Waiting
By Sharon Betters
Today’s Treasure
On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Psalm 62:7
Do you remember learning the times tables? How many hours did you spend with your mother holding up three by five cards with equations like these:
1 x 5 =
2 x 5 =
3 x 5 =
4 x 5 =
5 x 5 =
6 x 5 =
7 x 5 =
8 x 5 =
9 x 5 =
10 x 5 =
If I missed one problem, we started all over again. The repetition prepared me to get 100% on my elementary school tests and create math building blocks for accounting courses many years later. All of those math courses taught me the value of knowing the times tables, repetition embedded them into my brain, ready for action at a moment’s notice.
On a much bigger scale, embedding the truth of Psalm 62 in our hearts prepares us not only for mundane moments but painful seasons of life when just breathing hurts. When you read Psalm 62 you might be tempted to say, “OK, David, enough already! I get it. Trust in the Lord alone. Can we move on to something else?” I imagine David responding, “No. This is the most important truth of all. Choose to trust the Lord alone and everything else will fall in to place.”
The desperate person cries out, “I want to trust Him, but I don’t know how. He seems far away. How do I hope only in Him, especially when my life is so messed up?”
We want quick fixes, or a to-do list. The idea of pursuing a relationship with God through His son Jesus feels awkward or strange, especially when nothing in our circumstances changes. Such a pursuit doesn’t offer much in the way of solving our problems, or does it?
Let’s take another look at this phrase:
My soul waits in silence before God only.
Psalm 62:1
What does David’s silence signify? John Calvin in Calvin’s Institutes (page 418) says this:
The silence intended is, in short, that composed submission of the believer, in the exercise of which he acquiesces in the promises of God, gives place to his word, bows to his sovereignty, and suppresses every inward murmur of dissatisfaction.
Read those words again and let them sink into your soul. This silence is not passive on the part of David’s soul. He does not waste this waiting room. David exercises his faith: he chooses to believe the promises of God. He embraces God’s Word as truth and chooses obedience to it. He believes God is sovereign and can be trusted. At the end of himself, he chooses to praise God rather than murmur against Him.
My friend lives every minute through the grid of knowing her adult child rejects any scriptural truth that doesn’t fit his life choices. Deep grief pushes down on her head and heart, many days she wants to curl up in a ball and refuse to face the day. Instead, she chooses to trust in God alone as her Rock, Rest, Rescue, and Refuge. Since she first learned of her child’s choices, she has been waiting in silence before her God who is her salvation. Waiting for her means action, but not the kind you might imagine. Every morning when she wakes up she chooses to practice walking by faith, demonstrating to her family that she is “acquiescing in the promises of God”. She “gives place to His Word” by spending time studying Scripture. She “bows to His sovereignty” when she writes in her journal the treasures God sends to her and then asks, “Lord, I don’t know what to do so my eyes are fixed on you.” Her time with the Lord acts as a soothing medication that calms her heart and gives her control over impulses to push into her child’s life when she needs to wait and trust the Lord to love her child more than she does. When fear for her child’s safety threatens to undo her, she runs to the Lord and spills out all of her fears, refusing to give in to “every inward murmur of dissatisfaction”.
This is a picture of one who chooses to declare, “My soul waits in silence before God alone.” Prayerfully consider making these intentional choices in your own life journey.
PRAYER
Oh, dear Jesus, we don’t know what to do, so our eyes are fixed on You. We wait in silence before God alone, our salvation.
Sharon W. Betters is author of Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness and co-author of Treasures of Faith. She is Director of Resource Development and co-founder of MARKINC.org, a non profit organization that offers help and hope to hurting people. Sharon enjoys quality time with her husband, children and fourteen grandchildren.
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Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.