“I am weary with my crying out. My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”
– Psalm 69:3
What a verse, Psalm 69:3, that last phrase, “My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.” So over this last year, and I prayed about this on the previous episode as we were praying through Psalm 68. So over this last year, I have been, my family has been waiting to go and pick up a child that we’ve been matched with for adoption in another country. We were three days away from going to pick him up. Our bags packed and everything, when the world started to shut down for COVID, and we’ve been waiting over a year now and are not sure when that door is going to open up.
The key to running without being weary is waiting on God.
We All Grow Weary
In the middle of it all, I’ve read a book that I would highly recommend to anyone, by Andrew Murray. It’s like a devotional. It’s just short chapters. The title is Waiting on God. It’s so helpful, not just in thinking about waiting. I mean, it’s different challenges and situations we face in this world, but about how the Christian life is a life of waiting on God; meaning, trusting in God, resting in the faithful provision of God. Think Isaiah Chapter 40: those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, shall mount up with wings like eagles, and run and not grow weary, and walk and not be faint. Ain’t that interesting? Like the key to running and walking without being weary or fainting is waiting on God, is trusting in God.
That’s the picture here in Psalm 69:3. The Psalm is just saying very honestly, “I am weary with crying out,” which I feel weary from crying out every single day over this last year and I’m guessing there are many of you who are waiting in different ways in your lives and you are weary of crying out.
There are times in our lives when we’re waiting and waiting and waiting and weary from saying, “God, when will this end? God, when will you provide in this way or that way?” I’m weary from crying out. My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim. Like I’m tired, I’m so tired of the waiting. I’m so tired amidst the waiting. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. Yet the beauty of this Psalm is the psalmist remembers that he can, we can trust in God. That this is actually what it means to wait.
Encouragement in the Waiting
One commentator there in Isaiah Chapter 40 described waiting as resting trustfully in God. I have come back to that over and over and over again over the last year, and I want to encourage you with it today, particularly if there is any sense of waiting in your life, that you’re longing for something that’s not yet there, longing for God’s provision in this way or that way, praying day in and day out with weariness now for God to provide in this way, to rest trustfully in God. That He is good; He is wise; He is loving, and He is sovereign and you can trust in Him.
Psalm 69:3: Praising God For Keeping His Promises
God, we praise you for that reality. We praise you for who you are. We praise you that even when our eyes grow dim with waiting for you, we can continually trust in you. Even as we cry out and are weary from crying out in this way or that way for your provision, for your help, God we praise you for your love for us. We praise you for your promise to provide for us, your promise to lead us, your promise to guide us. God, your promise to hear us and answer us and so we will keep crying out. In this weary world, in this fallen world, we’ll keep crying out. Our eyes will grow dim, but we will trust in you. We will rest trustfully in you. Help us to rest trustfully in you amidst the weighting in our lives.
Even as we wait ultimately, oh God, for full and final redemption. We wait, Lord Jesus, for your return, for your inauguration of a new heaven and a new earth. We are waiting here and longing for your coming. Our eyes grow dim. We long for you to come. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. We pray that when you come, you will find us waiting, resting trustfully in you. Oh God, we pray all of this. We pray Psalm 69:3 in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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.
