Suffering & Hope · Psalm 62:5
A silence that comes after honest speech,
not instead of it.
Waiting well is one of the least practiced disciplines in modern life, largely because almost nothing in daily experience trains us for it. We are formed by immediacy — answers arrive in seconds, questions get resolved with a search, and so an unresolved circumstance starts to feel like a malfunction rather than a normal part of a life lived under God’s timing.
“My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”
Psalm 62:5 · NKJV
A Silence That Follows Honest Speech
David’s language in Psalm 62:5 pushes directly against this instinct. “Wait silently” translates a Hebrew phrase closer to “be silent, be still” — a deliberate quieting, not a passive default. This is not David running out of things to say to God. Earlier in the same psalm he has already spoken plainly about his enemies, his fears, his sense of being under attack (62:3–4). The silence commanded in verse 5 comes after honest speech, not instead of it. It is the silence of someone who has said everything he needs to say and now chooses to stop striving for an answer and simply wait for one.
An Expectation Aimed at One Source
“For God alone” matters as much as “wait silently.” David is not describing generic patience. He is describing an expectation aimed at a single source. Much of our restlessness in waiting comes from hedging — half-trusting God, half-scrambling for our own solution, unable to fully rest because we have not fully placed our expectation anywhere. David names the target explicitly: his expectation comes from God, and nowhere else. This single-mindedness is what makes the silence bearable rather than empty.
Confidence Expressed Through Stillness
This kind of waiting is not resignation. It is confidence expressed through stillness — a trust so settled that it no longer needs to keep talking or keep working an angle. Strength, in Scripture, often rises exactly here: not in the frantic effort to force an outcome, but in the quiet, expectant posture of someone who has already decided where their hope is coming from.
“My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”
Psalm 62:5 · NKJV
Reflection Questions
Take this slowly, ideally with a journal, and bring it honestly before God rather than merely considering it in the abstract.
- Where have you been hedging your trust — half-waiting on God, half-scrambling for your own solution — rather than placing your full expectation on Him alone?
- Can you set aside a specific window of time today to sit quietly before God, placing your expectation entirely on Him rather than on your own effort?
A prayer
Lord, quiet my restless striving. I have said what I needed to say; now I wait for You to answer, in Your time. My expectation comes from You alone, and I refuse to hedge it elsewhere. Amen.
This is Day 5 of Trusting God in Difficult Times: A 10-Day Devotional. Day 6 continues with Psalm 46:1 — a refuge found inside the storm, not apart from it.
