Psalm 62:5
“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Psalm 62 repeatedly affirms trust in God amid pressure and warns against trusting in wealth or oppression. Verse 5 is the psalmist's renewed charge to his own soul.
What Does Psalm 62:5 Mean?
In this verse the psalmist commands his own soul to wait upon God alone, because all his expectation rests in God. It echoes the psalm's opening but turns it into a direct charge to himself. Where the first verse described his waiting, here he actively summons his soul to keep waiting only on God.
The little word "only" is the heart of the verse. It excludes every rival source of hope -- not wait on God among other options, but wait "only" upon him. This is the discipline of undivided trust, refusing to scatter one's hopes among lesser securities like wealth or human help, which the surrounding verses warn against. The reason given is personal and confident: "my expectation is from him." The word for expectation is closely tied to hope; it is the thing leaned toward, the outcome looked for. By speaking to his own soul, the psalmist models the practice of self-counsel, telling his inner self where to fix its hope when it would drift. The verse is both a command and a comfort: command, because trust must be deliberately directed at God alone; comfort, because the One trusted is fully worthy of all our expectation.
In the Original Language
The Hebrew word for "wait" again suggests silent stillness before God, and tiqvah ("expectation") means hope or the thing hoped for.
Cross References
“Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.”
- Psalm 62:1
“Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.”
- Psalm 62:8
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
- Psalm 42:11
Application
When your hopes scatter toward lesser securities, charge your own soul to wait only upon God and fix your whole expectation on him.