Why is it so hard for us to wait?  We all know that patience is a virtue, and yet it seems to be so far away from the regular experience of most of us.  The Bible regularly calls believers in God to wait on Him, and yet obeying this commandment seems impossible in time when we are used to immediate results.  The reason this command to wait is so difficult is that it demands we let go of control.  This might mean letting go of expectations; it might mean letting go of desires; or it might mean letting go of our conviction that we know what is best.  But the Bible is not commanding us to simply become indifferent to what goes on around us; rather, the Bible requires that we yield this control to a loving, sovereign God.

Psalm 16 provides a significant encouragement as to why this surrender of control is liberating when it says, “I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you”…You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore (v1, 11).”  David was a man convinced that following God was the only place where ultimate joy and peace would be found—and this conviction enabled David to wait on God’s timing.

We see David living out the convictions expressed in Psalm 16 throughout the book of 1 Samuel.  God had made promises to David (namely, that he would be king) and yet the fulfillment of these promises took time.  On multiple occasions David could have tried to “hurry” along the realization of these promises by taking matters into his own hands and killing Saul, the man who held the position God had promised to him.  In 1 Samuel chapters 24 and 26, Saul is given into David’s hand and David chooses to spare his life—but why?  David expresses the conviction and confidence that God will fulfill the promises to David through His own power and in His own timing, and it would be unbecoming of David to take any action that would seek to rush things along.  David was empowered to wait on God’s timing because he was rooted in the conviction of God’s power and had confidence in God’s good intentions towards him.  May we share in David’s confidence in God as we wait on Him to fulfill His promises.

Rev. Andy Schuster, Guest Speaker

Listen to the sermon here.