Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, June 27th. When you are overwhelmed by heartache and difficulty, it's hard to hear God speak. Today, you'll get help refocusing your attention on God's encouraging message in the storm. How many of you think you know how to listen to God? Sometimes it's easier to hear Him when we're talking to Him about something we really want to happen. Or it's easy to talk to Him when everything is sort of going our way and we're just praying and blessing Him and praising Him and making some simple request. Sometimes it's not quite as easy to hear Him when we're in the midst of a storm and being blown as it were almost off course and yet then having to listen to God.
Well, what I want to talk about in this message is the message in the storm. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Psalm 62. And this happens to be one of my favorite Psalms because I think it is a key to so much and to so many incidences and so many experiences in life. And I want us to read just the first eight verses of Psalm 62. The King James Version starts off, My soul wait there only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.
And I love that verse in the King James. But he says, My soul waits in silence for God only. From Him is my salvation.
He only is my rock in my salvation. My stronghold I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will you assail a man that you may murder him, all of you, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They have counseled only to thrust him down from his high position.
They delight in falsehood, they bless with their mouth, but inwardly they curse. My soul wait in silence for God only. For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock in my salvation. My stronghold I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation, my glory rest. The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people.
Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. Now, that is a great, great psalm.
But let me give you a little bit of what may be the background. We're not sure exactly when David wrote a lot of the psalms. Some of them we know are pretty evident when he wrote them.
But as I think about this one, I want you to remember something. That David was sixteen years of age when Samuel anointed him as the king. He went from sixteen to thirty years of age before he was really crowned or coronated the king in Israel.
So all of these years nearly fifteen years went by and nothing happened. Even though Samuel had crowned him or had anointed him as the king, for fifteen years nothing happened except this. It didn't take Saul very long to begin to be a very jealous man. First Samuel 19 says, Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants to put David to death. And so we find the beginning of the aggressive attack upon David by Saul.
Look, if you will, in verse ten of the same chapter. And Saul tried to pin David to the wall with a spear. And so what happens is for the next approximately fifteen years, fifteen of the stormiest years of David's life, what he's doing is running from King Saul.
Because Saul is trying to kill him at every turn. And I wonder how many times David must have asked, wait a minute now, did not the prophet Samuel anoint me as the king? One year, two years, five years, ten years, twelve years. You see, think about your age tonight. Now you know what your age is. Now go back fifteen years from that.
You say, man that's a long time. Let me ask you something. Would you have given up if God had told you something fifteen years ago and it still hadn't come to pass?
More than likely most people would. Here's what they would have said. Well, I just thought it was going to be that way. I must have just thought I heard that. But certainly I must not have heard that. But God does speak to us in ways oftentimes what causes us to doubt Him is that He doesn't do it on our schedule.
Now, let me ask you a question. When you are in the midst of a storm, what do you expect God to say to you? And what we have to be careful about is that we don't decide what we want Him to say and say, now this is what God said. But we have to get in a position to be willing to hear whatever He says no matter what that is. And Psalm 62 became one of my favorites many, many years ago going through some difficulty because I believe this Psalm is the most accurate for me personally of what I hear ninety percent of the time when I'm listening to God and more than that when it's in some midst of some kind of a storm.
Listen to what He says. My soul, wait in silence for God only. Every single word in that phrase is extremely important. But I want to simply abbreviate this and bring it down to three things that I want to say about this passage of Scripture under the theme of the message in the storm. Because I don't believe that God intends us to go through any storms of life as difficult as the trials and God be silent. Now we're to be silent but He's not silent. Now sometimes He may be silent for a season but remember He's the God of grace and He knows that when you and I walking through difficulty and hardships and trials and things we can't change and we feel helpless and hopeless about, He is the one to whom we're to look. And so He's not just going to sit up in heaven and say nothing. God wants us to be encouraged. And there are too many verses in the Bible of encouragement and so many in the Psalms that assure us and remind us that God is a God of wonderful loving encouragement.
The first thing I want us to notice here is the simple message. What does He say? He says, my soul wait. Now what does He mean when He says wait? Usually we think the idea of waiting is just passively just sort of sitting back and just waiting for something to happen. But the word wait means to pause for further instructions. Now listen carefully. Most people in the midst of a storm want to react quickly. They want to change things fast.
They want to make something happen. But this Psalm is like an anchor. He says, listen, my soul waits in silence for God only. That is remain in your present state or in your present position for further instructions. So when He says my soul wait, that isn't something that's passive. That is directed. That is directed instructions.
Wait. That isn't passive. It doesn't mean doing nothing. It means very specifically doing something.
Something directed by God. Don't make a move. Don't make a decision. Don't react quickly. Don't respond too fast. Wait. And He says we are to wait upon Him. And sometimes because we don't know what to do and oftentimes people who are not grounded in the Word of God, they get confused, they become fearful and oftentimes make decisions they wish they had not made. So in the midst of the storm, the message is to wait.
It's just that simple. Just wait. The clouds may be very dark. The wind may be very strong and the waves may be very high.
And the force against you may be almost unbearable. When He says wait, you can wait. Because that is God's instruction here. Waiting upon God is stillness in submission to God. And friend, that is not passive. It takes more strength, more character to be still in the midst of the storm than it does to run hither and run yonder and do this and do that and make things work. So if your friend said to you, well, why aren't you upset?
You lost your job. Why aren't you upset? Or why don't you react? How could you be so calm in whatever's going on in your life? Because the Scripture says that we are to wait and waiting is stillness, listen, stillness in submission to God.
If I am being still in submission to God, I am in the safest place doing the safest thing I can possibly do in that circumstance no matter what it is. So first of all, the message is to wait. The second thing here, and that is, what is the method?
It's just that simple. How am I to wait? Well, I can tell you how I wait sometimes. Impatiently, complaining, moaning, groaning, blaming, nervously, questioning, frustrated, irritated, miserably, manipulating. That's one way to wait.
But you know what? That doesn't even begin to fit what the Apostle Paul when he said, don't be anxious about anything. But in supplication, prayer, in everything, let your request be made known to God and the peace which is absolutely beyond our comprehension will guard our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus in every single storm no matter what it is. So he says now, the message is I'm to wait. And the way I am to do that, I am to wait, he says, in silence.
And I just jotted in my own Bible some long time ago without complaining. Now, that being true, what does that require of us? When you and I in the midst of the storm, it requires if I'm going to wait in silence, it means I must be willing to wait how? Patiently. Patiently means I am willing to wait for God's timing. He may let the storms blow hard and strong and furiously for a long period of time. Or it may be something that is brief in your life.
It doesn't make any difference what it is. I am to wait silently. That is, I'm to wait patiently. And it is always wise to wait. And it is always wise to wait, as he says here, in silence.
That is, waiting for His timing in submission to His will, whatever that may be. Secondly, I'm to wait trusting. Because you see, I'm not going to wait patiently if I'm not trusting Him.
And I think in my own life as I think back over the years, the one phrase that God has spoken to my own heart so clearly over and over and over and over again in the deepest, darkest times, the most troublesome times, times when I didn't know what to do next, was always the same. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me.
You know what? There is no way to go wrong following that. So he says, the message is to wait. And the message is to wait silently. Not complaining, not blaming, not moaning and not groaning and not being nervous and upset and trying to manipulate your way out of it, but I'm to wait patiently. As he says, I'm to wait trusting and I am to wait expectantly.
Now I think that's a very important thing. It's one thing to wait, but I'm to wait expectantly. Expecting God to do what He desires to do, what is wise in that situation no matter what. And so there's nothing wrong with expecting God to do something. Because if God has told us to wait, what He's saying is, I am about to do something and I want to do it my way and I want to do it in my timing and your responsibility is to wait for me to do it my way in my timing. So I'm to wait patiently, trusting Him and I am to wait expecting, anticipating God to do something. And then I think as I look at these verses and think about other verses, for example, go back to, let's see, twenty-seventh Psalm, twenty-seventh Psalm and the thirteenth and fourteenth verses, listen to what he says. He says in verse thirteen, I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
That is, he says, I would have despaired if I'd have had no expectation. So we're to wait not only patiently, we're to wait trusting Him, we're to wait expectantly, but we're to wait steadfastly. And that is to be strong in the midst of the storm. Listen, when do you demonstrate your real dependence upon Him best?
When those around you look at you and think there's no way. And you see, these verses are simply verses that say this is the way we do it. This is how God would have us to do it. We wait in silence before Him and we are patient, trusting Him, relying upon Him, we're expecting Him to do something, we're steadfast in that and not only steadfast, but He says we're to be courageous. He says we're to take courage.
That means that no matter what's going on, we have no reason to fear because who's in charge? You see, once you commit to waiting, what you're saying is I'm going to trust God to do whatever He desires to do, whatever He sees is important in this situation. So, two things. First of all, He says we are to wait. Secondly, He says that we are to wait in silence. And then the third thing, He says for God only.
So, first of all, here's the message, we're to wait. Here's the method, we're to wait in silence and here's the motivation, what God's up to. Because look at this, He says we are to wait in silence for God only. Look in verse 5. My soul wait in silence for God only. And if you'll notice, He says only in verse 1, verse 2, verse 5 and again in verse 6, only, only, only, only, only. God only. So, what is He saying?
Simply this. This means that we are waiting for God to divinely intervene in this situation, in this storm, no matter what it is, we're waiting for God to intervene. My soul wait there only upon God, my expectation is from Him.
Now, I think this is a real key when you're going through a storm and that is that means that our focus must be upon whom? My soul wait there only upon God. My soul waits in silence for God only.
Not for other people, not for things, not for situations and circumstances to change, we're to wait upon God. And so what does God do? God teaches us to rivet our attention upon Him, He teaches us to glue our focus on Him, He teaches us to set our gaze upon Him in stormy times probably in a more effective way than any other times in our life. Because listen, when the storm is so dark and the winds are so fierce and the waves are so high and the water's so deep and the boat is about to turn over, the only thing we have is God. And is that not the time that He best demonstrates His love and power and wisdom for us? So He says that we're to wait in silence upon God only.
My soul wait in silence for God only. Very clear direction He gives us in. What He's saying is this, whatever I'm expecting in the storm, I'm to expect from Him. And here's where we get in trouble. We get in trouble when we get in the storm and we're listening to everything that comes down the track.
Everybody has an opinion when you get in the storm what you ought to do. He says my soul wait there only upon God for my expectations from Him. There are things that God's going to say to your heart's not going to say to anybody else.
He's going to say, this is what I want you to do. And what you have to be sure is that you know how to listen to Him. Remember we started off saying, do you know how to listen to God? Because if you live your Christian life year after year after year and you don't understand how to listen to God, listen, you're going to make some terrible decisions in life and you're going to wonder why God is a blessing and why He's not directing.
It's not that He's not, it's just that you're not listening. And learning to listen absolutely demands that I be willing to wait in silence with my expectation from Him and Him only. If my expectations are from others, then what I'm going to do is I'm going to be prone to lean toward what I hear that sounds the best to me or what sounds the easiest for me. But if I'm listening to God and I've set my focus to listen to Him and Him only, then my ears are open to whatever He has to say which may be very difficult or very easy. You see, in the storm when you can't see land, you can't see the stars and it's so dark you can't see the water and all you can do is feel the pressure of all of that. Our hope is in that which is unseen. And the believer is to live that kind of life. We're not to live by what we see. God helped the believer who tries to live by what he sees. It's not by what we see but what we don't see. And you'll remember that the Bible says about Moses, he endured as one seeing Him who is what?
Invisible. That is, Moses lived his life as a man who saw God, who had his focus upon God, who was seeing God leading him. And that's the way we're to live in the storm. Sometimes we can't see our way clear.
So what are we to do? He says, He's our hope. And again he says in verse 6, He's my rock.
And again he says, He's my stronghold. And again he says in verse 7, On God my salvation and my glory rest. The rock of my strength, my refuge is God. So all through this passage, just compacted, is this tremendously simple but profound truth. When the storm comes, here's the message.
Wait in silence with expectation that God and God only is going to intervene in your storm and do what He chooses to do which will bring Him the most glory and which will do for you what God has planned in your life. And he says, because this is the kind of God we have. Hey, He's my salvation. He's my stronghold. He's my refuge. He's my rock. He's my hope. He's everything I need. So what is the message of God in the midst of the storm?
It's real simple. My soul, wait in silence for God only. Because God is adequate. God is faithful. God is wise. God is sufficient. God is loving. God is concerned.
God is trustworthy. Thank you for listening to the Message in the Storm. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
