Waiting with the Psalms
At one time or another, we all find ourselves waiting for something. In her brilliant book Invitations from God, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun writes, ‘Waiting is a central, unchangeable, universal fact of life.’ Jules Badger explores how waiting is part of our spiritual formation.
Late last year, I decided it was time a certain small tree that was refusing to produce fruit needed to go. I poured some water around the roots to soften the hard earth and began digging around with a spade. I gave the tree a few good yanks, but it wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry, so I called in the big guns. My adult son was happy to help but just needed to complete the task he was in the middle of. ‘I’ll be there soon, Mum,’ he said. No problem, I thought, I could wait a few minutes.
Except I didn’t wait. I kept yanking on that stubborn little tree, and in doing so sprained my forearm! My son soon came out and found me sitting on the ground nursing my arm. And while he was attentive to my discomfort, his sympathy was not surprisingly limited. ‘Why didn’t you wait for me Mum?’ He then removed the tree with ease. If only I had waited for the help that I knew was coming, I might have saved myself months of pain and frustration.
‘Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act.’ (Psalm 37:7, NLT)
In her book Invitations from God, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun exposes our human aversion to waiting when she writes, ‘Many of us get so frustrated with waiting that we’d rather make a quick decision and pick up the pieces than hang around in limbo and wait for clarity to come.’
Point taken, says the impatient woman with the sprained arm! We’d rather do something, anything, than do nothing at all. But waiting is not doing nothing. The Hebrew word for wait is qavah, and it describes alertness or watchfulness. Biblical waiting is not passive; it’s actively trusting God. While the temptation is to lose heart and wonder if God has forgotten us, waiting is about choosing faithfulness and surrendering to what God is forming in us. Adele writes:
Waiting is one of God’s immensely sweeping invitations. Waiting unearths what’s in our hearts. It exposes what happens in us when our expectations go unmet. It exposes our doubts about God and what we think He should do. It exposes our natural tendency to be control freaks.
To wait expectantly with open hands requires a relinquishment of control that gets at the roots of our motivations, fears and idolatries. It is when we learn that God isn’t a genie and that happiness is not a matter of God meeting our expectations. While we wait, we experience the naked vulnerability of trust.
‘Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him.’ (Psalm 62:5, NLT)
I wonder what you’re waiting for. Friends? A relationship? A life partner? A job? Healing? For a calling to be confirmed? Justice? A baby? An adult child to return to Jesus? For your finances to turn around? A pay rise? A promotion? For a break? For a door to open? For rest? For retirement? To get back home? To leave home? Someone who’ll listen?
When we find ourselves in the middle of difficult and prolonged seasons of waiting, it’s often the songs and prayers found in the Psalms that offer us solace and solidarity. The length and breadth of human emotions echoes throughout the Psalms. Nowhere else in the Bible do we find such profound and raw honesty.
Many of the Psalms were written by David who waited for 12 years—most of that time spent fearing for his life and running from Saul—to become king. The Psalms reveal David’s active trust in God as he wrestles and waits.
‘I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.’ (Psalm 62:1–2, NLT)
Waiting is the spiritual discipline of allowing things to unfold according to God’s timetable, not our own, and has far more to do with our spiritual formation than just the information or answers we are seeking. Waiting, of course, goes against everything the society we’re part of has conditioned us to expect: fast food, fast lanes, express delivery, instant service, coffee on the go. But waiting requires patience, which is a fruit of the Spirit.
God is a patient God, and learning to wait is an invitation not only to trust God but to become more like Him. God is the God of slow and deep and of a love that grows. He takes His time because patience is part of God’s character—he’s an expert waiter!
‘Scripture is a catalogue of the ways God waits for us,’ writes Adele.
God waited 400 years for the time to be right to lead Israel out of Egypt. God waited for Israel to grow in numbers and desperation. God waited for the arrogance of Pharoah to reach its height and for Moses to become the kind of man who could lead Israel out of Egypt. God waited for the fullness of time to send Jesus. And Jesus waits for us to respond to His invitation to come home to Him. Waiting is God’s crucible for transformation which is why He doesn’t hurry us along with force, coercion or control. God bides His time, waiting for us with open arms.
Throughout Scripture, all the great men and women of God waited. Noah waited 120 years for rain that no one believed would come. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for the son that God had promised. Joseph waited years for his dreams to make sense and come to pass. Year after year, Hannah waited for a child. Joshua waited 40 years to enter the promised land. Israel waited thousands of years for the Messiah. Mary waited 30 years for Jesus to become who she always knew He would. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment waited 12 years to be healed from bleeding.
Today, we wait for the return of Christ, standing on the promises of the same God who formed these great saints through seasons of difficult and prolonged waiting.
