Him. So put all your strength into the task, and be sure that your soul is never so intensely alive as when in deepest abnegation it waits hushed before God.

Trust no past emotions. Do not wonder if they should fade even when they are brightest. Do not let their evanescence tempt you to doubt their reality. But always when our hearts are fullest of His love, and our spirits stilled with the sweetest sense of His solemn presence, stir yourselves up to keep firm hold of the else passing gleam, and in your consciousness let these two words live in perpetual alternation: ‘Truly my soul waiteth upon God. My soul! wait thou only upon God.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

62:5-8 The psalmist encourages himself and others to place their hope in God.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

David was greatly moved with these troubles, therefore he stirreth up himself to trust in God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(Compare Psa 62:1-2).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. Wait thou only upon God] There is none but him in whom thou canst safely trust; and to get his help, resign thyself into his hands; be subject to him, and be silent before him; thou hast what thou hast deserved. See on Ps 62:1.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Nevertheless, my soul, be thou silent before God. Here there may appear to be a slight inconsistency, inasmuch as he encourages himself to do what he had already declared himself to have done. His soul was silent before God; and where the necessity of this new silence, as if still under agitation of spirit? Here it is to be remembered, that our minds can never be expected to reach such perfect composure as shall preclude every inward feeling of disquietude, but are, at the best, as the sea before a light breeze, fluctuating sensibly, though not swollen into billows. It is not without a struggle that the saint can compose his mind; and we can very well understand how David should enjoin more perfect submission upon a spirit which was already submissive, urging upon himself farther advancement in this grace of silence, till he had mortified every carnal inclination, and thoroughly subjected himself to the will of God. How often, besides, will Satan renew the disquietudes which seemed to be effectually expelled? Creatures of such instability, and liable to be borne away by a thousand different influences, we need to be confirmed again and again. I repeat, that there is no reason to be surprised though David here calls upon himself a second time to preserve that silence before God, which he might already appear to have attained; for, amidst the disturbing motions of the flesh, perfect composure is what we never reach. The danger is, that when new winds of troubles spring up, we lose that inward tranquillity which we enjoyed, and hence the necessity of improving the example of David, by establishing ourselves in it more and more. He adds the ground of his silence. He had no immediate response from God, but he confidently hoped in him. My expectation, he says, is from God. Never, as if he had said, will he frustrate the patient waiting of his saints; doubtless my silence shall meet with its reward; I shall restrain myself, and not make that false haste which will only retard my deliverance.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(5) As in Psa_62:1. Truly to God, be silence my soul. The state of resignation is one which can only be preserved by prayer. We may say, I will, but can only feel it through prayer.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. Only unto God be thou silent, my soul,

For from him cometh my hope.

It is only by constant self-exhortation that the calmness of Psa_62:1 can be maintained, especially when the recollection of his enemies’ double-faced behaviour stirs his indignation. Cp. Psa_37:7. ‘My hope’ = ‘my salvation’ (Psa_62:1), the deliverance which I look for.

5–8. The opening verses are repeated, with slight variations, leading up to an exhortation to the Psalmist’s sympathisers to trust in God.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My soul, wait thou only upon God,.... Be silent and subject to him, acquiesce in his providences, rest in him patiently and quietly, wait for his salvation; See Gill on Psa 62:1; perhaps some new temptation might arise, and David's soul began to be uneasy and impatient; for frames are very changeable things; and therefore he encourages it to be still and quiet, and patiently wait on the Lord, and on him only:

for my expectation is from him; or "my hope", as the Targum; the grace of hope is from the Lord, and the thing hoped for is from him; he is the author and the object of it; and his word of promise encourages to the exercise of it; or "my patience"; as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions. The grace of patience is from the Lord; the means of it is his word; and it is exercised, tried, and increased by afflictions sent and sanctified by him; and "expectation" is nothing else than these graces in exercise, a waiting patiently for things hoped for Old Testament saints expected the first coming of Christ; New Testament saints expect his second coming; and all expect good things from him in time and eternity; nor shall their expectation fail and perish; and therefore is a reason why their souls should wait only on the Lord.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

My soul, wait thou only upon God - See the notes at Psa 62:1. There is, in the word used here, and rendered wait, the same idea of rest or repose which occurs in Psa 62:1. The meaning is, that he would commit the whole cause to God, and that his soul would thus be calm and without apprehension.

For my expectation is from him - In Psa 62:1, this is salvation. The idea here is, that all that he expected or hoped for must come from God. He did not rely on his fellow men; he did not rely on himself. God alone could deliver him, and he confidently believed that God would do it. Often are we in such circumstances that we feel that our only “expectation” - our only hope - is in God. All our strength fails; all our resources are exhausted; our fellow-men cannot or will not aid us; our own efforts seem to be vain; our plans are frustrated, and we are shut up to the conclusion that God alone can help us. How often is this felt by a Christian parent in regard to the conversion of his children. All his own efforts seem to be vain; all that he says is powerless; his hopes, long-cherished, are disappointed; his very prayers seem not to be heard; and he is made to feel that his only hope is in God - a sovereign God - and that the whole case must be left in His hands. This state of mind, when it is fully reached, is often all that is needful in order that our desires may be granted. It is desirable that this state of mind should be produced; and when it is produced, the prayer is answered.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 5. My soul, wait thou only upon God. When we have already practised a virtue, it is yet needful that we bind ourselves to a continuance in it. The soul is apt to be dragged away from its anchorage, or is readily tempted to add a second confidence to the one sole and sure ground of reliance; we must, therefore, stir ourselves up to maintain the holy position which we were at first able to assume. Be still silent, O my soul! submit thyself completely, trust immovably, wait patiently. Let none of thy enemies' imaginings, consultings, flatteries, or maledictions cause thee to break the King's peace. Be like the sheep before her shearers, and like thy Lord, conquer by the passive resistance of victorious patience: thou canst only achieve this as thou shalt be inwardly persuaded of God's presence, and as you wait solely and alone on him. Unmingled faith is undismayed. Faith with a single eye sees herself secure, but if her eye be darkened by two confidences, she is blind and useless.

For my expectation is from him. We expect from God because we believe in him. Expectation is the child of prayer and faith, and is owned of the Lord as an acceptable grace. We should desire nothing but what would be right for God to give, then our expectation would be all from God; and concerning truly good things we should not look to second causes, but to the Lord alone, and so again our expectation would be all from him. The vain expectations of worldly men come not; they promise but there is no performance; our expectations are on the way, and in due season will arrive to satisfy our hopes. Happy is the man who feels that all he has, all he wants, and all he expects are to be found in his God.

Ver. 5. My soul, wait thou only upon God. They trust not God at all who trust him not alone. He that stands with one foot on a rock, and another foot upon a quicksand, will sink and perish, as certainly as he that standeth with both feet upon a quicksand. David knew this, and therefore calleth earnestly upon his soul (for his business lay most within doors) to trust only upon God. See Ps 62:1. John Trapp.

Ver. 5. My expectation is from him. As if he had said, never will he frustrate the patient waiting of his saints; doubtless my silence shall meet with its reward; I shall restrain myself, and not make that false haste which will only retard my deliverance. John Calvin.

Ver. 5. My expectation is from him. In an account of the voyage of some of the early missionaries who left Hermannsburg for South Africa, is the following incident: --After a long calm, a brother prayed thus to the Lord for favouring wind: "Lord, thou givest them that fear thee the desires of their heart, and dost help them; help us now, that we may no longer be becalmed upon the sea; help us on our journey, you who ride on the wings of the wind." He was so joyful over this word of the Lord, that he rose up and said in his heart: "Now I have already that for which I prayed." After the prayer, one of the crew stepped over to the helmsman, and said, half mocking, half in earnest, "So we shall have wind: did you hear the prayer? It does not look very like it!" So he said, and half an hour after there came so strong a blast that the waves broke over the ship. William Fleming Stevenson, in "Praying and Working, "1862.

Ver. 5. He shifts much needless labour, and provideth great contentment, who closes himself with God alone. To deal with man alone, apart from God, is both an endless and fruitless labour. If we have counsel to ask, help or benefit to obtain, or approbation to seek, there is none end with man: for every man we must have sundry reasons and motives; and what pleaseth one will offend twenty: as many heads, as many wits and fancies. No man can give contentment to all, or change himself into so many fashions, as he shall encounter humours; and yet it is more easy to take sundry fashions than to be acceptable in them. William Struther.

Ver. 5. (first clause). See "SPURGEON'S Sermons, "No. 144, "Waiting only upon God."

Ver. 5. (second clause). Great expectations from a great God; because of great promises, great provisions, and great foretastes.

Ver. 5. (last clause). What we expect from God, and why and when?

Psalms 62:6*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Wait thou only upon God—David renews and reaffirms his trust as in Psa_62:1, exhorting his soul to quiet submission and hope in God.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 5-8. From the thought of his bitter enemies and their wicked machinations against him, the psalmist returns to expressions of his own full confidence in God first falling back on almost the identical words of his opening stanza (comp. vers. 5, 6 with vers. 1, 2); then slightly varying them (ver. 7); and finally commending trust and confidence to the remnant of the people who continue faithful to God and to his anointed (ver. 8).

My soul, wait thou only upon God. Compare the opening words of the psalm, which are nearly identical. For my expectation is from him. "Expectation" here takes the place of "salvation" in ver. 1. Otherwise there is no difference. The God who has given salvation in the past is the Being from whom it is expected in the future.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The beginning of the second group goes back and seizes upon the beginning of the first. אך is affirmative both in Psa 62:6 and in Psa 62:7. The poet again takes up the emotional affirmations of Psa 62:2, Psa 62:3, and, firm and defiant in faith, opposes them to his masked enemies. Here what he says to his soul is very similar to what he said of his soul in Psa 62:2, inasmuch as he makes his own soul objective and exalts himself above her; and it is just in this that the secret of personality consists. He here admonishes her to that silence which in Psa 62:2 he has already acknowledged as her own; because all spiritual existence as being living remains itself unchanged only by means of a perpetual "becoming" (mittelst steten Werdens), of continuous, self-conscious renovation. The "hope" in Psa 62:6 is intended to be understood according to that which forms its substance, which here is nothing more nor less than salvation, Psa 62:2. That for which he who resigns himself to God hopes, comes from God; it cannot therfore fail him, for God the Almighty One and plenteous in mercy is surety for it. David renounces all help in himself, all personal avenging of his own honour - his salvation and his honour are על־אלהים (vid., on Psa 7:11). The rock of his strength, i.e., his strong defence, his refuge, is בּאלהים; it is where Elohim is, Elohim is it in person (בּ as in Isa 26:4). By עם, Psa 62:9, the king addresses those who have reamined faithful to him, whose feeble faith he has had to chide and sustain in other instances also in the Psalms belonging to this period. The address does not suit the whole people, who had become for the most part drawn into the apostasy. Moreover it would then have been עמּי (my people). עם frequently signifies the people belonging to the retinue of a prince (Jdg 3:18), or in the service of any person of rank (Kg1 19:21), or belonging to any union of society whatever (Kg2 4:42.). David thus names those who cleave to him; and the fact that he cannot say "my people" just shows that the people as a body had become alienated from him. But those who have remained to him of the people are not therefore to despair; but they are to pour out before God, who will know how to protect both them and their king, whatever may lie heavily upon their heart.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

my hope is set on him

"for I place my hope in him"

He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my high tower

The writer speaks of God as if he were a rock and a high tower. Both of these metaphors show how God provides protection from one's enemies. Here "salvation" means that God rescues the writer. See how you translated this in Psalms 62:2. (See: Metaphor)

I will not be moved

This can be stated in active form. AT: "nothing can move me" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

hope

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

because of his loftiness Because you are afraid of people (sic) perhaps he will reign and repay you your recompense, and your counsel is to cause harm to fall upon him.

with his mouth of each of them they bless.

but inwardly But in their thoughts they curse forever.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.