Psalm 40:1-10
45 seconds in the scheme of things doesn’t seem like a very
long time, does it? Why, in fact,
that is the average length of time that you will spend sitting at a red stop light. Someone who lives to be 75 years of age
has close to 3 billion seconds in their lifetime to fill up, so what’s a mere
45 seconds at a stop light?
But waiting those 45 seconds seems like a lifetime! Especially if you are in labor and
about to give birth, or late for an engagement, a job interview, or have an
emergency to attend to.
Who among us likes to wait? We are such impatient people that to have to wait for
something or somebody is a killer!
Right? We want it now, we
want instantaneous results, we simply can’t wait.
And I guess it’s always been that way because the Bible has a fair amount to
say about waiting as we will see today and in particular with the Psalm we will
hear in a second. You will
remember that we are pursuing a series from the Psalter and six different types
of Psalms for our inspiration and understanding. We’ve heard Psalms of praise, of lament, of trust and
today’s Psalm is one of thanksgiving.
We can assume that the Psalmist has just been been rescued
from trouble or has come out of some dreadful situation. It isn’t so much a prayer to God as it
is a report on his prayers to God.
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
Happy are those who make
the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after false gods.
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be more than can be counted.
Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
Then I said, “Here I am;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
Do not, O Lord, withhold
your mercy from me;
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
keep me safe forever.
“I waited
patiently for the Lord”. There are
those two words again, wait and patient.
They seem to go hand in hand like peaches and cream. The Bible actually has a lot to say
about patience, Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your
heart take courage”, and in Lamentations 3:25, “The Lord is good to those who
wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.” Patience is one of the fruits of the
Spirit that Paul talks about for how we should live. And probably the most familiar and well known from the
prophet Isaiah, “…but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary…”.
All of these verses show us that there is goodness and
reasoning in the wait. That God is
not absent or hearing impaired, or impervious to our pain. Waiting on the Lord is to allow our
faith to engage our lives, to strengthen our trust when we are at the lowest
point and rest in the knowledge that we are cared for and loved.
The invitation in Psalm 40 is to make space and simply
wait. But it is not an idle
standing still like you do at a stop light, it’s not designed to make you stop
doing things and stare at the sky empty minded. The invitation here is to invest everything we do in the
promise that God is renewing everything while you wait. That God is preparing the ‘next’ for
us, the next step, the next call, the next important decision that you will need
to make. It is also to help us
frame our living for now and to see God in all things both the good and the
bad.
Because God is actively engaged in our wait. The Psalmist confidently testifies and
shares three actions of God while he patiently waited.
…he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit…
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
God inclined his ear and heard the Psalmist cry. God heard his cry implies that God is
listening. Not only is God still
speaking, in the words of the UCC slogan but God listens just as well. In fact God is always listening to our
cries, no sound from our lips or from our heart goes unheard.
God drew the Psalmist up from the pit, the pit of despair,
the ditch of anger, the trench of loneliness, the well of grief, whatever it
was that the Psalmist was feeling and however low he had fallen God was guiding
him and acting on his behalf. God
brought him up and out, God was not dormant but was keeping a watchful eye and
helped to release him from the pit when it was time.
And God puts a new song in the Psalmists mouth, which is a
song of praise. God renews,
whatever the Psalmist went through he was renewed, refreshed and transformed
from the experience. A new song,
bright notes with different words are given so that his life may begin again
afresh with gratitude, hope and love.
There is value in the waiting. Even sitting for 45 seconds can be rejuvenating if you turn
that time into intentional breaths or a prayer of thanksgiving to pass the
time. “Be patient towards all that
is unresolved in your heart”, Rainer Maria Rilke reminds us. “Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because
you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live
the questions now.” I’ve used that quote before and I’ll probably use it
again. Living the questions is to
use the fallow time trusting that rejuvenation will come.
And be patient, God is at work writing the next verse of
your life song, or perhaps orchestrating the next movement of your symphony. God’s best work on me seems to be
performed when I am living in the unknown.
A couple of years ago I was in between interims. I went for
six months without another prospect or call in sight. Life as an interim
minister takes a whole lot of trust and faith that there will be another
congregation who will be in need of your ministry. I was getting impatient and
wondering even if God was really hearing my cry. As an interim and as a single person there is NO ONE to fall
back on, the rent was due and my insurance premiums were piling up.
But God did hear my cry. A trusted friend and colleague gently talked me down from
the rafters and reassured me that God just wasn’t quite finished preparing the
next church for me to minister in.
To be patient, to be still was to know that God was listening and was
acting on my behalf and in that time of waiting I was being renewed. My friend was right. Another call finally came and we
enjoyed a fruitful ministry together and I was so grateful to God for that
time.
In our waiting, and waiting patiently there is
blessing. There is much to be
grateful for in anticipation of what will come next.
So I challenge and encourage you now, the next time life
thrusts a ‘big wait’ upon you to trust that God is actively at work on your
behalf seeking only good for you.
Believe that this sacred time will produce for you a life renewing
release that will catapult you into a future of certainty.
And then, when the wait is finished and the ‘miry pit’ is no
more, sing your own Psalm of praise and thanksgiving to our ever listening God
Amen
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