While We Wait
Notes
Transcript
After this David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.” So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David, “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,” David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.” But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
Continuing in 2 Samuel
Intro about a sermon about waiting on God from 1 Samuel 16 - instead my Verizon story - 9 people - 45 minutes of hold average = almost 7 hours on hold waiting
I hate waiting - especially when I feel like I shouldn’t have to - 25 times the New Testament encourages patience, it doesn’t come naturally
Today we are going to see David’s waiting - that began in 1 Samuel 16 - come to an end… kind of… because then we will see more waiting begin. And I want to explore why God makes us wait, and what we should do while we wait.
Let’s remember where we left off. We read David lament Psalm about the death of Saul and Jonathan - which was really a lament about the disobedience of the king and the people.
And we read in chapter 2:
After this David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.”
When we ended last week, I pointed out that the very next things David does is inquire of YHWH - he seeks the Lord and His will.
Realize: David is now the rightful king. He knows it. Yet he doesn’t presume anything. He waited all these years already, most of them on the run from Saul. And we have seen that David has done anything but celebrate now that Saul is out of the way.
Here, the king still seeks the will of God before doing anything. He doesn’t assume anything for himself.
Now, what does it mean that David inquired of the Lord? How did He do that? Well, remember back in 1 Samuel 22, Saul killed all the priests for helping David by giving him bread to eat. One of the High Priest’s sons - Abiathar - escapes and flees to David.
In the next chapter, we found out that Abiathar took with him an ephod, and we saw that the ephod of the priest contained the Urim and the Thummim that the priests would use to inquire of God. This is how David is inquiring of God here.
So David first asks if he should leave Ziklag, a town on the southern border of Judah that previously belonged to the Philistines, and go into one of the larger cities to the north. After God answers in the affirmative, David then asks where he should go, and God chooses Hebron.
Now I want us to notice a couple of things here. David asks two questions. He asks if he should go, and then after God says yes, David asks where he should go. Should he do something, and then what should he do.
I know for myself, I often skip that first question and assume the second. My tendency is to think “of course God wants me to do something,” and so I usually just pray for God to show me how to do what I’ve already pretty much decided to do.
Can anyone else here relate?
If you know me, or if you’ve heard me teach a Tuesday night Bible study, you know that one of the most difficult things for me to do is slow down. I talk fast, I overthink, and I always need to be doing something.
And I always used to pray for God to help me do all the somethings I wanted or felt I needed to do. I would pray for God to help me to not be too anxious over all there was to do. Over all I wanted to do.
But more recently, I have started asking God these two questions. “Should I do something? And if so, what do You want me to do?”
And sometimes, it is so hard to wait for an answer.
It is easy - it’s actually easier than the alternative, as least for me - to go full steam ahead with the best of intentions and try to do what we want to do for God. But when we do that, sometimes we get ahead of God. And that’s just a sugarcoated way to say: we get out of the will of God for us.
But David didn’t do that. He knows what God has promised. He knows that his life is about to change in a huge way. And yet, he is still willing to wait on God to make it happen.
We can learn a valuable lesson here. I know I can.
Listen, God has been no less gracious to us than He was to David. Sure, there has been suffering along the way and things have often been less than what we’d consider ideal - both for David and for us.
And as we saw last week, the failures of others - even those within the community of God’s people - often affect us negatively, like they did David.
But God has only ever been good. He has only ever worked for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That includes us as much as it did David.
And like with David after Saul died - there is much for us yet to do - but we need to realize that waiting on God is the only way to get it all done. Waiting for Him to tell us when to do and what to do is the only way to be part of what He is doing.
That’s the first thing we can take from this.
Second, note where David is told to go. God tells him to go to Hebron. Why is that significant?
Well, back in 1 Samuel 27, David flees to Gath and stays with the Philistines. As we saw, David found favor with the king of Gath and requested a place to live with his men. And the king gave him Ziklag.
And this is what David did while he was there:
Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish.
David continued to carry out the command of God to remove the inhabitants of the land. And then in chapter 30, we saw the habit of David when he took the spoils from the Canaanites:
When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.” It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negeb, in Jattir, in Aroer, in Siphmoth, in Eshtemoa, in Racal, in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, in Bor-ashan, in Athach, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.
So, David had been giving some of his spoils of war to the elders - the local leaders - of the cities of Judah, including Hebron. Not only that, we are told here that these are all the places where David and his men had roamed.
In other words, even while in his exile because of Saul, David still had some friends in Israel. People who were on his side. He helped the people of these cities of Judah, and they helped him by allowing him to move freely among them.
This was, of course, politically expedient for both sides assuming David’s future kingship. But regardless, this was an alliance based on faith that the promise of God was going to come to pass. This was a partnership in waiting on God.
So, when David asks God if he should go to one of the cities of Judah, this isn’t an arbitrary question. David is asking if he can return to his people - to God’s people. If he can return to the Promised Land and be among those who like him believe God and His promises.
If you’ll remember, when Saul chased him out of Israel, David told Saul that he had:
1 Samuel 26:19 (ESV)
driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
David didn’t care about the physical - not the land itself. He cared about the spiritual - the heritage of the Lord. That is what it meant to be among God’s people and in the Promised Land. It meant you were part of the promises of God. Of the plan of God.
So David is asking God if it is time to come home. Now that Saul is gone - now that this trial is over - is the waiting over? Can David go back to Israel and be what he was called to be?
And God tells him it’s time, and to go among the people that never turned their backs on him. To go live among the remnant of the faithful who knew God’s will and lived according to it.
And make no mistake, these people knew what God’s will was.
In the much abridged version of this event in 1 Chronicles, this is what we read:
Then all Israel gathered together to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord your God said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.’ ” So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel.
We see here that it was known that David had been anointed king by God. So those who were faithful to God, stayed faithful to David, who was faithful to them because he was faithful to God.
What a beautiful picture of God’s people. Loving each other because they love God. Faithful to each other because they’re faithful to God. Together trusting that God’s promises are sure no matter what the circumstances of this life are.
Together, waiting on God.
And note that David is faithful to God, because he not only waits on God, and he not only seeks God’s will before he does anything, but when God reveals His will, David obeys:
After this David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.” So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron.
Notice: David didn’t go check out Hebron to make sure it was safe. He didn’t go ask them if it was okay to come back to them and live there.
It was enough for David that God said it. And he goes all in on obeying God.
He takes his whole family, his entire army, and all of their families - and they just do what God said to do.
David sought God’s will, and when God’s will was clear, David obeyed. There was no delay. There was no deciding if he should do what God said. That wouldn’t have been waiting on God. That would have been waiting to obey God. Not all waiting is God’s will.
We need to make sure we do the same. When God’s will is clear to us, there is no question whether or not we should obey.
Except there often is, isn’t there? And usually it’s because we have already decided what we want to do.
Even when it is good things. Like when we decide what ministry we’re going to start, or how we’re going to deal with this or that issue, or that I’m not really gifted to serve where there’s a need… when God’s will is made clear and it doesn’t line up with what we’ve already decided, whose will do we most often choose?
In reality, we are usually so married to our ideas of what we should do and how, that when God has other plans, we often miss it altogether.
This is why we wait on God. David waited. He didn’t decide “okay, Saul’s dead, I’m king, and this is how I’m moving forward.” He sought God and His will. And when God’s will was clear, David obeyed.
And we see that through David’s obedience, God carried out His plan:
2 Samuel 2:4 (ESV)
And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
The faithful remnant of Judah - a foreshadowing of what’s to come in a few generations when the northern kingdom abandons God and Judah stays faithful for a time - these people who together remained faithful to God throughout - who obeyed God rather than man - they come together and through them God carries out His will.
Because David obeyed God.
And this is how God carries out His will today. Through those that are together faithful to him. Through those that believe His promises no matter what happens in this world.
Through those that wait on Him and obey Him.
Judah waited on God together with David, and through them, God kept His promise to David.
David is now king.
And what is the first thing David does as king?
And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David, “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,” David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”
The first thing David does is honor those who honored Saul.
We saw last week, Saul made David his enemy, but David didn’t make Saul his. When David had opportunities to end his exile and take the throne, he didn’t. He could have killed Saul multiple times, but David chose instead to wait on God to make good on His promises.
As David said about Saul when he had a second opportunity to kill him:
1 Samuel 26:10–11 (ESV)
And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.
And David was right to wait. Because this is exactly what happens. God strikes Saul down to make good on His promise to both Saul and David.
Because all of God’s promises are sure. His promises of salvation, and His promises of judgment.
And faith in that promise - part of which has now been carried out - is why David could compliment these men for their faithfulness to Saul:
David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”
Here, David lauds these men for honoring Saul. We read at the end of 1 Samuel that they found out where the bodies of Saul and his sons were, and they came by night into Philistine territory and took them. Then they buried them and fasted the requisite seven days.
So David blesses them. He prays they would be blessed by YHWH because of their loyalty to Saul.
Remember what we saw last week, David’s respect for Saul and his kingship was a result of David’s heart for God and God’s people. He believed that God had a plan for His one people - a united Israel. And as long as Saul was the leader of God’s people, David was not going try to take matters into his own hands to get himself on the throne.
He trusted God and waited.
And that these men showed honor and respect to the king shows their heart for God and for God’s people. They were obedient to God by honoring the king.
So David prays for God’s blessing on them, and promises them that he will repay them for their goodness to Saul. He will be good to them because they were good to Saul.
He says, “I will do you good because you have done this…because Saul is dead and I have been anointed king.”
David, who was anointed to be king 18 chapters ago, is finally king.
Now, we don’t know how long David was in Saul’s service or how long he was on the run. The Bible doesn’t give any chronology for that. We know this last stint in Gath lasted a year and four months. It is widely believed Saul pursued David for a number of years, considering everything else that happened that is recorded in 1 Samuel.
But even if it’s just that 16 months, can you imagine what this has been like for David?
Honestly, I have trouble waiting a half hour for something to happen if it was supposed to have happened. I have major trouble waiting for six hours just to get my cell phone bill worked out!
Waiting is not easy. I’m not about it.
But David was. He was anointed king - promised the kingdom by God - and then has to go back to shepherding his father’s sheep.
Then, in God’s providence, Jesse makes David Uber eats some food to his brothers on the front lines of the war with the Philistines. When David gets there, the entire army is shaking in their sandals because Goliath is challenging them to a fight.
So David says, if I can defend my sheep, I can defend God’s sheep. And he wins a decisive victory over the giant, leading to a decisive win for Israel’s army over the Philistines.
And does David the hero get to be king? No. But he gets to play the lyre for King Saul… who tries to kill David with a spear… and then David is put on the front lines as a commander in the army because Saul wants him dead.
And then, David marries into the royal family. Maybe a path to the throne is starting to take shape.
But no. David has to flee his own house in the dead of night. And now he’s on the run from Saul.
And when David has the chance to kill him and doesn’t, what does Saul say? “You’re right, I’m wrong. Surely you will be king!”
And then everything changed. No, wait… absolutely nothing changed. David was still on the run from Saul. And then after sparing his life yet again, things go from bad to worse and David has to leave Israel and live with the Philistines.
All this, after being promised the throne.
And we get upset when Prime next day delivery takes until the end of the day.
We lose perspective sometimes, I think.
David didn’t.
And, here it is. The time has come. Saul is dead by the sovereign hand of God. David, who has waited so patiently on God is now king.
The wait is over, right?
Verse 7:
2 Samuel 2:7 (ESV)
“…Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”
Verse 8:
2 Samuel 2:8 (ESV)
But…
Oh come on! What can the problem possibly be here? David has waited, and waited, and waited. And now, finally, he has been crowned the king. What’s the issue?
But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel.
Abner, the commander of Saul’s army, takes a surviving son of Saul and crowns him king.
Let’s notice a few things here. Ish-bosheth is made king over specific places.
He is king over Gilead. This is the name for the portion of Israel that is east of the Jordan river. If you know the book of Joshua, you know that the tribes of Reuben and Gad, along with part of the tribe of Manasseh, settled on the eastern side of the Jordan. This area is what is known as Gilead.
Mahanaim is in the territory of Gad in Gilead. Not far from Jabesh-gilead. That this coronation takes place near the people David was just in contact with is no accident. There some political maneuvering going on here.
Ish-bosheth is also king of the Ashurites. Who were they? I have no idea. Nobody does. This is a term used only here in the entire Old Testament.
He is also king of Jezreel, way in the north of Israel, of Ephraim, the most populated tribe right in the middle of Israel, and in Benjamin, right on the border of Judah.
The author here is painting a picture of the separation between the kingdoms, and letting us know that Ish-bosheth is king of all the territory east of the Jordan, and every little bit of Israel from the border of Judah to the very northern tip.
And this foreshadows the future split of the kingdom, when the northern kingdom is over ten tribes and the southern over two.
And I would like us to realize that David is actually king over the territory of two tribes here: Judah, and Simeon.
Back in the book of Joshua we read:
The inheritance of the people of Simeon formed part of the territory of the people of Judah. Because the portion of the people of Judah was too large for them, the people of Simeon obtained an inheritance in the midst of their inheritance.
And if you read of the cities and the borders of Simeon that are described, what happens is that Simeon is actually completely contained within Judah. It is right in the middle of it. This is why we hear very little about the tribe of Simeon after Judges chapter 1. They become insignificant and wind up, for all intents and purposes, being absorbed into the tribe of Judah.
Now why is this significant?
Well, back in the book of Genesis, when Jacob prophesies over his sons, he says this:
“Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
Simeon and Levi - the second and third-born sons of Jacob - wind up destroying an entire city out of anger. And here, Jacob prophesies that they will be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel.
And that’s exactly what happens. The Tribe of Levi gets no inheritance, but is literally scattered throughout Israel.
And Simeon, contained completely within Judah, winds up divided from the rest of Israel.
Here, in this division between Judah and the rest of the nation, God’s promise has now come fully true. Simeon has been separated from Israel.
Once again, though it took hundreds of years, God’s promise was sure.
His promises are always sure.
That’s why David trusted God and waited on Him.
And now, it looks like there was more waiting coming. There is another claim to the throne.
Now, we have Ish-bosheth as king over what would eventually become the northern kingdom after the permanent split of the nation.
But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel.
Let’s talk about Ish-bosheth for a minute. Who is he? He is the only surviving son of Saul. But that presents a problem, on the surface.
We read of the sons of Saul in 1 Samuel. First, in chapter 14:
Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchi-shua. And the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn was Merab, and the name of the younger Michal.
And then in chapter 31:
And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul.
And if we read about his sons in 1 Chronicles, the plot thickens:
Ner was the father of Kish, Kish of Saul, Saul of Jonathan, Malchi-shua, Abinadab and Eshbaal;
So, we have Jonathan, Malchi-shua, and Abinadab, who all died with Saul. Then we’re left with the mention of three other sons: Ishvi who is mentioned once, Ish-bosheth who we don’t even hear about until he becomes king, and Eshbaal who’s mentioned only once in passing.
Well, what we have here is some not-so-subtle commentary by the authors of both Samuel and Chronicles. Ishvi, Ish-bosheth, and Eshbaal are all the same person.
If you’ll remember, when we looked at the story of Nabal and Abigail, we saw that the name “Nabal,” which means “foolish,” wasn’t the man’s real name. It was a name the writer gave him after the fact.
It was common in ancient writings for historians to change the names of wicked people to describe their character. They take what played out in history and then put a name back on a person to describe them.
This is what Moses does in the book of Genesis when he calls the devil “the serpent.”
This is what the writer of 2 Samuel is doing here.
Ishvi was the given name of Saul’s son. It means “Man of YHWH.” The writer of Chronicles goes all out and changes his name to Eshbaal, which means “Man of Baal,” the Canaanite god. The commentary there is easy to see.
Here in Samuel, the writer changes his name to Ish-bosheth, which means “Man of shame.” He is commenting on the person of Ishvi, whose personality will be made evident as the story progresses.
But realize: he was not supposed to be king, David was.
Yes, by worldly standards, the king’s eldest living son takes the throne. But God doesn’t work by worldly standards. And as we saw, it was known that David was anointed by God. Saul knew it. The people of Judah knew it.
So did Ish-bosheth.
And so did Abner. Why does that matter?
But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel.
Ishvi or Ish-bosheth didn’t make himself king. Abner did.
Now, why would he do that? Well, it could be that Abner figured he would lose his status and rank under David. Or maybe he wanted to stay loyal to the family of his king, Saul.
Or, maybe Abner has a bone to pick with David.
If you remember the second time David spares Saul’s life, he sneaks into Saul’s camp, finds Saul sleeping, and steals his spear and a jar of water. Then David goes up on a hill and wants to let Saul know he just spared him again when he could have killed him. So David calls out from the top of the hill.
But David doesn’t call out to Saul. We read this:
And David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Will you not answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered, “Who are you who calls to the king?” And David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is and the jar of water that was at his head.”
Yikes. That’s not a good look for Abner. Especially in an honor-shame society like Israel was. This may be part of the reason the author changes this false king’s name to “Man of Shame.”
But we see why Abner would not want David to be king. It wouldn’t be good for him. And as we’ll see in a few weeks, Abner is all about Abner.
So he, knowing God’s will in the matter, goes his own way and makes Ish-bosheth king. And as the king goes, so his people go.
So now we have this divide in Israel:
But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.
Now we have a chronological problem in this passage. We are told that Ish-bosheth reigns for two-years. But when Ish-bosheth dies - spoiler alert - we read that David immediately becomes king of all of Israel.
But in the next verse here, we read this:
And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
So did David reign over Judah for two years, or for seven-and-a-half years?
Well, we’ll see when we get to 2 Samuel 5 what's going on here.
For now, I want us to note that, yet again, David has to wait. God’s promise that he would be king of Israel has been partially fulfilled, but it isn’t fully fulfilled. And David is going to have to endure more fighting with the house of Saul - he is again going to be affected by the sin of others.
After all that waiting, and all that obedience, and all that faithfulness, David is told once again to wait.
How are we with waiting?
We live in a world that says waiting is wasting. We are part of a “do more” society. And we have means of doing - of producing - more than anyone in history. And you get used to the constant doing. Go 24 hours without a cell phone and see how unproductive you feel.
Our world says: the more you do, the more successful you are. That’s the world’s standard.
But what is God’s standard?
Well, let’s realize that we are in a very similar position to David. He received a promise, and then had to wait. He now receives the start of the promise, and has to wait.
He won’t receive the consummation of the promise just yet.
In the same way, God’s people were given a promise. We were told that there would be a King, a Shepherd of God’s people - a Savior. But we had to wait. Thousands of years after the promise was first made.
Then, the promise was fulfilled. The Messiah came and brought salvation for God’s people. And the Apostles and all who believed were ready for their king to take the throne and reign.
But...
God’s plan wasn’t quite fulfilled yet. The King came and died on a cross. And after being raised, He did take His throne. Just not visibly yet.
We still have to wait for that.
You see, God’s promise has begun to be fulfilled, and the fullness of His promise is sure to be fulfilled.
But for now, we have to wait.
And like David, how we wait is how God is going to fulfill all things. He will use those who wait on Him and obey His will to expand the kingdom until our King returns.
So we need to wait.
But waiting is a grace of God.
Why?
Because waiting strengthens our faith. David said:
Psalm 62:5–8 (ESV)
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
The funny thing about faith, as we saw a couple of months ago when I preached from Hebrews 11 - is that the very exercise of faith is evidence of our faith. On top of that, the exercise of faith strengthens our faith.
David wrote this Psalm when he was being hunted down by his own son and those who should have been following him. He was in danger and he had even lost the throne for a time. His circumstances in the world were about as bad as they could get.
It may have even seemed like God wasn’t keeping His promise.
And yet, David waited on God.
He focused on Him and the hope that God alone gives him.
He waited on God knowing God was in control of the circumstances of this life, and that in His providence, God preserves those who are His.
He waited on God knowing from where salvation comes.
And David was able to wait on God and believe all of this, because he had waited before and saw how God worked through that. David trusted God because He had seen God keep His promises.
And because he waited, David’s faith grew strong.
And so will ours. If we learn to wait on God, He will strengthen our faith. And when our faith grows, our ability to wait on God grows, and our faith grows even more.
Exercising the faith to wait, grows our faith.
But there’s another part to this. Like with David, when we wait, we are waiting for God to lead us - to direct us. And when He does, we need to obey.
God said this through Isaiah:
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Look at what is said here. God is just waiting for us to wait on Him so He can be gracious to us. He is waiting for the opportunity to bless us.
And He does that when He speaks, and we listen. When He tells us the way in which we should walk, and we walk in it.
God has told us how we should walk.
We so often want to seek God’s will in this or that specific situation - what exactly does God want regarding this specific circumstance.
Well, God has given us plenty of direction for all circumstances in His Word. Are we hearing Him and obeying?
Because, as we’ve seen, while David waited for God to bring about His promise in David’s specific situation, David listened to what God said to His people in general centuries before. And David obeyed God’s revealed will from His Word.
And then God directed David in his specific situation.
If you’re facing something, and you need God to direct you, I encourage you, listen to what He has already said. Let Him direct your paths by obeying His Word, and you will see what God’s will is for you in every situation.
God will direct you and bless you through obedience to His Word.
But even more, because David obeyed God’s Word while He waited, and then obeyed when God fulfilled His promise, God was able to accomplish His will through David’s obedience.
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord! Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
As we wait on God to fulfill His promise, if we wait on Him and obey - even as we wait - God will fulfill that promise through us.
Through our obedience to what He has revealed, God will direct our paths - as a church, as individuals - and through our obedience when He leads, He will work salvation.
This is why we’re here.
As I said, His promises are sure. Both His promises of salvation, and His promises of judgment. We’re here to make sure that these promises are known to all.
But it starts by waiting on God, and obeying as we wait.
And we can obey, because we can wait assured of God’s promises.
His promise to David took years. His promise to Simeon took a few hundred years. His promise that Christ is coming again to complete our salvation has taken almost 2000 years and counting.
Those first two promises came to pass, and that last one is just as sure.
The only question is: how are we waiting?
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Brothers and sisters, God has given us direction. He has told us how to walk. He has told us how to wait.
Let’s wait, knowing His every last promise is sure. Even when the circumstances of this life may seem to say otherwise, let’s strengthen our faith by waiting on God.
Let’s be part of what God is doing now by waiting in faith.
Because there is only One Who is worth the wait.
