Joel M Bradshaw

20Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
21For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
22Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.–Psalm 33

We don’t know who wrote Psalm 33. We don’t know exactly what they were going through. But these verses teach us about the hardest part of waiting. Waiting on the inside. I am a father. My son gets hungry around dinnertime and gets poking around my pots and skillets as I’m finishing up the preparation. I tell him to wait and go set the table. My dogs are impatient after our morning walk. I bend down and start to pour water in their dishes and they get their heads in the way so the water splashes on the floor. I tell them to wait and let me pour.

We all have had to wait in line somewhere. Waiting when you don’t want to wait is never fun. But we all know that waiting is not just an outside matter, but inside. How you wait matters. I explored waiting during the quarantine of 2020 on my podcast. You can access the podcast which is updated weekly on the homepage of my blog. Here is the first session of that series that looked at waiting. My perspective was the time in David’s life when he was a fugitive on the run and he chose to wait upon God rather than taking the throne. If you like it, you can find the three other episodes in that series on the podcast list. Subscribe and you’ll always get current updates.

Our text today reminds us that the inside you that God created uniquely to connect with him (soul) is to wait. The very core of your being influences your seat of decisions (heart) to be satisfied or glad and to trust. And as you wait, you pray for God’s faithful hand to be at work to provide and you put your hope in him.

When someone tells you to wait, they may be focused on your outside, but they are trying to influence your inside. That you would trust them and be patient. When it comes to God, how you wait is just as important as that you wait. Hope you enjoy the podcast from that unique part of David’s life. That was a series specifically chosen because our society was on the cusp of opening back up again, but had to all wait one more month, which turned into more. Quarantine illustrated how we waited.–JMB