“I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry.”
– Psalm 40:1
“I waited,” Psalm 40:1 says. “I waited patiently for the Lord.” It’s interesting when you read through the Psalms how often you see this word wait, waiting on the Lord. And not just in the Psalms, all over the Bible. I think about some of the most encouraging verses in the book of Isaiah. When God says to his people in Isaiah 40, “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles.”
So, what is it about waiting on God? And I would just say, on a personal level, this has been something my family and I have been thinking a lot about over the last year as we have waited for doors to open to adopt a son in another country that’s been closed down ever since COVID hit. We’ve been waiting month after month, over a year now, in ways that have caused me to think a lot about this word that we see over and over in the Bible.
We can rest in the love that God shows us.
Waiting On the Lord is to Rest Trustfully
What does it mean to wait for the Lord? And the picture we see… I love what one biblical scholar put talking about Isaiah chapter 40, “To wait is to rest trustfully in God.” And I think that’s exactly what Psalm 40:1 is saying. “I’ve waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry.” So when we are waiting for God, we are resting trustfully in God. We are trusting in God that He sees things we don’t see. He knows things we don’t know, and we can rest in His sovereignty. His authority over all things.
We can rest in His love for us. We can rest, and trust in, the reality that He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose, even when we don’t understand why this or that is happening, even when we find ourselves waiting.
Encouragement For Those in a Season of Waiting
So I just want to encourage you today as we pray based on Psalm 40:1 that it is a good thing to rest trustfully in God. I don’t know where you may find yourself in the middle of waiting right now. Maybe it’s something small. Maybe it’s something big. Or, maybe it’s something that’s been going on for weeks or months. Something maybe that’s been going on for years. You’ve been waiting for God to do this or that. I just want to encourage you in the waiting that you can rest trustfully in God. And you can know Psalm 40:1 today, that as you wait patiently for the Lord, He hears your cries, and He is inclined to you as His child.
Psalm 40:1: Asking God to Help Us Wait Patiently
Oh God, I praise you for that reality. I pray that you would help me and all those who are listening right now help us to do Psalm 40:1, to wait patiently for you. Help us to rest trustfully in you. God, we confess that when we find ourselves waiting in different ways, we get restless. And we can start to lose faith. We can start to think if God was loving, then this wouldn’t be happening, or if God was powerful, then He wouldn’t let this happen.
God, please help us in these moments and every moment in our lives where we find ourselves waiting. Help us to truly rest trustfully in you, and to cry out to you. To cry out just as my family and I have been crying out day after day after day, week after week, month after month, over the last year-plus. God to know that you hear our cries in you incline your ear toward all who cry out to you. God, I pray for others who are waiting right now that they would be honest in their cries before you. And that as they cry out before you, plead before you, for your provision, for you to act in this way or that way, God, that you would hear our cries.
Trusting in God’s Provision and Plans
And even as we cry out to you that you would give us faith. Additionally, that we can rest trustfully in you. Specifically, in your provision, in your plans, in what you know that we don’t know. As well as what you see that we don’t see. And what you are doing that we can never even imagine. So we say together in the words of Psalm 40:1, “We wait patiently for you,” and we praise you. And as we rest trustfully in you. We praise you that you incline your ear toward us, and you hear our cries. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
View the 2021 McLean Bible Church Reading Plan.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
