Waiting
[Psalm 130]
When I look at myself, one of the shortcomings that God reveals to me is "impatience." At times, I notice that because my heart is impatient, I end up making others suffer and hurting them through my words and actions. I also experience how my impatience leads me to make mistakes. In the midst of this, the verse God led me to meditate on is 2 Timothy 3:4, which speaks of people being “rash” (impatient) in the difficult times of the last days (verse 1). Why do we become impatient? It seems that when we fall into the thought that we can no longer wait, and almost simultaneously give up on being patient, we become impatient. When we do this, we end up acting according to our own will. This impatience causes us to rush ahead of God’s will, failing to wait for His timing, leading to wrong plans and methods, which in turn result in terrible consequences. Due to impatience, we choose worldly and fleshly plans and actions. A prime example of this is Abraham and Sarah. Even though they had received a promise from God, they gave up on waiting in faith and were overtaken by impatience. As a result, Sarah advised her husband Abraham to sleep with her maidservant, Hagar (Genesis 16:1-2). Abraham accepted the advice and had a son, Ishmael, with Hagar. But as we know, Ishmael was not the child of the promise—Isaac was. Impatience, therefore, leads to the tragic consequences of abandoning faith and patience (Internet). This is why we say that waiting is a virtue. Waiting is an essential element in our Christian walk.
In the words of Psalm 62:1 and 5, which we have already meditated on, the Bible says: "My soul waits in silence for God alone; from Him comes my salvation... My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my hope is from Him." Through this verse, we were taught that we must depend entirely on God, who is our salvation, our hope, our rock, and our fortress. The reason for this is that trusting in God quietly and completely becomes our strength (Isaiah 30:15). We must wait for Him and trust in Him, knowing that He will bring us salvation.
In today’s passage from Psalm 130:6, the psalmist compares his waiting to the waiting of a watchman: "My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen wait for the morning; yes, more than the watchmen wait for the morning." The psalmist is saying that his waiting for the Lord surpasses the waiting of the watchmen for the morning. Who are these "watchmen"? Watchmen are those who stand guard on the city walls to protect the people inside, staying awake all night in case of an enemy invasion. In other words, watchmen stay awake and guard the city, anxiously awaiting the morning. What is it that they long for the most? It is the "morning." They eagerly await the dawn (Park Yun-seon). With this same sense of earnest longing, the psalmist was waiting for the Lord. In fact, he was waiting for the Lord with even more fervency than the watchmen waited for the morning. With this intense longing, the psalmist was singing this psalm as he ascended to the temple.
What was it that the psalmist was eagerly waiting for?
It was, undoubtedly, the Word of God. In today's passage, Psalm 130:5, we read: "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope." The Word that the psalmist was eagerly waiting for was the word of forgiveness and salvation from God, as He had promised in His revelation (Park Yun-seon). From this, we can infer that the psalmist was in a situation of great suffering due to God's discipline for his sins.
What was the painful situation? Let’s look at verse 1 of today’s passage: "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord." The "depths" the psalmist refers to here are a metaphor for extreme distress, as if a person were drowning in water, on the brink of suffocation (Park Yun-seon). Much like Jonah, who, after disobeying God, ended up in the depths of the sea, trapped inside the belly of a great fish, both Jonah and the psalmist, despite being in deep trouble, longed for the Lord and earnestly prayed to Him.
In Psalm 130:1-2, we read: "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy." In this earnest prayer, the psalmist knew that if God were to take account of all his past and present sins and judge him for them, there would be no one who could stand before Him. Hence, in verse 3, he says: "If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" If God were to hold us accountable for every sin we’ve committed in the past, present, and future, no one would dare stand before His holy presence. Not a single person would be able to stand before the Holy Lord as a sinner.
But despite this, the psalmist believed in God’s forgiveness (verse 4). He prayed humbly and reverently, seeking God’s mercy to forgive his sins. And after praying, he awaited God’s word of forgiveness. How eagerly the psalmist must have been waiting for this! After committing sin, being in a state of deep distress due to God's discipline, and praying earnestly for forgiveness, the psalmist longed to hear God say: “I have blotted out your transgressions, I have erased them all. I will remember your sins no more.” If we were to hear that voice of God, how joyful and free we would be! We would leap for joy, dance with delight, and offer our praises and worship to God in gratitude for His freedom and liberation!
The psalmist earnestly prayed to God for forgiveness and, after doing so, patiently waited in faith, longing to hear God's word of forgiveness. In the midst of this, the psalmist waited, praying earnestly for God to rescue him as proof that He had forgiven his sins. In other words, he prayed, expected, and waited for the grace of God's salvation. How could the psalmist pray, expect, and wait for God’s saving grace? I found the answer in verses 7-8 of today’s passage: “O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” Because the psalmist believed in God's mercy and abundant redemption, he could pray, expect, and wait for the grace of salvation and forgiveness from God.
Do you truly believe in God’s mercy and abundant redemption? Do you believe that God is the one who redeems you from all your sins?
Perhaps some of you are in a deep place, just like the psalmist. Are you in a severe affliction, sinking deeper and deeper like someone who has fallen into the water? Do you realize that the reason you are in this deep place is because of your sins? If so, let us, like the psalmist, look to God’s mercy and abundant redemption with faith, and earnestly pray and wait for the forgiveness of our sins and for God’s grace of salvation. Let us wait for the Lord even more eagerly than a watchman waits for the morning. Surely, God will forgive all your sins and rescue you from the severe afflictions you are facing.
Longing for freedom from sin and the joy of salvation,
Pastor James Kim
(Relying on God’s abundant mercy, who waits even more eagerly for those who eagerly wait for His word)