Many of the Psalms are prayers for God to act. It’s hard to see the evil in the world and keep silent. We often cry out for justice for the downtrodden, healing for the sick and hurting, freedom for the enslaved, mercy for the repentant, comfort for the lonely, strength for the weak, hope for the hopeless, and deliverance for the endangered. Psalm 83 begins with this prayer: O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!” In this Psalm and many others you can feel the passion of the writer! He’s tired of waiting! He’s seen all he can endure! He doesn’t understand how a good God can allow such things to go on and on in His universe.

Isaiah instructs us to “wait” upon the Lord. The Psalmist like most of us, hates waiting. We want what we want and we want it now. This is especially true of our generation. But isn’t this what faith is all about? It’s trusting into the hands of a greater power the dilemmas we face in life with confidence that He will work things out for the best in the end. Our problem, like the psalmist, is how to live in the meantime.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “run with endurance” the race set before us. George Matheson wrote, “We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder—the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily tasks. It is a Christlike thing! The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the street.” To wait is hard, to do it with “good courage” is harder!

Chuck
“Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the glory of your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name.” (Psalm 79:9)