HURRY UP AND WAIT
Psalms 130:5-6 NKJV
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
My family knows me pretty well. One thing they know is that I hate waiting in line or waiting in traffic—or waiting period. One summer, when they all were in Disney World, I was back home working. But that was the best place for me to be. My family kept saying, it's a good thing Dad is not here. They knew hot weather and long lines were not going to work for me. But in our verses for today, the Psalmist paints waiting in a positive light. But there is a difference between waiting in line and waiting on the Lord. A big difference.
According to my Olive Tree Bible Dictionary, the word "wait" in the Hebrew means "to look for, to hope for. The root meaning is that of twisting or winding a strand of cord or rope." This dictionary has a hard time making the correlation between twisting or winding a strand of cord and waiting on the Lord, but it makes sense to me. Whenever we go to the Lord in prayer in faith, looking to Him, we are, in a sense, wrapping our lives around Him. Instead of running under our own strength and our own ways, we are looking to the Lord. We look to Him for wisdom. For the next step. For answers to problems. For help. And what we look to, we attach to.
The psalmist also gives us something spiritually tangible when he states, and in His word, I do hope. So we are looking to the Lord, and we are strengthened and stabilized by His word. His word gives us confidence and something favorable to expect. So, we are praying for wisdom. And His word says in James 1:5-6, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind." Now we know what to do. We are looking to the Lord for wisdom and we have His promise that He gives wisdom. So, by faith, we expect to know what to do, and we continue to pray and not ask over and over but ask once. Then, we are thanking Him and looking to Him for the answer.
Verse six of our psalm gives us the perspective we are to adopt when we are waiting and looking to the Lord. We are to be expectant. We are looking to the Lord more than those who watch for the morning. Whenever someone was guarding the city, they would keep watch in shifts. The most challenging is the night shift. Working the night shift was the most dangerous time due to lack of visibility, so the guards were looking to and expecting the morning to come. The guards were not wondering if the morning was coming; they knew without fail morning would be here. But we who look to the Lord and place our hope in the Lord are expecting His help, and wisdom, and presence even more than those night shift guards expect the morning. We know the Lord is real, and He will answer us. He is more faithful than the morning because He created it. So we can look to Him in faith, believing when we can't see, but we know the answers are on the way. So we are expectant, not wondering.
What a great psalm! In Psalm 27:14, David spoke of waiting on the Lord: "Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!" The margin of my Bible says for the word wait, wait in faith on the Lord. That's what we do. We look to the Lord in faith and He will be there for us. So hurry up and wait.
PRAYER
Lord, I look to You for the answers in life and the steps You want me to take. Thank You that I can look to You with confidence, knowing if I seek You, I will find You.