Waiting in Faith
Ps.27:13-14 - I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 27 is one of my favorite psalms because it so intimate and encouraging. It lifts up God’s “so great” salvation in verses 1 , it removes fear in verses 2 and 3, it beckons us to a deeper worship in verses 4 thru 6, it speaks of seeking God in prayer in verses 7 thru 9, it teaches that the Lord is even more faithful than our parents in verse 10, it shows that learning God’s Word will guard against the enemy in verses 11 and 12, and then we come to verses 13 and 14 which are the ones I would like to deal with here.
I have read and meditated upon this Psalm hundreds of times and it became a great source of strength during a particularly difficult time of crisis. It, of course, comes from the Holy Spirit through the heart of David and after extolling the virtues of seeking and worshiping the Lord, David concludes with two verses that reveal that the eyes of our faith must be upon Christ and Christ alone. The Hebrew text does not include the words “I had fainted” but the incomplete structure of the sentence is aptly filled in with those words, it implies that without faith David would have despaired, as would we all.
Look at the words “unless I had believed” in verse 13. Meditate on those words inspired by the Holy Spirit and see how faith is the currency with which we please God. We can and should live a pure and consecrated life, and even some cults separate themselves from the things of the world, but without faith in the true and living God He cannot be pleased. You see, faith must be the basis for everything spiritual in our lives because faith places the power and focus where is should be, upon the Lord. Our obedience is an expression of true faith but our works without faith are the works of Cain and are an affront to the Lord because it suggests that our works are sufficient in themselves as an offering to Christ and they are not.
We must believe, we must have faith in the Lord God and His goodness as the verse teaches. God is good. He doesn’t just do good things, He is good intrinsically. All the attributes of God are good. His love, His mercy, His mercy, His patience, as well as His wrath, His justice, and His chastening are all absolutely good. We must believe fully in the goodness of our God and that surely the “judge of all the earth will do right”. Hand wringing and doubt is not faith and will provide no rest for our souls, we must rest completely in God and His goodness. The verse says that David was convinced that he would see the goodness of God manifested upon the earth and by implication in his own life.
The children of Israel are delivered by God from the bondage of Egypt and they walk across the dry river bottom of the Red Sea unto safety. But within a day they are murmuring and complaining and doubting that God can “furnish a table in the wilderness”. Are we not the same sometimes? How many times have we seen the powerful expression of God’s goodness in our lives, strong and gracious, and the very next time of testing we enter into fear and doubt? God provides comfort and deliverance in one circumstance yet we are anxious over His ability in the next crisis and test, that is exactly what David is teaching us to avoid. God, David says, is not only good, but He will show forth His goodness in the affairs of men and most especially among the household of faith. It is a truth and a promise which we all should place upon the forehead of our minds and embrace it fully.
Then in verse 14 David gives some insight into how this faith can become a reality in our lives. “Wait on the Lord” he says and repeats it at the end of the verse. This waiting upon the Lord has almost been lost to the church in this fast paced, formula oriented church that has been so compromised by the culture. We as Americans reject waiting almost under any circumstances and we must multi-task if indeed we have to wait, even for minutes. Waiting for us is inconvenience and usually elicits impatience and frustration as well as good dose of verbal discontent just to let everyone else know we disapprove of the circumstance. Our time is precious to our lifestyle and instead of waiting somewhere we could be doing something else that beckons us from our cluttered life.
But waiting upon the Lord is no inconvenience to God, and David ends this Psalm with this particular exhortation about waiting upon the Lord. This is no sitting down, emptying your mind, laying back and just waiting to see what happens. No, this is the kind of spiritual waiting that the verse says will bring “strength to our hearts”. This type of waiting is grounded in faith and includes an expectant hope that is completely in our Lord. This “waiting” immerses itself in God’s Word which substantiates and strengthens our faith and as we gaze into God’s Word it becomes spiritual meat to our bones and life to our flesh. We see God and His goodness and that same Word promises it will bring faith as it enters into our hearts.
Listen closely, my friends. Good spiritual songs encourage us and strengthen our hearts; believers can speak words of comfort that help us; sermons build us up in our faith; but there is nothing like the pure Word of God to bring spiritual strength and nutrition to our souls. The mature believer, even in times of great and trying circumstances, reads and eats God’s Word as if He needs it to live and in fact he does. Reading and believing God’s Word in times when your heart is heavy will bring to you revelation and illumination that many times cannot be gleaned in times of peace and prosperity. God’s grace is so present with a saint who is discouraged and even unsure as to God’s direction, and yet this saint seeks God in His Word and reads and reads and cries and believes until the victory comes. That is a miracle of supernatural proportions!
Waiting on God also has priestly implications that David realized and was fully complete in the New Covenant which made us all priests unto God. So waiting is also ministering unto the Lord. Praising, praying, and worshiping our Heavenly Father and the Risen Christ is part of waiting on the Lord and the mystery is that while our ministering before Lord rises before Him as a sweet smelling incense, His Spirit inside us takes that sacrifice and ministers to us as well.
But is the cost too high and can we sacrifice unto the Lord when our hearts have little joy? That my friends, like the widows mite, is when you give the Lord your best and most sacrificial gift. David himself would not accept a sacrifice from someone else but he proclaimed “neither will I offer unto the Lord that which cost me nothing". And so should it be with us. We should view a time of trouble as an opportunity to offer unto our God a sacrifice of praise, a waiting upon the God of hope with the purest part of our faith untainted by any positive emotions but based exclusively upon our Father and not ourselves. When we arrive at a place that we must say with King Johosephat “neither know we what to do” we must dig deep into our faith and say also with Israel’s King “but our eyes are upon Thee”.
Only special, sacrificial, and sacred times of waiting upon the Lord can suffice and strengthen our hearts. No praying while driving is sufficient; no quick prayers; no reading God’s Word at lunch time at work; no, those things can be good but that is not waiting on the Lord. Waiting upon our Lord comes in the night watches, when the Holy Spirit wakes us up and we obediently rise to seek His face while the house sleeps, those times draw the heart of God. When for unknown reasons you awake an hour early and instead of getting an early start on earthly things, you offer that extra time up before the Lord as you seek His face and presence. When you inform everyone that this Sunday you will separate yourself unto God and not be available for everyone in the usual way. When you secretly fast for a few days and God fills you with Himself in a fresh way, even in the midst of your circumstances.
These are the times which minister to God and He to you. This is waiting in faith. This exhibits the reality of our faith and most importantly the reality of God Himself. Could it be these times that the great Apostle said would elicit questions about the hope that lies within us? If we only have faith when the boat rides upon seas of glass, but it flees when the storm rises to toss our boat, then what difference have we from the world? In those times of great winds and colossal waves, retreat inside the ship’s hull and there you will find as did the disciples the Lord of the waves Himself. Do not ask Him if He cares, His caring is infinite, but sit down before Him and wait upon Him. See Him resting, He does not worry, and as you gaze upon Him through His Word, do as verse 14 says, “be of good courage”.
Oh yes, our God is a great God and in Him we will find rest in any storm and perhaps even the joy of the Lord.
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