Waits

“Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.”  Psalm 33:20

Waits – Ready. Set.  But don’t GO yet.  Excuse the grammar but unless you know something about the form of this verb, you can’t appreciate what is means.  The word is hakah but the verb form is one that expresses great intensity.  This is deliberate choosing.  It is active waiting. 

So what in the world can that mean?  How can you actively wait?  Doesn’t that seem like a complete contradiction in terms?  We think of “wait” as a passive activity.  But the Hebrew language has something else entirely in mind.  Every use of this word except one (Isaiah 30:18) means active waiting.  So, unless we understand what active waiting means, we will miss the imagery.

The secret is found in the connecting preposition “for”.  If this little preposition were not there, then my waiting would be nothing more than passive inactivity.  But the Hebrew mind connects waiting with waiting for God.  Waiting is the activity of expecting God’s arrival.  Waiting is the intentional and deliberate posture that looks for God.  It is the action of anticipating His coming.  In the Hebrew mind, waiting is the essence of faith.

Imagine a runner in the blocks.  He is waiting, motionless, but at the same time actively straining for that one thing that will set him free.  Every muscle is tensed, every nerve on edge.  His perceptions are focused, waiting for release.  Waiting for the gun.   When I wait for God, I scan the horizon of my life for any sign of His presence.  I stop so that God may go.

The practice of waiting is the discipline of an intentionally expecting life.  The practice of waiting is personal training in the art of trust.  When I wait, I speak the language of the universe, a creation that also waits for God’s intervention.  Waiting is stepping into the flow of God’s purpose and being content with His process.  There is no place for resignation or passive retreat.  Waiting takes all of my strength.  It is the proclamation that who I am is completely committed to who God will show Himself to be.

Back to Exodus 3:14.  The great I AM.  The phrase that could also be translated, “I will be who I will be”.  Waiting is worshipping.  Is it any wonder that the Bible recognizes no other strength than “waiting on the Lord”?

Are you practicing the discipline of waiting?