“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” (Psalms 27:14)
It’s not known exactly when David penned this psalm, but most agree that it was probably at the end of his time. It is typically David. It begins with his reliance and yearning for the Lord and for His presence. Then he expounds God’s blessings in His presence and offers up a prayer seeking the Lord and asking for guidance. It’s at the end of the psalm that he turns to others, to those who would read his words, and he offers the most important instructions. It’s how he lived his life.
No matter whatever circumstances we may be in, David’s last words in this psalm tell how he lived his life before the Lord and tell us what to do in our lives. In battle he waited until the Lord told him to go. Nine times are recorded where David asked the Lord about whether he should go into battle. He asked at least a couple of times, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” “Will the men of Keilah deliver me into his hand?” “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” “Shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah?” “Where shall I go up?” Then there is the incident in the Valley of Rephaim when God specifically gave him military strategy. (2 Samuel 5:22-25) The Scriptures also give us the same instructions as David gives. “Wait on the Lord,” which is recorded over a hundred times in the Bible.
We’re in this world and ruled by time. Time plays a very important part in our lives. We set all things up by time. But the Lord is in another realm. Time is no factor. He sees the end from the beginning, the past, present and future at once. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2Peter 3:8) His timing is perfect because He knows the future. We don’t. If we will trust His perfect timing, we will be safe. There was a time in my life that my husband and I did exactly that. It made no sense to us. We placed fleeces out like Gideon, testing the Lord it seems, but we really wanted to know that it was God calling us out of Mexico. “And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.” (Judges 6:36-40)
We loved living in Mexico. We were in God’s will, doing His work. Then suddenly we feel in our spirits the need to go to the US. The urge is so pressing, we can’t ignore it. We decide to obey this urging and move to my hometown where my mom who is reaching a hundred years old lives. Our minds see how this is the reason God is calling us here. But we had no idea that my husband who suffered from unrelenting back ache was near kidney failure. We had no idea that I would suffer something like Gillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) within a year, extreme high blood pressure and lung cancer within two years. Only God knew that. And He placed us in a place where we could get immediate treatment and give us more years to serve Him and to be a light in this world. God is good. He loves us and wants the best for us. And we need to believe this without any doubt and be grateful that He is looking out for us.
But waiting is the hardest thing for us to do. This is the flesh. We want to be in charge and in command. This is part of the rebellion. And the sooner we get rid of this the better. Moses told the Hebrews, “For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?” (Deuteronomy 31:27) When we are in the kingdom of darkness, we rule ourselves influenced by the devil. And where did that take us? ...to misery. We came to the Lord because we couldn’t rule ourselves, because we realized we needed a Savior and because we needed the Lord to help us in our daily life. The thing is many of us want a Savior, but not a Lord. That’s why some of us are living defeated lives. When we surrender our lives completely to the Lord and make Him the Lord of our lives, He rules. And He will truly be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. (Psalm 119:105) So surrender completely to the Lord and wait on the Lord. His timing is perfect.
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