Wait for the word of the Lord!
[Psalms 119:73-80]
Waiting is a virtue. Especially, it is the beauty of Christians who pray in faith and wait for God's prayer answers in anticipation. The appearance of a believer waiting for his salvation while looking at the Lord of hope with faith is beautiful. If we look at Psalms 119:74, we see a beautiful believer, the psalmist: “May those who fear You see me and be glad, Because I wait for Your word.” I would like to receive two lessons on how we should wait under the heading “Wait for the Word of the Lord!” based on Psalms 119:73-80.
First, we must wait with knowledge.
Look at Psalms 119:75 – “I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” What is the psalmist saying we should know?
(1) We must know that the Lord’s judgements are righteous.
The psalmist was suffering because of the arrogant. Those arrogant subverted the psalmist (v. 78). Then the psalmist feared God (vv. 74, 79) and obeyed the Lord's law (vv. 77, 80). Therefore, he prayed to God like this, relying on the righteous judgment of the Lord: “May the arrogant be ashamed …” (v. 78), “… So that I will not be ashamed” (v. 80).
(2) We must know that the in faithfulness the Lord has afflicted us.
What does it mean? The psalmist believed that in the midst of affliction from the arrogant, the Lord would faithfully carry out His perfect will (v. 75). What was the Lord’s perfect will? One of them was that God trained him through affliction, especially holding onto the word of the Lord and making him to pray earnestly to God, to expect His answer, and to wait for the fulfillment of His word of promise. We must wait for the Lord in faith, knowing that He is faithful and righteous. We must wait and believe in God's righteous judgment and God's faithfulness when we are afflicted by the arrogant.
Second, we must pray and wait.
What are we to pray for? In Psalms 119:73-80, the psalmist is giving us five prayer topics:
(1) We must seek the Lord’s comfort.
Look at Psalms 119:76 – “O may Your lovingkindness comfort me, According to Your word to Your servant.” The psalmist wanted the comfort of the Lord more than anyone's comfort in his distress. He made the Lord's lovingkindness his comfort. We should take the Lord's lovingkindness, which is better than our lives, as our comfort (63:3), and seek His comfort when we are afflicted.
(2) We must seek the Lord’s compassion.
Look at Psalms 119:77 – “May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight.” When we are in distress, like the psalmist, we must make the Lord's lovingkindness as our comfort and the Lord's law as our delight. In the midst of that, we must seek the Lord's compassion. When we are delighted in God's Word through affliction and realize our own sins because we take delight in His word, we are compelled to seek the mercy of the Lord.
(3) We must see the Lord’s justice.
Look at Psalms 119:78 – “May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts.” The cause of the psalmist's affliction was the arrogant (v. 78). They subverted the psalmist. They afflicted him with lies. In the midst of such affliction, the psalmist wanted to learn the word of the Lord more and more (v. 73) and meditated on it (v. 78). And the psalmist, who had been waiting for God's word in affliction, sought the Lord's justice. Soon, he pleaded with God to shame the arrogant.
(4) We must seek the Lord’s provision.
Look at Psalms 119:79 – “May those who fear You turn to me, Even those who know Your testimonies.” When the psalmist was suffering, God provided him with the Lord's fearful comrades of faith. What a great comfort must have been for each other in our hardships? When we suffer, we must pray to God to send these comrades of faith who fear the Lord. Therefore, when the Lord answers our prayers and sends us our fellow believers, we must overcome difficulties together while comforting each other while hoping for the word of the Lord.
(5) We must seek the Lord’s perfection.
Look at Psalms 119:80 – “May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, So that I will not be ashamed.” The psalmist prayed for the word of the Lord in his distress, asking God for his heart to be blameless with the word of the Lord. He used affliction and distress as an opportunity for his heart to be blameless with the word of the Lord. Like the psalmist, we must use the affliction and distress as an opportunity to make our hearts blameless with His word.
We must wait for the word of the Lord. And we must wait with knowledge. We must wait, knowing that the Lord's judgment is righteous. And we must wait and know that in the Lord’s faithfulness He has afflicted us. We must pray and wait. We must wait for the word of the Lord, seeking His comfort, compassion, justice, provision, and perfection.
As I wait for the word of the Lord,
James Kim
(Praying for patience based on the knowledge of the truth)