“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.”

Psalm 40:1

Recently I was meditating on Psalm 40:1-2 and I found myself asking, what does it really mean to wait on the Lord? I needed to know what “wait” meant, because it had been an extremely difficult few months, and I felt like I was in a miry pit of my own. In English to wait can be largely a passive thing, and it is not specified how you are to be as you are waiting. I confess that many times my waiting has been full of anxiety, worry, frustration, fear, impatience, and many other things that I know are not the kind of waiting that David is talking about.

So, what does it mean to wait?

Waiting on the Lord is talked about many times in the Bible. David talks about waiting a number of times in His Psalms…Psalm 25, 27, 37, 39, 40 and 130, to name several. He is not the only one. The prophet Isaiah said, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) The prophet Jeremiah gave the hopeful word, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” (Lamentations 3:25) He said this even as he wept over the tragic invasion and destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. He must have known there was power in waiting on God that could bring a good outcome from tragedy.

As I researched a bit more this word ‘qava’, I discovered something very interesting, which opened up a whole new level of understanding that gave me insight in how to wait on God in times of trial. 

All of these beloved verses have in common the Hebrew word ‘qava’.¹ On its surface, this word means to wait for, look for, expect. It carries the sense of “waiting hopefully”, expecting God to show up and bring His goodness into the most difficult of situations where one would be otherwise hopeless. 

But how do we get to this place of waiting hopefully? 

It’s one thing to muster up hope when things are going pretty well. But it is entirely different when you are going through grief that is tearing your heart apart, or when you find yourself in the midst of extreme pressures that you can’t control nor understand. As I researched a bit more this word ‘qava’, I discovered something very interesting, which opened up a whole new level of understanding that gave me insight in how to wait on God in times of trial.²  I want to share with you what I am learning, because I believe learning how to wait on the Lord is key if we are going to overcome in the tumultuous times that are ever-increasing in these days we are living in as we wait for the return of Christ.

The word ‘qava’ in its primitive form also refers to binding or twisting together, like when making chord or rope.¹ When rope is made, many smaller strands are woven and twisted together, and together they become strong and unbreakable to bear up under weight. So, if this is part of what it means to wait on the Lord, what does that mean for us?

when we ‘qava’ we are binding ourselves to God, intertwining our innermost being with His, creating a deeper intimacy and spiritual union

I believe that just as the strands of a rope are bound and twisted together to create strength, when we ‘qava’ we are binding ourselves to God, intertwining our innermost being with His, creating a deeper intimacy and spiritual union.  In doing so we are made strong and able to withstand the weight of difficult circumstances, and God lifts us up out of our darkness into hope.

“He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

Psalm 40:2

King David Teaches Us How to Wait

So then, what does it look like to ‘qava’, practically speaking? We can learn so much about this through the life of David.  If there is anyone who knows about pain and trouble in life, it is David. This man was almost always in some sort of crisis or major upheaval in his life—he knew grief and loss, suffering and pain—he knew what it was to feel completely alone, and even to feel like God was silent and not doing anything about his situation. Consider some of the things that David went through in his lifetime. As a young man, he was scorned and rejected by his own brothers and family. Saul, his father-in-law and mentor, turned on him and hunted him down to try and murder him, making him a fugitive for 10 years. His wife was taken from him and given to another man by his father-in-law. His daughter was raped by one of his own sons, and then another of his sons took vengeance and killed him. That same son then leads a rebellion against David to try and take his kingdom and then he dies in the process. These are not even all the things that David went through. Yet the agony, grief and turmoil that David must have experienced in just one of these situations alone would have been too much for most of us to bear.  How did he make it through all of this? Not only did he make it through, but his love for God seemed to thrive as He resolved to continually worship and serve Him through it all…so much so that God said of him, ” ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’” (Acts 13:22). Not only did he thrive in his crises, but David also managed to have fulfilled God’s purpose for Him in spite of everything that he went through (Acts 13:36).  How did David do it? Through everything he went through, he waited on God. This brings us back to ‘qava’…

through the Psalms of David, we can see how he managed to walk through some very dark places and keep himself in the love of God as he practiced this waiting upon God again and again

We are so blessed that in the midst of his most difficult circumstances, David wrote many psalms. These psalms give us a window into what it looked like for him to wait on God.  We can see how he managed to walk through some very dark places and keep himself in the love of God as he waited for God again and again, whether it was to save him from danger, deliver him from death or the latest catastrophe, or to vindicate him from false accusations from those closest to him.  As I have been going through darkness of my own over these last several months, David has been my teacher as I have studied and meditated on his psalms, and through these writings I have learned much about how to weave and bind my innermost being together with God, so that I may also bear the weight of difficult circumstances beyond my control.   Here are some of the things I have learned…

7 Practical Ways to Wait on The Lord

Here are some practical insights I have gleaned from the psalms of David about what it looks like to ‘qava’:

First of all, David prayed. Prayer is simply communication with God. He went to God and kept the conversation going with him throughout every trial. This allowed for greater closeness, rather than distance. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is a very human response to shut down our dialogue with God when we are hurting. But that is precisely when we need to talk with God the most. David didn’t stop talking to Him.  “Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.  Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.” (Psalm 5:1)

David confessed his true emotions to God, pouring out his heart to Him. He did this again and again. This was an act of reaching out for intimacy by honestly bringing out what he was really feeling and thinking. This allowed an opportunity for God to come into his pain and minister to his heart, even in his feelings that God was far away and seemingly uninvolved in his crisis. Instead of bottling up all of our negative emotions, sometimes we need to bring them up and out into the open with God.  This allows our pain to become a place of encounter with the Lord. “How long, O Lord Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” (Psalm 13:1-2)

David worshipped God. He continually declared Who God is and what He is like, and he relentlessly held onto this truth in the rise and fall of the many emotions that can run through a person in difficult times. Even if his current circumstances told him differently, David continued to believe in the true nature of God— that He is merciful, loving, all-powerful and all-knowing, and that He is good to those who fear Him.  “One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: ‘Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love’; and, ‘You reward everyone according to what they have done.’” (Psalm 62:11-12)

David praised God. He remembered all the things that God had done for him in the past, and he held onto these memories as a token of how God would come through in his present circumstances. “I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.” (Psalm 143:5-6) In his praise, it is very important to take note that David declared the victory before he saw it.  “Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.” (Psalm 63:9-11)

David consecrated himself. He openly acknowledged his sin and confessed it to the Lord when he knew that was part of the problem (Psalm 51). He continually offered himself before God as His servant who would continue to follow Him and do what was right, even when things didn’t go his way. He offered himself as a living sacrifice to obey God and serve Him. “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:6-8)

David thanked God. He thanked Him for all He was doing to work everything out, even though he couldn’t see it right then. He thanked God for the ways He had come through in the past, and he thanked Him for how he would come through for him in the future before he saw his deliverance. “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” (Psalm 9:1-2)

David trusted God to bring about justice for him. He didn’t take matters into his own hands. David did not take it upon himself to kill Saul when he had the opportunity, twice. He didn’t return slander or evil that others did back to them– instead he committed to do the right thing and relied on God to vindicate him and make things right. Because of this, David continually saw God’s deliverance as He took care of his enemies. “He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change– he will hear them and humble them, because they have no fear of God.” Psalm 55:18-19

In Summary

To summarize these points, to wait on the Lord, practically speaking, means to bind ourselves to God through prayer, honest confession, worship, praise and thanksgiving. It means to continue to offer ourselves to obey God and serve Him in the hardest of times, not returning evil for evil. The Scriptures encourage us to do this even with all of the pain, grief, disappointment, fear and many other emotions that can arise in our hearts, laying them all bare before our Father in Heaven. As we ‘qava’ in this way, we are strengthened with FAITH and HOPE, and we are lifted up out of the muddy pit of hopelessness and depression.  

It’s as if God throws a rope down from Heaven and says, “Here, take this”. As we hold on, He pulls us up out of the dark perspective that colors our present circumstances (the miry pit), and lifts us into His mindset by reconnecting us to Heaven’s perspective. Now we can wait hopefully and with expectancy, filled with a sense that we WILL see God intervene and that He WILL do something good in our situation. We do not know how or when this will happen or what it will look like, but we’re confident of this, that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

 

Put it into Practice

Of the seven practical ways given above, pick the 2 that resonate the most with you to put into practice. Focus on practicing these regularly during the next month. Share in the comments below which things God is highlighting for you to work on! Observe how your heart and relationship with God feel different. Come back and share what you experienced!!

Did you enjoy this post? I think you will also enjoy the post: Finding the Purpose in Your Darkness.

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References

¹The Blue Letter Bible. Strong’s H6960. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h6960/kjv/wlc/0-1/. Going deeper into the root words through the Brown-Driver-Briggs and the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee lexicons reveals further meaning. back to post

²Chaim Bentorah Biblical Hebrew Studies. Chaim and Laura. August 4, 2014. https://chaimbentorah.com/2014/08/word-study-god-standing-patiently-waiting/. This post reveals some excellent insights into the word ‘qava’ and opened up more understanding and inspiration for this post. back to post