Waiting is Not in Vain
June 27/28, 2015
Pastor Lynn I. L’Abbe
Scripture: Psalm 40:1-10
Sermon:
“I waited patiently” says the psalmist ….. really? …. Who truly waits patiently? I might
tolerate waiting for a period of time but I can assure you I do not do it patiently. I don’t think I
have ever heard a person say ‘I love to wait’, I have heard folks say I don’t mind waiting but that
always has a caveat whether it is spoken or not that says “within reason”.
When we go to the original Hebrew that this psalm was written in, Rolf Jacobsen who is
a theological scholar in the Hebrew language and the study of the psalms says this line is
actually more truly translated as “I waited and I waited…” or “I hoped and I hoped…” – that is a
far more faithful translation to the original Hebrew than “I waited patiently…” And it gives it a
different flavor too – doesn’t it? I easily relate to waiting and waiting, hoping and hoping for the
Lord, far easier then I can relate to I waited patiently for the Lord – I suspect I am not alone in
that tendency, maybe a few of you also struggle with the waiting patiently thing?!!
So Psalm 40 like so many psalms starts with a lament and transitions quickly into praise,
but then Psalm 40 concludes with a prayer for help in the last seven verses that we didn’t read
today. The psalmist sheds light on a cycle that is common to all of us and that is the request to
God to deliver us from a trial, from a hardship, from a difficulty and through that process we
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wait and hope for him to hear our cry, then we move to praises of thanksgiving and then
prayers for help when the next trial comes.
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I waited and waited for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
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He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
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He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
and put their trust in him.
The Psalmist says I had a need, I cried out to God and after waiting for God’s perfect
timing, God not only heard my cries but he did this wonderful thing, he lifted me out of the
mud and mire and put me on solid ground again. The psalmist’s cries turn to a new song, one of
praise rather than lament and he says through my struggles and deliverance others will come to
see, believe and trust in God as I share my personal testimony.
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I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips, LORD, as you know.
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I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.
I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness
from the great assembly.
So waiting and hoping moves to praise and thanksgiving and then telling the story,
sharing our testimony of God’s faithfulness. But the psalmist knows and we know and we can
testify to the fact that with each new deliverance, comes a new threat of trial that is imposed
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either by external sources or by our own short comings. Psalm 40 sketches out our cycle of
earthly life. And it looks like this:
Think about the story of the people of Israel:
-Slavery in Egypt – cries/pleas for help, they wait and they hope
-Deliverance – by God through the Red Sea
-Praise & Thanksgiving – all their needs were taken care of but they started to grumble, their
own short comings begin to take over, they worship the Golden calf,
- Deliverance by God to the promise land.
- Praise & Thanksgiving, they worship faithfully telling the story of God to all their generations,
then they start to grumble, we need a king like the other people have, we want a ruler, they
start to be attacked from outside forces, they find themselves exiled to Babylon. they cry for
help they wait, they hope.
- Deliverance by God……
Are you getting the pattern, can you relate to the pattern, have you had experience with this
pattern – we all have and we all do, each one of us could place a dot beside the spot we
currently find ourselves. And we could place a different dot beside where we were a year ago,
and a day or week or month or a year from now we can place a dot beside the new place we
find ourselves.
Let’s think of this congregation – in February we could set our dot beside the “next
trial”, since then we have moved that dot to the waiting and hoping, through prayer and
guidance of the Holy Spirit we now move the dot to praise and thanksgiving for the faithfulness
of our stewardship and we rejoice in the triumph that we have retired our internal loan that
goes back many years, we rejoice in the triumph that we have retired our member loan that we
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took to cover pastor’s pension, we rejoice and give praise to God that when faced with
adversity he is always with us hearing our cries and pleas, and responding in his perfect way
and timing to deliver us from each trial we face.
Jesus was sent to live among us and he lived in this very cycle – like each of us Jesus
faced trials, he had to wait and hope and pray to God, in God’s faithfulness Jesus gave thanks
and praise to God, he shared the story of God through parables, and through teaching and
preaching and he shared the stories through the things he did. This cycle is bathed in God’s
presence, we are never alone in any of the steps, some steps we are in longer than we want but
we are not abandoned, God is in the muck and the mire, and he is in the new song we sing.
Though we may dislike the waiting, the waiting is never in vain – the waiting is never in
vain, difficult - yes, in vain – no. As children created in God’s image we are called to claim the
presence of God in our lives and be faithful witnesses in adversity as much as in security. We do
this by trusting in the Lord, praising and giving thanks for his faithfulness in the times of trial,
dwelling in the scriptures and supporting one another as we come together in worship and
fellowship. The psalmist says in verses 4 & 5
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Blessed is the one
who trusts in the LORD,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.
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Many, LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done,
the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
they would be too many to declare.
For our congregation and each one of us personally, our past deliverances give us
experience to deal with the next trial and reassure us of God’s presence in the midst of where
ever we are. We are always in need of God’s help regardless of how deep the scriptures are
written on our hearts and how well we understand our salvation through Jesus Christ. We are
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always in need of God’s help because we are not immune to sin and we are not immune to the
evil forces of this world. Our earthly life is a cycle, individually and collectively as the body of
Christ, we move through the cycle each and every day facing small trials and life altering trials
and each and every day we can praise and give thanksgiving for God’s presence in the midst of
those trials, while we wait and hope and pray and when we find ourselves in God’s perfect
timing being delivered from that muck and mire and as the psalmist says we are put back on
our feet on solid foundation of rock.
Let us pray…..