By Matt Collier
Waiting isn’t easy. We all know this from personal experience: think special vacation or anniversary getaway or school holiday or wedding day. Those events seem to take forever to arrive. And while waiting for something pleasant may not be easy, at least it’s positive. Suffering makes waiting even more intolerable.
David wrote Psalm 27 while experiencing extreme duress. In this Psalm, he refers to adversaries and enemies who were breathing out violence against him. He was on the run, most likely from his own son, Absalom. The enemy army he mentions in verse 3 probably wasn’t metaphorical. The precarious nature of David’s situation makes the climax of this Psalm of lament truly astonishing.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! (Psalm 27:13-14)
Our modern English word “to wait” goes back to the 13th century. Originally, it meant “to watch over”—or even simply “to be awake.” This accurately reflects our current thinking about waiting. We tend to see waiting as a pause in activity. As in “I’m going to wait out this economic downturn.” Or “you’ve been added to the waiting list.” But in Psalm 27, David presents a dramatically different perspective on waiting. I call it “courageous waiting.” Let’s consider David’s mindset in these two verses.
1) Courageous waiting means choosing to believe God’s goodness.
At the end of this Psalm, David affirms one particular aspect of God’s character: his goodness. Why goodness? Why not his power or his faithfulness? Probably because we naturally tend to question God’s goodness when facing difficulties. David confidently proclaims “I accept as true that God is good.” But David gets more specific: “in the land of the living.”
Sometimes the Lord calls his followers to endure a difficult circumstance for a lifetime—a trial that follows them to death—or even leads them there. In those cases, God is still good. But in some cases, God steps in to deliver his followers from suffering in this lifetime—while they are still “in the land of the living.”
The odds were stacked against David, but he remained fixated on God’s goodness. By God’s grace, David believed that he would survive and would live to see God’s hand of blessing again. Which brings us to another aspect of courageous waiting…
2) Courageous waiting means accepting God’s timeline.
By the end of the Psalm, David’s circumstances hadn’t changed. But in vs.14, he reminds himself to keep waiting on the Lord. For human beings trapped in time, difficult circumstances seem to drag on forever. And, like the characters we read about in Scripture, we don’t know the end of the story. We need this reminder to “wait for the Lord.” God is at work, even when I can’t see it. God is at work, even when I don’t understand his plan. Because unlike me, God does know the end of the story.
But David was not calling for a passive resignation to God’s will. This Hebrew word breathes expectancy and eager hope. What might seem like a command to sit back and do nothing is actually a call to action. This isn’t passive waiting; it’s active anticipating. Knowing that God is working out his good plan in ways that I may not fully understand, I choose to wait on his timing. This is courageous waiting. Finally, we see that…
3) Courageous waiting means actively trusting God.
David’s enemies are very much on his mind in Psalm 27. In vs.2, he speaks of evildoers, adversaries, and foes; in vs.3, he describes an encamped army and war arising; in vs.6, he sees “my enemies all around me”; in vs.11, he responds “because of my enemies”; and in vs.12, he identifies adversaries and false witnesses as they “breathe out violence.” The situation remains dire, yet David’s faith shines out clearly throughout the Psalm.
Waiting of this kind looks past circumstances to see God himself. We see that reflected in the remainder of vs.14: “be strong and let your heart take courage.” Here we find one imperative after another as David calls on his audience to pursue courageous waiting. Courageous waiting means clinging to the Lord with hope. It means fighting against the despair that threatens to engulf you. It means choosing to be strong in the Lord even when enemies are arrayed against you.
And this kind of active faith didn’t just materialize out of nowhere. Backtracking to earlier parts of the Psalm, we soon discover the source of David’s courage. “Yet I will be confident” (vs.3). Why? Vs.4:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
Throughout his life, David devoted himself to know God, passionately pursuing a closer walk with him. This made David a “man after God’s own heart.” And deeper knowledge of God leads to trust. In other words, it leads to the ability to wait … with courage.
Matt has served since in various capacities related to youth ministry, including youth pastor, senior pastor, and founder of CampsAbroad, an international organization that helps local churches reach teenagers through Christian camping. He currently serves as President of The Wilds Christian Association. He has published Help! I’m Lonely and Help! I Want my Life to Count in the Lifeline for Teens series with Shepherd Press. He and his wife, Kelly, have three children and live in Brevard, North Carolina.
