Waiting, Weeping, Walking, Worshiping, Witnessing
“I waited patiently for the LORD, He turned to me and heard my cry.”
God wants us to turn to Him while we feel our sorrows honestly. He doesn't want us to deny our emotions and pretend that things are better than they are. But He wants us to wait for Him, not for some perceived outcome that we want (we seek a Person, not a product).We are going to have upsets in this life. It's inevitable. And the waiting for him is going to take time. That's implied by the word “patiently,” as the Hebrew says “In waiting I waited.” Time and trial, that's the nature of our sanctification, our being called to grow in our Christian experience. We feel our feelings deeply and we wait for the person of God. We neither hide nor run from our emotions. They are to be dealt with honestly. We are emotional beings created in the image of an emotional God. So we wait and we weep. And in His perfect timing, He shows up for us, turns toward us and hears us. He is there for us. He is our God.
“He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”
To pick up where we left off from there...We wait and we weep, from the why we wait (the Person of the Lord) to the where we wait: in the pit of destruction. This is a continuation of our being honest about our condition. This is where God finds us, in our dilemma. We often find ourselves in situations outside of our control. I often hear “God won't give us more than we can handle.” That is not true. God often does just that. To teach us to depend up on Him, to wait upon Him, to lean upon Him. So David finds himself in the pit of destruction, the miry bog. This picture is that of a deep cavern filled with clay where someone would fall in and get stuck and die if not for someone on the outside there to save him. And after waiting and crying out, God turns and hears and lifts him out of his mire and rescues him. And us. Finally. Eventually. He sets our feet upon a Rock (Christ Himself) where we are free to move, free to walk. Free indeed. Next week we find out the Who of our waiting (you may peek at the next verse). This is the progression of our sanctification. God has a plan, after all!
“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.”
The climax of the movement of God in our lives is that we praise Him. We wait and weep and walk so that we might worship. He deserves this because of the God He is and the work He does on our behalf. He is our Savior after all. He is worthy of our adoration and praise and it is to that end we were designed.
Notice that David is helpless and that it is God is who does the work. David is all alone until God lifts him up and sets him on the Rock (I believe this is a metaphor) and then he is in the midst of a community of the many (who see and fear and put their trust in the Lord). This is his witness. Our stories are meant to be shared! God writes our stories for His glory and our (and other's) good. Many are benefited by the stories of our “pits.” God wants us to live out the Gospel for the sake of others. We are not alone!