Hopeful Waiting


Psalm 130
1Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
5I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
6my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
7O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
8And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

After reading this psalm, I thought about a title for the post and “hopeful waiting” emerged. Then I dug into the text and looked up a few of the words in Hebrews and found a surprise. The words translated into English as “wait” and “hope” both mean to wait. So, today’s title should actually be “Wait Waiting”. And thus we have my favorite (not) pastime brought out into the light yet again. I think we’ve established in the past – I hate to wait.

If you read much of the Bible at all, you will find that it is our place in the universe to wait on the Lord. On only one occasion that I can remember has the Lord seen fit to work on my timetable. One time in 62 years. And that moment was filled with anxious prayer. No, generally, I can say without fear of being wrong – the Lord has made me wait. If I take the words of this prayer seriously, then I guess that’s okay with God, so it needs to be okay with me too.

Remarkable things happen inside of waiting. If we give ourselves over to the wait, with a minimum of kicking and screaming, we may find that there is deep peace in there. Waiting can be a place of quiet and calm in the midst of the storm, for in waiting we are recognizing we have no power to change a circumstance or move things along. We must rest in the place of trust and hope. Remember, hope and wish are not the same. We use those two words interchangeably sometimes but that would be incorrect. A wish is something we want, and a hope is something we already have. We hope with confident expectation. Now swap out the word hope for the word wait. We wait with confident expectation. If I am waiting on God, I not swirling about trying to fix something. I am conscientiously, intentionally waiting for God to move. It is a place of great peace.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope. Love that.

[side note - if you're wondering about the one time God saw fit to work within my timetable - it was at the birth of my first granddaughter. I arrived at my daughter's house to help with the new baby who hadn't arrived yet. I asked God to let the delivery be within the next couple of days to maximize the amount of time I could be there to help. The baby generously arrived 36 hours later. The timing was perfect! Thanks for that one, Lord.]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The...
Read more

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv...
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl...
Read more