Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2020 15:59:37 GMT -5
How to Wait By: Tim Gustafson
Click on this link for the audio message
Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me.
Psalm 27:7
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 27:1–3, 7–14
Frustrated and disappointed with church, seventeen-year-old Trevor began a years-long quest for answers. But nothing he explored seemed to satisfy his longings or answer his questions.
His journey did draw him closer to his parents. Still, he had problems with Christianity. During one discussion, he exclaimed bitterly, “The Bible is full of empty promises.”
Another man faced disappointment and hardship that fueled his doubts. But as David fled from enemies who sought to kill him, his response was not to run from God but to praise Him. “Though war break out against me, even then I will be confident,” he sang (Psalm 27:3).
Yet David’s poem still hints at doubt. His cry, “Be merciful to me and answer me” (v. 7), sounds like a man with fears and questions. “Do not hide your face from me,” David pleaded. “Do not reject me or forsake me” (v. 9).
David didn’t let his doubts paralyze him, however. Even in those doubts, he declared, “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (v. 13). Then he addressed his readers: you, me, and the Trevors of this world. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (v. 14).
We won’t find fast, simple answers to our huge questions. But we will find—when we wait for Him—a God who can be trusted.
Reflect & Pray
What do you do with your big questions? Where have you seen answers “in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13), and where are you still waiting for answers?
Father, melt my heart along with my fears and my anger.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Twice in Psalm 27:14 the ancient writer (believed to be David) urges believers in all generations to “wait for the Lord.” The Hebrew word for “wait” is qavah, which variously means “to wait, look for, hope, expect.” This is the word used in Isaiah 40:31, a well-known Old Testament verse about waiting on God: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (nkjv). One Bible scholar describes “wait” as living “in confident, eager suspense. . . . To live with the tensions of promises revealed but not fulfilled. . . . [To wait] with eager longing” (Ortlund, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners). Arthur Jackson
Psalm 27:1-3
King James Version
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
Psalm 27:7-14
King James Version
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Click on this link for the audio message
Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me.
Psalm 27:7
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 27:1–3, 7–14
Frustrated and disappointed with church, seventeen-year-old Trevor began a years-long quest for answers. But nothing he explored seemed to satisfy his longings or answer his questions.
His journey did draw him closer to his parents. Still, he had problems with Christianity. During one discussion, he exclaimed bitterly, “The Bible is full of empty promises.”
Another man faced disappointment and hardship that fueled his doubts. But as David fled from enemies who sought to kill him, his response was not to run from God but to praise Him. “Though war break out against me, even then I will be confident,” he sang (Psalm 27:3).
Yet David’s poem still hints at doubt. His cry, “Be merciful to me and answer me” (v. 7), sounds like a man with fears and questions. “Do not hide your face from me,” David pleaded. “Do not reject me or forsake me” (v. 9).
David didn’t let his doubts paralyze him, however. Even in those doubts, he declared, “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (v. 13). Then he addressed his readers: you, me, and the Trevors of this world. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (v. 14).
We won’t find fast, simple answers to our huge questions. But we will find—when we wait for Him—a God who can be trusted.
Reflect & Pray
What do you do with your big questions? Where have you seen answers “in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13), and where are you still waiting for answers?
Father, melt my heart along with my fears and my anger.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Twice in Psalm 27:14 the ancient writer (believed to be David) urges believers in all generations to “wait for the Lord.” The Hebrew word for “wait” is qavah, which variously means “to wait, look for, hope, expect.” This is the word used in Isaiah 40:31, a well-known Old Testament verse about waiting on God: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (nkjv). One Bible scholar describes “wait” as living “in confident, eager suspense. . . . To live with the tensions of promises revealed but not fulfilled. . . . [To wait] with eager longing” (Ortlund, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners). Arthur Jackson
Psalm 27:1-3
King James Version
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
Psalm 27:7-14
King James Version
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.