The Waiting

The psalm begins in the deep. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD, it opens, from the low place of trouble and of sin, from the pit where the soul cries and is not sure it is heard. And out of that depth rises not a demand but a waiting. I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning, and he says it twice, more than they that watch for the morning, as though the longing could not be said too often. Out of the depths, the soul waits.

Waiting is one of the hardest disciplines of the spiritual life, and one of the most necessary, for God is seldom in a hurry and we are seldom anything else. We want the answer now, the deliverance now, the relief now, and God works to a clock we cannot read, unhurried, taking his time, and the soul is left to wait. And the waiting is not a passive idleness, a mere killing of time until God acts, but an active and expectant thing, a leaning forward toward a God who is surely coming, a waiting full of hope.

THE WATCHMAN AND THE MORNING

The image the psalmist chooses tells us everything about the kind of waiting he means. My soul waiteth more than they that watch for the morning. Think of the watchman on the wall through the last cold hours of the night, weary, aching for the dawn, straining his eyes toward the east. He does not doubt that the morning will come. His waiting is not the anxious uncertainty of one who fears the sun may never rise, but the sure expectation of one who knows it must, and only longs for it to be soon. That is how the soul is to wait for the Lord, not doubting whether he will come, but certain that he will, and aching for the coming.

For the morning always comes. However long and cold the night, however far off the dawn seems in the darkest watch, the morning is appointed and it comes, as surely as the turning of the world. And so the coming of the Lord to the waiting soul is sure. He may tarry, as the morning tarries through the long night, but he will come, and the waiting that leans on that certainty is not anxious but hopeful, straining toward a dawn it does not doubt. Blessed are all they that wait for him, the prophet says. The waiting itself is blessed, because the coming is sure.

WAITING UPON HIS WORD

And the soul waits not on a vague hope but on the word of God. In his word do I hope, the psalmist says. The waiting rests on the promise, is anchored to what God has spoken, and this is what keeps it from becoming a mere wishful staring into the dark. The soul that waits on God’s word has something sure to wait upon, a promise that cannot fail, and its hope is as certain as the word it rests on. The one who waits without the word waits on his own wishes, and may be disappointed; the one who waits on the word waits on God’s faithfulness, and cannot be.

And what does the soul in the depths wait for? It waits for mercy, for forgiveness, for redemption. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, the psalmist says, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. He waits for the God who forgives, and at the end he is sure of it, for he redeem Israel from all his iniquities. The waiting from the depths is a waiting for the mercy of God, and it is not in vain, for there is forgiveness with him, and he will redeem. The soul that waits for mercy waits for a thing God delights to give.

STRENGTH IN THE WAITING

And there is a promise for the waiting soul that makes the waiting itself fruitful. They that wait upon the LORD, the prophet says, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. The waiting is not wasted time in which the soul only grows weaker; it is the very means by which strength is renewed. In the waiting, as we lean on God and hope in his word, our strength is not drained but replenished, exchanged for his, so that we who wait come out of the waiting stronger than we went in, mounting, running, walking, not fainting.

But the waiting must be a quiet waiting, and not a restless running ahead. It is good, the prophet says, that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. Quietly wait. The great danger of the waiting soul is impatience, the running ahead of God, the taking of matters into our own hands when the waiting grows long. Saul waited for Samuel, and when the prophet delayed, he could not wait, and offered the sacrifice himself, and lost his kingdom for the running ahead. Wait on the LORD, the psalmist says, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the LORD. He says it twice, for the temptation to stop waiting is strong, and must be resisted twice over.

WHILE YOU WAIT

Waiting for God is not idleness, and the soul that waits rightly does not sit with folded hands doing nothing until God acts. Wait on the LORD, the psalmist says, and keep his way. The waiting and the keeping of his way go together. The servant who waits for his master’s return does not abandon his post and his work while he waits, but keeps on faithfully at his duty, watching and working both, so that whenever the master comes he is found doing what he was left to do. So the waiting soul keeps God’s way while it waits, continuing in obedience and prayer and duty, not letting the delay become an excuse for idleness or drift.

The Scripture gives us two who waited so, at the very coming of Christ. There was Simeon, a just and devout man, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and it had been revealed to him that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And there was Anna, a widow of great age, who departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Two old souls who had waited long, decades of faithful waiting, and had not grown bitter or slack in it, but kept God’s way, serving and praying, until the waiting was rewarded and their eyes beheld the salvation of God.

Consider that reward, and let it hearten every long waiting. Simeon took the child up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. The long wait ended in the arms holding the Christ. Anna, coming in that instant, gave thanks, and spoke of him to all that looked for redemption. The years of faithful waiting were not wasted years but the very preparation for the sight of Christ, and the ones who had waited longest were the ones given to see him first. The long wait, kept faithfully, is not empty; it is ripening toward a sight the hasty never receive.

So while you wait, keep God’s way. Do not let the delay make you idle or bitter, do not abandon your post because the master tarries, but continue faithfully in prayer and duty and obedience, serving God in the waiting as Simeon and Anna served him in the temple. The waiting is not a pause in the spiritual life but a part of it, a season of faithful keeping of his way under the delay, and the soul that waits so, working and watching both, will find its long waiting rewarded, as theirs was, with a sight of the salvation of God.

So wait for the Lord, out of your depths, more than they that watch for the morning. Wait with the certainty of the watchman, who does not doubt the dawn but only longs for it, for the coming of the Lord is as sure as the morning. Wait upon his word, resting your hope on the promise that cannot fail. Wait for his mercy, which he delights to give. Let the waiting renew your strength, and keep it a quiet waiting, not running ahead of God when the night grows long. For the morning always comes, and the soul that waited for the Lord will not be ashamed. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.