End of the Line – David and Job

And now, Lord, for what do I wait?  My hope is in You.  Psalm 39:7  NASB

For what – Remember that Hebrew has no punctuation.  No commas.  No question marks.  And “Lord” isn’t found in the middle of the sentence.  So, is this, “For what do I wait?” or is it, “And now that I wait, Lord, my hope . . .”  The Hebrew mâh (maw) can mean “what, how, why” or “when,” but it is also used as an exclamation, not a question.  So this verse might be, “And now.  Why!  I wait for you, Lord.”  Lots of choices.  Each one has a slightly different nuance.  Context is the key.

This is an awkward psalm.  It starts out with a statement of David’s internal anguish about saying nothing in the presence of evil.  David keeps his mouth shut.  As a result, his sorrow grows.  He wants to see resolution.  He wants the wicked to be punished.  But he complains that even though he “takes it,” nothing happens.  What does he do?  Instead of acting with righteous anger toward these idolaters, he longs for escape.  He asks God to show him how long he has to put up with this situation (verse 4, “Make me know my end, how long I will live”).  He wants out.  Then, like Job, he complains that all of this trauma is really God’s handiwork.  God has made life intolerable.  God is the one in charge of all the days.  Every one of us is walking in a world of darkness.  No matter what we do, it all comes to nothing (verse 6).

And now our verse.  Is David asking the Lord to show him why he has to wait or is he asking, “What is the point?”  His hope is in God, but given the continual presence of evil in this world, what really is the point of continuing?  You see, even if we accept the NASB translation, the obvious question in this psalm is, “What good is hope when everything is so terrible and temporary?”  Yes, we might claim to “hope in the Lord,” but does that really change things?  David goes on in this psalm to say that it is God Himself who is the real source of this catastrophe.  He begs God to remove the plague that God has caused.  He complains that he is perishing under God’s hand.  Isn’t this Job?  Isn’t it you and me?  By the end of the psalm David is asking for exactly the opposite of what we expect.  “Turn Your gaze away from me,” he says.  In other words, God’s examination of David is causing enormous, intolerable distress.  It is killing him.  “Please, God, look some other way.  Leave me alone so that I can survive.”  That’s not what we thought was the solution.  We have been trained to think that we need God’s countenance toward us.  We want to experience His loving face.  But David is playing Job’s song.  If God had not mentioned Job to haśśāṭān, Job would have never experienced the heartache and trauma.  What in the world was God thinking?  David’s song doesn’t seem to fit our “God is good” theology.  But it certainly fits those times in our lives when we wonder why God is making life so difficult.

And that’s the point.  God doesn’t fit the “God is good” theology all the time.  His ways are often mysteriously stressful, disheartening, troubling, and sometimes filled with anxiety.  Sometimes it seems as if God is more interested in injury and wounds than peace and joy.  Life dishes out all kinds of ordeals.  “What am I waiting for, anyway, God?  Why don’t you just end this?”  That must also be part of our theology.

Now ask yourself, “Doesn’t David find the same answer given to Job?”  “The Lord is my . . .”

Topical Index:  for what, mah, Job, Psalm 39:7