Wednesday, March 1, 2023

           Psalm 130 is often called a Psalm or a song of ascent.  This grouping of special Psalms spans the chapters between Psalm 120 and Psalm 134.  These verses were often sung on the way up to Jerusalem by worshippers as they approached the city and the temple.  These Psalms were seen as ways to extol the Lord and to praise the Lord for His greatness and glory.  These Psalms centered the minds of worshippers upon the Lord and His ways. Psalm 130 speaks to waiting for the Lord and hoping in the Lord.  Waiting often involves hoping and hoping involves waiting.  And God can be found both in our waiting and our hoping.  The Bible says, “I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his Word, I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption” (Psalm 130:5-7).  There are some truths in these verses that stand out for us to see.
            First, we often have to wait for the Lord.  We can be impatient but He is not.  We can be sluggish and slow but He is not.  Our schedules are not His schedule, just as His ways are not our ways.  The Lord, at times, may slow us down.  He may graciously ask us to wait or to slow down.  Haste can lead to impulsiveness.  Impulsive actions or decisions can often leave us in desperate places.  Waiting may be one way that God saves us from ourselves.  When we wait on the Lord, we can linger in His Word, approach Him in prayer and confidently know that He will open the right doors at the right time.  Waiting is not God’s judgment or cruelty.  In fact, waiting could be a wonderful expression of His grace at just the right time.
            Second, we can always put our hopes in His Word and in Him.  As we have said, we can trust God’s Word and the God of the Word.  When we wait in the Word, we are growing in the wisdom and truth of God.  We may even discover that much of our haste and impulsiveness is selfish or even sinful in nature.  We might have cloaked our plan in some self-appointed righteousness, but Scripture has revealed it to be sinful and selfish.  As we wait on the Lord, we continue to do the last thing or mission that He has entrusted to us.  We continue on in devotion and dedication to whatever He has given us to do.  We must not lose sight of what God has entrusted us to do while looking for something else or something different. 
            Third, as we wait on the Lord, we want to ensure that our hopes are in line with His.  Our hopes and dreams in life should give us occasions to serve Him, honor Him, bless Him and glorify Him.  We can easily treat God like a gift card or a vending machine and see Him as simply existing to bring us happiness and satisfaction.  But waiting on the Lord allows us to see our hopes for what they are.  To be a follower of Christ means we trust Him with our present and our future.  We never want to stray from Him and we never want any future hopes to lead us away from Him. 
            God is the way-maker.  He makes a way for us to be healed, forgiven, strengthened and blessed.  He removes confusion and replaces it with clarity.  He rolls back darkness and replaces it with His light.  Remember the words of John 1:5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  Waiting may not be easy but it can be rewarding.  As you wait for God to work, you may well look back and see that the time spent waiting was more rewarding to you than what you were waiting for God to do.  If you are in a season of waiting, do not waste the time.  Grab the Word and hunker down to see what God has to show you and to teach you.  And when the waiting ends, you will be even more ready to embrace what God has for you.  Have a great Wednesday!  And remember you can worship at any hour at youtube.com/FirstBaptistKannapolis.