Those That Wait
I waited, waited for YHWH; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. Psalm 40:2 (Hebrew Text)
Waited – Soon we will all have additional opportunities to wait. Try seeing a doctor next year. Of course, our cultural framework for waiting isn’t the same as waiting in David’s Hebrew view. If we read our own temporal expectations into this verse (and others), we are likely to misunderstand what David says, and in the process, miss the blessing of waiting.
The Hebrew verb here is qawah. Look at Job 3:9 or Micah 5:7 or Isaiah 59:11 or Lamentations 3:25. Suddenly you realize that “waiting” is a very active process. This is really a word about hope. It is laced with dependence, ordered activities, trust in the Lord and eschatological perspectives. We can wait – and wait – because we know that God’s will cannot be thwarted. Qawah is anchored in sovereignty and rests on hesed. God acts when we wait.
Don’t get confused about the order. It is not reversed. It is not “We act when God waits.” There is a good reason why the very first action of Man after his creation on the sixth day was rest. We wait first! We might love Him because He first loved us, but when it comes to hope, our behavior precedes God’s. We wait.
A bit of personal reflection will easily convince you that waiting is not a natural state of human behavior. Try sitting at a stop light for more than five minutes. Try standing in line at the check–out counter for ten minutes. Try clicking on an Internet page and seeing the little rotating circle for more than 30 seconds. Text messaging has destroyed the concept of “wait.” From sex to success, wait is a four letter word.
But not in the Bible. Waiting is a blessed behavior. Waiting displays confident expectation. Waiting is what I do when God is on the loose. Look at the pictograph. Qof-Vav-Hey is “what comes from securing what is behind.” Ah, but you will say, “How can this help me have any idea about waiting. I thought waiting was about hope. Hope is about the future, not about what is behind me in the past.” Yes, that’s certainly true – if you are Greek. But if you are Hebrew, the future is “behind” you. You are in the row boat, your back to the direction you wish to travel, looking at where you have already been. You future is behind you. Your hope is what you cannot see. But your true line of travel comes from alignment with the past, what you can see, where you have already been. If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with His past actions. Waiting is not floating. It is rowing. So, sit down and row. Be active in your waiting. Secure what lies behind you by putting your oars in the water in line with God’s wake. Oh, yes. And do it more than once. “I waited, waited for YHWH.”
Topical Index: wait, qawah, hope, row, Psalm 40:2
“you must keep rowing in alignment with His past actions”
I agree, and t is a very good feeling when you can travel in alignment with His past actions; when you can actually see where you have already been.
Your use of the illustration of someone rowing a boat was very helpful in understanding a difficult concept on what it means to “wait” on the Lord. With our backs to the direction of travel, we must stay in alignment from God’s Past actions in order to remain on course. In addition, look what happens when we (ourselves) want to check our progress: we must turn around! Moreover, what happens when we do this? By turning around, we take our eyes off the Lord and His past actions; thus lose the blessing.
Shalom Chaverim,
Skip … you have utilized the “row boat metaphor” in the past very effectively. I agree whole heartedly with you that we are to look back … le’dor ve’dor (generation to generation) and see what G_D has done as a means of solidifying our faith … our reason for hope … our commitment to the path. Look back to see “otot” (signs and wonders).
I would also add that we look back upon our own actions (as they relate to G_D’s mitzvot – commands, to determine our future alignment. As you state … a Hebraic view of “waiting” is not sedentary but rather “active”. So … active in what way? … Active in aligning our actions with HIS WORD …
Yes indeed brother Skip … our future is shaped by the past … one way or another. We look back to confirm the faithfulness of ELOHIM and we look back to gauge how straight and how narrow our path has been … or how wayward it has been. Naturally ELOHIM wants our hope to lead us in alignment wherein we can receive HIS awesome promises.
Simply glorious. As I wait, wait (an active process of blessed behavior), ADONAI sanctifies my desires bringing my will to the conformity of His will that I may say as Yeshua, “I can’t do a thing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is right; because I don’t seek my own desire, but the desire of the one who sent me.” (John 5:30)
There are meaningful differences between ‘thelema’ (‘determination, purpose, DESIRE, will’/John 5:30) and ‘epithumia’ (‘breathing hard over something forbidden, lust, DESIRE’/James 1:14)
May HE sanctify the desires of our hearts in the wait, wait saving us, and thus causing us from fulfilling the unsanctified desires that cause us to float aimlessly, vulnerably, and without a purposeful determination.
Both DESIRES in the aforementioned passages take us somewhere…
My strong sister Carmen- one of my favorite portions of the Word of G-d is Philippians 2:13:
-“For it is G-d Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” It is His “strong purpose” or desire to conform us into the image of the Son”. Now that I know this “conforming process” involves “heat and pressure” I am much more at ease in the “lion’s den!” Not that I’m a glutton for punishment- no way!- but at least I know, no matter what situation or circumstance I may find myself in – G-d is (always) able to deliver!
This also is a very strange verse to consider: Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? (James 4:5)
Our Father is jealous of our affections! He actually “desires” our focused attention! (bringing “into captivity” every thought to the obedience of Christ!” -Enable us, O Holy Breath to give unto the LORD our G-d the glory due Hashem! You are worthy of our praise! Amen.
How I have waited to put meaning to the essence of waiting on/for the Lord…to speak…to move me…to empower me…to enlighten me…finally, today, Skip did it!!! Now I have a picture of me rowing as I wait…confidently expecting “whatever”… in God’s wake!! My back to the future because I trust Him. I love it!!
Brother Skip.. with your permission, I’d like to tweak the rowboat metaphor just a tad. The way we know our future is by “remembering” our past. G-d has a history with his people! “It is written” (I love those three words!) for us in the “Old” Testament. I’m gonna chase this “old” business for a wee while if I may. We have in our blessing book before us, a written history of G-d coming to the aid and rescue of His chosen ones. In story after story we have before us an unfolding of a G-d who is faithful and of a G-d who is compassionate and mercy. A G-d who intervenes on behalf of His children. (Excuse me one moment.. “Hallelujah!)- there, I feel much better now- sometimes you just gotta let it out!
Yes, dear family- YHWH is faithful to deliver. Not just once, not just twice.. but over and over and over. Count with me please.. 1,2,3,4… and then ??. Do you “see” a pattern here? Okay, now let’s try this. How many times on the way to Canaan did the Israelites run into a problem? Did G-d deliver the first time? the second? the third? the fourth?.. and then along comes number five. Moses! Moses! (I know, I know.. I’m playing “armchair quarterback!”) If I was “there” I probably would have panicked too! Did G-d come to the rescue the fifth time? (you know the “rest” of the story! Yes, G-d (always) delivers! (one more Hallelujah!!)
Now let’s “fast-forward” to another time and another place. A place far removed from “the wilderness” of the desert. A place very near to some of us. The name of this place is “right-where-we-live”. “Remember” this verse? “I am the LORD- I change not.” Is He “the same- yesterday, today and forever?” Is He? Will He “yet deliver?’ (I hope your lips are curled upward on both ends!) Yes!, Yes! and oh Hallelujah- Yes!! “Forever faithful”- this is our G-d! Confident expectation. This is the Bible definition of hope. He has delivered -and He will yet deliver those who are called by His name. How can I be so confident? What is His name dear brother? Do we have a history with Him?
When confronted with Goliath, David “remembered.” He “looked back” and remembered the bear. He remembered killing a lion. (If this happened to us, I have a feeling we also would not have a lot of trouble “remembering!”. David rehearse this history right to the big Galoot’s face and in confident expectation His G-d would give Him what He needed when He needed it, David engaged in battle with the enemy and in the name of the G-d of Israel, Goliath was defeated, deflated and dispatched.
Abraham had a history with G-d as well. YHWH didn’t just up and tell him- hey you- go kill your boy!. No, no, and no! He had “trained and prepared” Abraham for this excruciating test of covenant friendship. This “test” was for Abraham- not for G-d. This deepened their relationship even further!
Hallelujah for the cross! Hallelujah for the covenant friendship- YHWH offers unto us. Hallelujah, Yahweh has provide a way for us, through the shed blood of His cross, to be clean before the LORD our G-d and that we may enter His gates with thanksgiving and enter His courts with our praise.
What a Savior!
Hi Skip, I notice that in Genesis Ch1 v9 (Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place…) that ‘qavah’ means ‘to be gathered together’ – is there an indication that part of the purpose of ‘waiting’ is for a unity of purpose and intent to be developed?
A great point. In fact, it fits the rowing model quite nicely. Rowing is a series of applied effort and gathered strength. The oars go in the water, I pull, the boat moves, the oars come out, I rest, the boat glides forward on the momentum, the oars go back in the water. Each stroke is gathering, then exerting.