Psalms 40:1-17

I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

Waiting for the Lord

There is a Divine law of waiting which has an essential connection with the larger law of giving.

I. In waiting for god we discover our distance from him. God may be near us, and we far off from Him.

II. Waiting fosters the sense of a need which God alone can satisfy. The sense of the depth of guilt must be gained by sounding.

III. Waiting reveals the goodness of God. If the sinner reviews his life, the sense of the Divine mercies is blended by his sense of guilt. He sees the golden roll of the providences of his life. The goodness of God leads him to repentance.

IV. Waiting leads to a discrimination between the form and the spirit of religion (Psalms 40:5). Every one who has come into covenant with God in his heart, and is now living in covenant with Him, has a book in his hand. It describes his duties and his rights in relation to God; and he promises to make it the guide of his life. As Christ engaged to fulfil the volume of the book as it applied to Him, so we engage to fulfil it as it applies to us.

V. Waiting shows us the importance of an open confession of God. The selfishness of sin is now revealed to us as the inner depth of its guilt. Will you, if God comes now and lifts you out of this pit, confess Him; will you try to live as a secret disciple, or will you publish what He has done for your soul; will you take a public position, and let your light shine? (Monday Club Sermons.)

The Christian’s patience

Patience, as it is not apathy, is not sluggishness, or indolence. There are circumstances which justify haste. For example, we do not walk, but rush out of a house on fire, or falling, a sudden ruin. Patient waiting for the Lord is quite consistent with boldness in design, and energy and promptitude in action; and only inconsistent with those unbelieving, impetuous, ungovernable, headstrong passions which breed impatience, and lead people be run before Providence instead of waiting on it. Of this let me give you two examples.

I. By contrast illustrate what it is to wait on the Lord.

1. Look at the conduct of Abraham. On his leaving Ur of the Chaldeans to wander a pilgrim in the land of Canaan, God had promised that he should become the father of a great nation. But though the father of the faithful, he formed an unhallowed alliance with an Egyptian; then, with terrible consequences following, he failed to wait patiently for the Lord.

2. Look at the conduct of Rebekah. The Lord had promised that to her younger son Jacob the covenant blessing should be given. But she could not see how this was to be, and so, becoming impatient, she takes steps to anticipate God’s time, and lays her hand on the wheel of Providence. Rash woman! she will hurry on the event, and so contrives that lie and deception on Isaac which blasted for ever their domestic peace. Rebekah and he ran before Providence; they did not wait patiently on the Lord.

II. Look at David’s own example of waiting on the Lord. A merchant in times of bad trade, or other trying circumstances, instead of trusting in God to bring him through his difficulties, or sustain him under them, has recourse to fraud; or a poor man, instead of trusting Providence with the supply of his wants, and committing his children to the care of Him who hears the young ravens cry, hard-pinched and pressed, puts out his hand to steal. But how often David was tempted to impatience. How long he had to wait ere the promise made to him was fulfilled. How faint his hope of ever reaching the throne appeared; yet David hoped in the Lord, and patiently waited God’s way to put him in possession of the kingdom.

III. Consider how we are patiently to wait on God.

1. We are to wait patiently on Providence in the common affairs of life. To the neglect of this may be attributed not a few of the failures that happen in business. People are impatient to get on in life; to acquire a competency; to be rich.

2. We are to wait patiently on God under the trials of life. He who went forth so magnanimously against Goliath turns pale with fear before those who neither had the giant’s stature nor the giant’s strength. Where is now the man, whose faith rising with the trial, once said, He that delivered me from the paw of the lion and the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine! But he feigns madness, letting his spittle fall on his beard, playing himself off for a fool. What a contrast to the heroic trust of Daniel, who, after the night spent with the lions, into whose den he had been cast, was able to reply to the anxious king, My God hath sent His angel, and shut the lions’ mouths that they have not hurt me. And who wait on God piously, prayerfully, patiently in their trials, shall have the same tale to tell; the same experience--He will shut the lions’ mouths, that they shall not hurt them.

3. We are to wait patiently upon God to complete our sanctification. We cannot be too earnest, too diligent, but we may be too impatient. Take comfort! “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation!” The river may appear flowing away from the sea, when, but turning round the base of some opposing hill, it is pursuing an onward course. The ship may appear to be standing away from the harbour, when, beating up in the face of adverse winds, she is only stretching off on the other tack, and at every tack making progress shoreward, though to others than seamen she seems to lose it. It is star by star that the hosts of night march out; it is minute by minute that we grow in other things. Here also, then, let us wait patiently for the Lord. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Waiting for the Lord

Some may remember the feeling of disappointment with which in their youth they read the last line of Longfellow’s “Psalm of Life.” “Learn to labour and to--wait.” Any one could understand the difficulty of labour, but how easy if one had only to wait t But experience has taught us a great lesson, that all labour is light compared with the labour, the stress, the suspense and weariness of waiting. The word “patiently” is not in the Hebrew, but it is implied. Such waiting is full of heroic elements--fortitude, resignation, faith, expectation, perseverance. As long as anything can be gained by effort it will be active, for it is too earnest to sit and rest when it should stand and work; but when the desired good is something beyond its reach, when personal exertion proves unavailing and help from others is impossible, then its agitation will be calmed and its hope invigorated by its determination to wait patiently for the Lord. There are exigencies in life when comfort can come from no other source. The providences of God are often so dark and full of seeming menace that the soul perturbed by them is like the ship in which Paul sailed when no small tempest lay on it, and when for many days neither sun nor star appeared. A drifting soul is in more jeopardy than a drifting ship. Again, patient waiting for the Lord gives solace and strength to the Christian when disheartened by the slow growth of his own spiritual life. Such dissatisfaction with self, when accompanied by longing for a more entire conformity to the Divine image, is the sure evidence of a gracious state, though it be not recognized by the subject of it. To eradicate all that is dark and defiling from the soul, and to cultivate the plants of righteousness until they are laden with their mellow clusters, require not only diligence but time. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth,” etc. So, too, wait patiently for the Lord when discouraged because you see so little fruit of your labour (Psalms 126:6). (M. D. Hoge, D. D.)

Reminiscences of a godly life

I. He recollects his personal devotion.

1. The nature of his religious exercise. He “waited patiently for the Lord”; it was the habit of his soul.

(1) Belief in the Divine existence.

(2) Sense of dependency upon God.

(3) An expectation of good from the Almighty.

2. The result of his religious exercise. “He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He came near to me.” It is the prayer of the whole life that the Almighty hears and answers. It is not a spasmodic shriek, it is a settled, sacred state of being (Isaiah 57:15).

II. He recollects divine interpositions. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit.” The spiritual state of truly good men.

1. It is a Divinely restored state. From what a wretched state has the sinner been delivered.

(1) State of darkness--a pit. The sun that bathes the world in its brightness breaks not the dense gloom of the pit.

(2) Misery--horrible pit--cold, black, dense, tumultuous.

(3) Helplessness. “Miry clay”--ever sinking into mud of moral corruption, all the faculties of being submerged and held fast.

2. It is a Divinely established state. Hast “set my feet upon a rock.”

(1) His intellect is established in truth.

(2) His heart is established in love.

(3) His purpose is established in conduct.

3. It is a Divinely progressive state. “He has established my goings.” Onward! is the watchword of the godly man. The point reached to-day is the starting-point for to-morrow.

4. It is a Divinely happy state. “He hath put a new song in my mouth.” Godliness is happiness.

5. It is a Divinely influential state. “Many shall see it and fear.”

(1) Godliness is conspicuous. You cannot conceal the true light.

(2) Godliness is reverenced. “And fear.”

(3) Godliness is blest. He who lives a godly life becomes unconsciously the influence of bringing others to God.

III. He recollects the happiness of religion (Psalms 40:4).

1. True religion is trusting in the Lord, not in man.

2. True religion, because of this, is ever connected with blessedness.

(1) Reason shows this.

(2) History shows this.

(3) Consciousness shows this.

IV. He recollects general interventions of mercy. “Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works,” etc.

1. They are wonderful. Wonderful in their variety, condescension, forbearing and compassionate love.

2. They are intelligent--not accidental, capricious or impulsive. They are the results and embodiment of thought. All God’s works are thoughts in action.

3. They are innumerable. Can you count the sands on the sea-shore, or the drops that make up the ocean? Then you may sum up the mercies of God to you. (Homilist.)

Patient waiting

It would be far easier, I apprehend, for nine men out of ten to join a storming party trying to take the citadel of the enemy than to lie on a rack or hang on a cross without repining. Yes, patience is a strength; and patience means not merely strength, but wisdom in exercising it. We, the creatures of a day, make one of the nearest approaches that is possible for us to the life of God. St. Augustine has finely said of God, “Patiens quia aeternus” (“Because He lives for ever He can afford to wait”). The greatest heroes among men are they who “wait patiently.” (Canon Liddon.)