August 15

I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. - Psalms 130:5.

THIS supposes some delay in God’s appearance on behalf of his people. These delays have always been common. God “is not, indeed, slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness.” He is never beyond his own fixed time, but is often after the time which we have fixed for him; and, according to our apprehensions and feelings, he seems frequently to be inclined to be “favourable no more,” and to have forgotten to be gracious. But can this be the fact? “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget, yet will not I forget thee.” But “hope deferred maketh the heart sick,” and especially when we deeply feel our want of a thing, when we are exceedingly attached to it.

O, to look for God and see nothing of him! to inquire of all who pass by, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” and to look upwards and say, “When wilt thou comfort me? when wilt thou come unto me?” Oh, how trying is this, when we have waited for important intelligence by letter, or with anxiousness and eagerness the arrival of a friend or relative from a distance! How has time flapped over us with leaden wing! If we were knocking at a door and we saw a lion at a distance coming towards us, should we not feel every moment an hour ere the door was opened to allow us to enter in and find safety? And have we not been in a situation similar to this when we were constrained to say, “Make haste to help me, make no tarrying, O my God?” Here is the need of patience, lest we should not persevere in the course of duty, waiting on the Lord, and still keeping his way.

The danger is, that we should abandon the door which we think is not open to us; or, in other words, that we should turn away from the throne of grace, saying, with the unbelieving prophet, “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” “We may be assured that the enemy of souls will be busily at work, in order to act on our impatience, which is so natural to us; but “he that believeth shall not make haste;” he will “both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” Faith will preserve him from making use of improper means in order to obtain premature deliverance. Trouble in Scripture is called a prison. When God places us in it, we are not to endeavour to escape by breaking open the door or the windows. We may indeed, through the bars, look to see if he is passing along; and we may then, when we see him, cry, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name.” “The righteous shall compass me about, but thou shalt deal bountifully with me.”

Here is the advantage of faith. It will tranquillize the mind at such a time. It will produce waiting by such considerations as these:-I will wait upon the Lord, for he is such a Saviour, and I have no claims upon him. I will wait for the Lord; how long did he wait for me-days, and weeks, and months, and years. I will wait for the Lord, for his time is the best time. He is a God of judgment; and “blessed are all they that wait for him.”

I will wait for him, for I know that in due time he will appear for my good, and I shall not be ashamed; for he has said, “None shall be ashamed that wait for me.”