Psalm 40 [NLTse]
For the choir director: A psalm of David.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. 3 He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what He has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.
4 Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord, who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols. 5 O Lord my God, You have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.
6 You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that You have made me listen, I finally understand—You don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings. 7 Then I said, “Look, I have come. As is written about me in the Scriptures: 8 I take joy in doing Your will, my God, for Your instructions are written on my heart.”
9 I have told all Your people about Your justice. I have not been afraid to speak out, as You, O Lord, well know. 10 I have not kept the good news of Your justice hidden in my heart; I have talked about Your faithfulness and saving power. I have told everyone in the great assembly of Your unfailing love and faithfulness.
11 Lord, don’t hold back Your tender mercies from me. Let Your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me. 12 For troubles surround me—too many to count! My sins pile up so high I can’t see my way out. They outnumber the hairs on my head. I have lost all courage.
13 Please, Lord, rescue me! Come quickly, Lord, and help me. 14 May those who try to destroy me be humiliated and put to shame. May those who take delight in my trouble be turned back in disgrace. 15 Let them be horrified by their shame, for they said, “Aha! We’ve got him now!”
16 But may all who search for You be filled with joy and gladness in You. May those who love Your salvation repeatedly shout, “The Lord is great!” 17 As for me, since I am poor and needy, let the Lord keep me in His thoughts. You are my helper and my savior. O my God, do not delay.
Why? What? How? Now!
Sermon – “Waiting… Waiting On The Lord”
Last week we looked across the Scriptures at the promise and wonders of Jesus’ return. That message began by acknowledging how frequently the promise of His return gets talked about across the Old and New Testaments – by Job, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Paul, Peter, James, John, as well as the Lord Jesus Himself, and often including great detail about His coming.
And, of course, He charges us to wait for Him. He calls us to expect His return. For Christians to live this life with anticipation!
And yet, after 2,000 years of waiting, here in our “microwave”, want-it-right-away society, I think the temptation can be for our anticipation to more often look like this…
But ditching ketchup for mayonnaise, or choosing to eat a dry burger instead of waiting and waiting and waiting is altogether different than not being ready when Jesus returns.
The Lord told a story one time about being ready and not being ready. He said, “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
“At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’
“All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’
“But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’
“But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’
“But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’
And Jesus ended saying, “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of My return.” (Matthew 25:1-13)
So being “ready” is not an option, nor is readiness something we can hope our church or our fellow Christians can do for us. We need to be ready, our lamps full when Jesus returns.
And yet even more, the Christian life is filled with waiting of all sorts, as we seek God’s guidance, cry out to Him for help, pray and wait for His answer… Waiting expectantly is a part of our following Christ and living by faith here in the world. But what does that look like, waiting expectantly? How do we nurture anticipation in ourselves? How do we live “ready” for something that may happen at any moment, and yet may not happen in our lifetimes?
In our Scripture reading from Psalm 40 this morning, King David was waiting, expectantly waiting. Verse 1 is most literally translated, “I waited and waited for the LORD to help me…” So David’s making it clear that he’d been banging on the bottle with his shoe for some time. But in verse 2 he goes on to make sure we know that it was worth it.
In Matthew 7:7-8 the Lord Jesus makes clear, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
So if we want to nurture anticipation for Christ’s return in ourselves, we need to keep asking Jesus to return in our prayers. And as we wait for other promises to be fulfilled, we need to keep on asking for them to be fulfilled. And as we pray and wait for God’s response, we need to keep on praying and keep our eyes and spirits open for His response.
One of the benefits – King David sings – to waiting expectantly (if you’ll look down at verse 3 with me) is that when the Lord does fulfill His promises and respond to our prayers that – because we’ve been so open about and sharing with those around us what we’ve been asking Him for and seeking from Him that – “Many will see what He has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.”
So “How Do We Nurture Anticipation?
How Do We Live ‘Ready’?” We keep asking Jesus to return; we keep on asking, seeking, knocking; we keep on praying…
(As we keep on praying, let’s not rebel too quickly against the waiting. Into verse 6 it says, “Now that You have made me listen, I finally understand…” and it goes on telling what God had revealed to David during his time waiting.
When we are actively, expectantly waiting on the Lord He’s got our full attention. He’s “making us listen”, and as we wait we can hear Him reveal things to us that we might at other times miss.)
As we wait, as we keep praying, verses 9-10 show us David boasting to those around him about God’s character and His faithfulness. As we wait on the Lord – to return, to answer our prayers – it helps our waiting to rehearse what He’s done for us in our past (and what He’s done for others, if that’s helpful.) I know some folks who keep a journal or a diary of God’s answers to prayer, His acts of saving power in their lives or that they’ve witnessed around them. Praising God and remembering and sharing with others all He’s done to deliver us before, to help us before, to answer us before, it all circles around to feed #1 and help keep us praying.
And we need this praising and we need this remembering what He’s done before because, as verses 11-12 show, as we wait it can sometimes become harder and harder to see beyond our problems: Our troubles can seem too many; our sins can seem too high; we can lose all courage as we wait.
So we fight that and nurture anticipation and live “ready” by Keeping asking Jesus to return, that is, by keeping on praying, and by regularly praising God and reminding ourselves and telling others about all He’s done for us in the past.
The Psalm closes with a prayer that others might find the Lord, too, knowing His joy and gladness, loving His salvation and praising Him, too! Likewise it can be such a great blessing for us, in the midst of our waiting and feeling the pressures of our troubles and temptations, being enticed by it all to be consumed by our thoughts about me, me, me, me, me to set our thoughts and some of our praying on others: That others around us would know the Lord; that they would know His love and His grace and His saving power; and that they would be encouraged as God responds to our prayers (and that we might be encouraged as He, perhaps, responds to theirs).
1) Keep on praying
2) Praise Him and tell again and again His saving acts
3) Pray for others to be saved and delivered and that God would answer their prayers.
Thanksgiving and Christmas are celebrations with much waiting and getting ready. May these seasons waitings and preparations remind us and keep us expectantly waiting as Jesus’ return draws near.