I waited patiently for the Lord...

Psalm 40 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

 A Psalm of David.

I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
² He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
³ He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the Lord.

⁴ How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust,
And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
⁵ Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count.

⁶  Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
⁸ I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”

⁹ I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You know.
¹⁰ I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.

¹¹ You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me.
¹² For evils beyond number have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has failed me.

¹³ Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
Make haste, O Lord, to help me.
¹⁴ Let those be ashamed and humiliated together
Who seek my life to destroy it;
Let those be turned back and dishonored
Who delight ^]in my hurt.
¹⁵ Let those be appalled because of their shame
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
¹⁶ Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
¹⁷ Since I am afflicted and needy, Let the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.

I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. We all need to wait at times, for things to work out. How we wait is critical very often to the outcome. The psalmist says he waited patiently. Waiting patiently indicates that our trust and our confidence is in God. When we are impatient we often put ourselves out of God’s perfect will. We try to take care of the situation ourselves, trusting in our own ability or relying on the help and counsel of others rather than God.

We see an example of what can happen when we don’t wait on the Lord in 1 Samuel 13:5-14     Now the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and people like the sand which is on the seashore in abundance; and they came up and camped in Michmash, east of Beth-aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were hard-pressed), then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits. ⁷ Also some of the Hebrews crossed the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead. But as for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

⁸ Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him. ⁹ So Saul said, “Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. ¹¹ But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, ¹² therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.” ¹³ Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

Saul looked at the circumstances around him rather than looking to God. The psalmist says:  He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. ³ He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will see and fear And will trust in the Lord.     Regardless of the circumstances around us, if we will wait patiently on the Lord, trusting in Him, He will deliver us in His time according to His perfect will. Our testimony will then be of what God has done and  “Many will see and fear And will trust in the Lord.”

We can read of another example of not waiting patiently on God in Genesis 16, when Abraham, who had been given the promise that he would be the father of God’s people, took Hagar, Sara’s maid and she gave birth to Ishmael. The child of the promise, Isaac, did not come for another 10-12 years. Much of the tensions in the Middle East today are a result of Abraham seeking to “help God”, not waiting patiently for God to fulfill His perfect plan in His perfect time.  

We need to remember that God is eternal, not subject to and limited by finite time as we are. He see things from that eternal perspective. It is from that perspective that He says:    For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)  

Waiting patiently on the Lord does not mean though that we sit and do nothing. Often God does call us to walk into His will without giving us the full revelation of what He will do. We need then to learn to walk patiently with Him. We need to trust Him daily, step by step. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says: for we walk by faith, not by sight--   That’s the patient waiting we are called to, to trust God day by day and step by step. Numbers 23:19 says: "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Jesus says: "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30) Our waiting patiently is an active waiting. We wait on God while we walk with Him.  Then we can say, like the psalmist:

I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry…. Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”  Since I am afflicted and needy, Let the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.   Thank You, heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit. Amen.