Hey All,
Have y’all ever watched the movie Cars where Mater the wrecker truck is continuously watching the stop light blinking. Stop and Go, Stop and Go, Stop and Go. Psalm 25 talks about waiting for the Lord. Let’s take a little deeper look at what this means for us in our own personal life.
Psalm 25:1-11 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for you will be ashamed. Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed. Make me know Your ways, O Lord, Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your loving kindness. For they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; According to Your loving kindness remember me, For Your goodness sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way. All the paths of the Lord are loving kindness and truth, To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Your names sake, O Lord, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
How often do we wait with intent and purpose? I am not talking about waiting on a traffic light to change or waiting in line at the grocery store to check out. I am talking about sitting down and thinking out a situation and deciding that the best course of action is for us to wait. Our society is just not built on waiting. It is built on instant gratification. Yet we see David say that “none” of those who wait will be ashamed. Why because David knows that God has a plan and all he has to do is wait for the Lord to follow his guidance. How do we do this today? Actually the same way David does in this Psalm. We pray to the Lord to show us His way, To teach us His truth or will for our lives and help us to be patient to listen for His prompting. David says “For You I will wait all the day” meaning God it doesn’t matter how long, but I will wait on you for Your way is better. I think it is also interesting that David points out in order to this we must be humble. Why? because someone who is not humble cannot put his or her agenda aside to wait on the Lord. Finally, David prays not to remember the sins of my youth. How many of us need to also pray that prayer? Yet when I think about this it also ties to the message for who in their youth was not wildly impatient wanting to conquer the whole world in whatever field we chose? Yet what must we learn to do as we mature? Slow down and wait!
Psalm 25:12-22 Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant. My eyes are continually toward the Lord, For He will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted, The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins. Look upon my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred. Guard my soul and deliver me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in you. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You, Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all his troubles.
I could relate to David in this Psalm when he said I am lonely and afflicted and the troubles of my heart are enlarged. How often do we take the problems we have and enlarge them because we have to think through every scenario rather than waiting and trusting in the Lord? Eventually we turn things over to God and all the weight of those burdens are removed. David reminds us when we do seek the Lord that our “soul” will abide in prosperity. Now David is not talking about literal prosperity here as he is talking about our soul. Our “soul” this is our “heart” and “mind” and when my mind is in a state of prosperity it is not worrying about a thing! Why? Because I am trusting in the the Lord as he has never let me fail! This is what David ends the Psalm with; He will not be ashamed and is taking refuge in God as he waits or trusts in the Lord.
So to wrap up
Father God, I pray that each one who is reading this Blog this week will find peace in waiting for You as we abide in your Word. Yes Lord, help us to find that refuge from whatever may be afflicting us knowing that You have everything covered for us. Amen? AMEN!
images sourced from google images
Great word! Especially that we remember that, unlike passively being a “slave to the traffic light,” where we, “see the city, see the zoo; traffic light won’t let me through” (lyrics quoted from Phish – ‘Slave to the Traffic Light’), our waiting on GOD, just like our resting in His Presence, is actively participating in what He’s doing in us and through us. Like you say, stillness doesn’t come very naturally, so there can actually be a good amount of effort required on our part to rebuke those worldly tendencies of hurry and worry so that we can just sit and listen for a change.
Regarding the sins of our youth: “Most people know that only GOD perfectly remembers, but not everyone realizes that HE also perfectly forgets” (Gloria Ruppel)