“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”Psalm 130:5-6 ESV
Reflection: what does “waiting” for the Lord mean to you?
After landing early in Denver, the gate for the plane we were on wasn’t available. So the pilot had to park the plane on the tarmac until the gate was cleared. 5 minutes went by. 10, then 15. It wasn’t difficult to notice that some people were getting more and more annoyed. The early arrival was getting consumed sitting in the plane. And, when the gate was finally cleared, everyone had to sit back down so they could complete the taxi to the gate. A woman that had stood up to talk with someone behind her, was a bit slow to sit back down, to which another passenger in the back started yelling at her, no nice words. He had lost his patience.
Waiting might be one of the hardest things we do as human beings. It feels so unnatural, so wasteful, in a way. We like action, for things to happen, on our schedule. If not, we like to make decisions and move on. To get obstacles out of the way, which may include getting people out of the way, if necessary. And, while some people are more patient than others, the truth is that no one likes to wait. And, when we do “lose our patience”, we often take things into our own hands. Some people even get angry when they have to wait just a bit on others, as we experienced in the plane. And, as we experience all the time, if we pay attention to the world around us. But, for us who follow Christ, the question is, are we patient when waiting for our Lord?
Before you respond “yes” to yourself here, let me ask you a follow up question. How do you know that you have heard is from the Lord? What I mean is, if you have prayed for something very specific, how do you seek the answer and how long do you wait to hear from Him? Days? Weeks? Years? Even decades? I have personally witnessed very specific prayers answered even a decade later, because of what the Lord had to prepare. And we see many examples in the Bible, where God seems to take a very long time to answer. The Old Testament is filled with such stories. Even the coming of Christ was a long time coming, but He came “in the fullness of time” as Paul wrote “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,” Galatians 4:4 ESV. We have to remember that it was the Lord’s timing; not on our time.
Psalm 130 has a beautiful reflection of this longing and waiting heart of Christ. It says “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”Psalm 130:5-6 ESV. This idea of waiting for the Lord to answer, for the Lord to act. Not aimlessly, but we see here with longing and expectation. The Norwegian Bible translation I usually read puts v5 this way (with my own translation back to English) “I put my hope in the Lord, I long for, I wait for His word”. There is something profound with this statement. The first part, declaring a decision to hope in, to trust in the Lord is the starting point. It is recognizing that the hope, the trust is not aimless; but in the Creator of the universe. Second, we see the waiting on God with anticipation. The phrase “I long for” is really describing the position of the heart, longing for God’s answer.
Now, the last part is perhaps a bit poetic, but oh so meaningful when we think about it. The psalmist says “I wait for His word”. What does that mean, “waiting for His Word”? Think about it, because we do this all the time. We send a text or an email to someone, and then we wait for an answer back. How often do we not read the Word, rushing through it, without letting God truly speak to us through it? If we truly believe that the Word is reflecting the heart of God, then we should take time with it, right? Especially if we are seeking answers from Him to something we have prayed about? We might not hear something right away. It might take quite a while. But, if we truly seek Him, truly long for His ways, He will answer. We may not like the answer right away. But it is still the best answer.
Let’s get in the habit of “waiting for word” from the Lord, as the psalmist taught us. Let’s pray: “Lord, help us to be patient as we wait for You, and help us to listen well to You and not miss Your word. In Jesus name, Amen”.
