Waiting On God
Psalm 25
Lord, I appeal to you.
2 My God, I trust in you.
Do not let me be disgraced;
do not let my enemies gloat over me.
3 No one who waits for you
will be disgraced;
those who act treacherously without cause
will be disgraced.
4 Make your ways known to me, Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
I wait for you all day long.
6 Remember, Lord, your compassion
and your faithful love,
for they have existed from antiquity.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth
or my acts of rebellion;
in keeping with your faithful love, remember me
because of your goodness, Lord.
8 The Lord is good and upright;
therefore he shows sinners the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
10 All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth
to those who keep his covenant and decrees.
11 Lord, for the sake of your name,
forgive my iniquity, for it is immense.
12 Who is this person who fears the Lord?
He will show him the way he should choose.
13 He will live a good life,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The secret counsel of the Lord
is for those who fear him,
and he reveals his covenant to them.
15 My eyes are always on the Lord,
for he will pull my feet out of the net.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am alone and afflicted.
17 The distresses of my heart increase;
bring me out of my sufferings.
18 Consider my affliction and trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider my enemies; they are numerous,
and they hate me violently.
20 Guard me and rescue me;
do not let me be disgraced,
for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and what is right
watch over me,
for I wait for you.
22 God, redeem Israel, from all its distresses.
Good morning! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads. Thank you for being here this morning. Robbie may be leading the songs, but the truth is Dad, you are the worship leader of your family. It’s statistically proven that the family follows the spiritual pattern of the father. Unfortunately, the role of the father is mocked or downplayed in a lot of ways today, but the Bible shows us that the God-ordained role of the father is significant. So, join me as we pray for fathers this morning.
For the past two weeks, we’ve been in the Psalms, as we take a break from Revelation. Continuing in sequential order from Psalms 23 & 24, we pick up with Psalm 25 today. In Psalm 25, David is in a season of waiting. We don’t know when in his life this was written, but we know that David is in a time of need and he’s waiting…. he’s waiting for God to step in and help him. And, although this is not necessarily a Father’s Day message, it is very fitting for fathers
I think it’s fitting because, men, we don’t usually like waiting. When it’s time to go, we grab our keys and hit the door, while the ladies have to touch up their makeup, look for their purse, change their shoes, and then when they finally make it to the door, they turn back around to go to the bathroom one last time. Meanwhile, we’re in the car with the engine running.
If there’s something to be done or a problem to be solved, we want to take action…until the topic of having kids comes up…then suddenly men are the patient ones. “I think we should wait a little longer.”
Really no one likes waiting. Our entire society is built on not waiting. Everything is designed to be as quick and efficient as possible, which has made impatient people even worse at waiting. The message we have accepted is that waiting is wasting time. There’s actually a name for this condition that plagues the modern world and it’s called “hurry sickness.” Dr. Meyer Friedman defined it as, “A continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time.” The amazing thing is he said that in the 1950s! John Mark Comer uses this to set the stage for his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and starting in July, we’re actually preaching 5 weeks on this idea of slowing down our lives. It’s going to be good! Don’t miss it.
But the point is we don’t like slow. We don’t like waiting. And this is not just a physical or emotional problem, it’s a spiritual one as well. I don’t know if anyone in here can relate to David’s predicament. I imagine at least a few of us have been in a similar season of waiting; you may be there now…. waiting on God. When we pray for something, or face a crisis, or ask for guidance, we want an immediate response. I know I do. Maybe not the same day, but relatively quickly. For some reason, two or three weeks seems like a reasonable timeframe to me. It’s long enough to make me wait and pray, but not long enough to leave me hanging. When things stretch out longer than that, it starts to feel like God forgot about the problem or maybe there was a problem with the paperwork, it got sent to the wrong inbox…. maybe God needs to check his spam folder….
But in Psalm 25, David is going to teach us something about this season of waiting that we will inevitably find ourselves in, because as Pastor Ryan said last week, life be life’n. It’s a prayer that can help us with our impatience because it will show us that, here’s the Big Idea, when we are waiting, God is working. As we go, I want to summarize each section of this prayer and then I want to give you 6 takeaways to remember when you find yourself in a season of waiting.
Let’s start with the first 3 verses:
Lord, I appeal to you.
2 My God, I trust in you.
Do not let me be disgraced;
do not let my enemies gloat over me.
3 No one who waits for you
will be disgraced;
those who act treacherously without cause
will be disgraced.
If we summarize these verses, it would be something like: Lord, I give myself up to you.
David is surrendering himself to God. This is an important confession of humility and dependence. David, the great and mighty King is being clear about his need and position before God. When he says, “I appeal to you,” he means You know what is right and good and I don’t. You are in charge, and I am not. Pastor David Guzik says, “It was as if David held his soul in outstretched hands up to heaven saying, “Here I am LORD, completely surrendered unto you.”
David appeals to God and then he goes on to make a request, to ask God to protect him from his enemies. This was not just about physical protection or even embarrassment, but about disappointment. Three times he mentions being disgraced. Shame and honor were a big part of the ancient world and still are important in many societies around the world, especially in the East. In these social systems, it is very important to keep your word. If you break your word, if you prove untrustworthy, it’s a disgrace not only to yourself but also to the person who was trusting you. This is what David has in mind…God, don’t disappoint me! But notice, he answers his own request.
He quickly expresses his confidence in God saying the one who waits, will not be disgraced. In other words, David knows that the person who trusts in God will not be disappointed. That’s a confidence that comes from personal experience and from Biblical history. Noah waited around 100 years for the floods to come. Abraham waited 25 years for God to give him a son. The Israelites waited 40 years in the desert. But every time, God came through. So, here’s our first takeaway for seasons of waiting: In the waiting, God is trustworthy.
God will not disappoint. He will not break His word or allow us to be put to shame for trusting in Him. We don’t know how long the waiting will be. We may not know what the end result will be, but we know one thing…God is trustworthy, and He has proven that.
Romans 5:5 says, “5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit….”
What if every morning that was our prayer of confession, “Lord, I appeal to you. I know you will not disappoint me, and even if I’m waiting, you are working.
Now, already you may be disagreeing with this because it feels like God has disappointed you. It feels like He has let you down, which I understand because I’ve been there. But I would say that the disappointment is based on our expectations of timing and results. We get disappointed when things don’t go our way, which is why the next part of this prayer is needed.
Look at verse 4:
4 Make your ways known to me, Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
I wait for you all day long.
What’s David saying? I’m asking for your help. This is a confession of his need…his dependence on God, and it shows that David didn’t just want the benefits of God without taking any responsibility himself. He had a genuine desire to follow God and to do right. If we’re honest, sometimes we want the benefits of God, but we don’t always want to do things His way. Karate Kid was one of my favorite movies growing up. Most of you know the story, but Daniel LaRusso asks his neighbor to teach him karate because he’s getting bullied at school. When Daniel starts training with Mr. Miyagi, he wants to get straight to the fighting…the karate chops and roundhouse kicks…but he needs to start basic. He needed to learn to wax on and wax off….and to sand the floor… He resisted it at first, but eventually, he trusted the path that his teacher was taking. So, our second key takeaway is: In the waiting, God is our guide.
Here, David is coming to his sensei, saying teach me your ways…guide me in your truth. Much like the Karate Kid, there’s even a desperation in his voice. God, you are my salvation! I need you! This is the very basis of the Gospel…. that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, therefore we need a savior to rescue us from our hopeless predicament. And the only one who can save us is Jesus. He paid the price for our sins. He gave his life to satisfy the wrath of God.
But this is not just a one-time declaration. Like David, this has to be a daily confession. Part of our code here at City Awakening is that the Gospel is more than a way to life, the Gospel is our life. That means we’re not just coming to Jesus for fire insurance, we’re desperate for his grace and guidance every day. That means we want to stand on his truth and seek first the Kingdom of God…even when it feels like we’re getting nowhere. A lot of times it feels like God is silent. We pray for direction and guidance, but we don’t get a clear answer. It gets frustrating and we get impatient,…. but here David says he’ll wait all day long! He doesn’t ask God to hurry up. Not once does he ask for the waiting to end! He says he’ll wait. He’s not going to give up. He’s going to keep seeking, keep trusting, and keep asking because he knows that in the waiting, God is still working. How is he so confident in this? Look at verse 6.
6 Remember, Lord, your compassion
and your faithful love,
for they have existed from antiquity.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth
or my acts of rebellion;
in keeping with your faithful love, remember me
because of your goodness, Lord.
The Lord is good and upright;
therefore he shows sinners the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
10 All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth
to those who keep his covenant and decrees.
In summary, David is saying: I know who you are.
This is such an important part of this prayer because when we don’t know what God is doing, we have to remember who He is. We have to cling to His character and His purpose. These are known as the immutable attributes of God, the things that never change, the things that make God, God. David runs through a list of them, and even though he tells God to remember, really he is reminding himself. I don’t think God is going to forget who He is. He doesn’t have the same identity issues that we do. No, it’s us who have the problem of forgetting who God is. We are the ones who get confused and distracted. So, David is taking the time to preach to himself. As he runs the list, he is confident that he’s not going to give up on God because God’s not going to give up on him.
The one attribute I want to especially highlight is God’s faithful love. David mentions it three times. It’s God’s faithful love that has been on display since the beginning of time. The faithful love that initiated a plan for redemption for God’s chosen people. The faithful love that extends grace and forgives sins. David captures this idea in more depth in Psalm 103,
“8The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in faithful love….
10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve
or repaid us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his faithful love
toward those who fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.”
The fourth takeaway is: In the waiting, God demonstrates His character, especially his faithful love.
When we are in a season of waiting and we begin to question what God is doing and wonder when He’s going to show up….we have to hold on to the fact that He loves us. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked myself back to this truth to find comfort and the strength to persevere. If I weren’t confident in God’s love for me, then I probably would have walked away from Him by now. But because of His love, I don’t have to understand everything else. I can trust His care and intent for my life. Charles Spurgeon said it this way,
“They say there is no rule without an exception, but there is an exception to that rule. All God’s dealings with his people are gracious and faithful.”
God’s faithful love never changes, and we need to remember that even in the waiting, He is actively loving you. It’s not a passive love. Psalm 23 taught us it’s a love that pursues us. He is constantly running after us, and His love causes Him to extend grace to us… and His grace paves the way for His forgiveness, which we see in verse 11.
11 Lord, for the sake of your name,
forgive my iniquity, for it is immense.
The summary: I need your forgiveness.
As David recalled all the wonderful and righteous qualities of God, it served to highlight his own sin and unrighteousness. This should be the case for all of us. The more we see and understand who God is, the clearer it becomes who we are and how much we need his grace and forgiveness. Unfortunately, a season of waiting, like all suffering, can have the opposite effect if we’re not careful. As most of you know, when we get pressed, some of our ugly stuff gets squeezed out. We can become self-righteous, and instead of seeing our own sin, we start to blame others or even God. Our sense of entitlement tends to come to the surface, which leads to anger and then bitterness. There are many stories in Scripture where this plays out and people waiting on God got caught up in some pretty sinful stuff. But I also know this, like some of you, from personal experience.
I’ve been through many seasons of waiting…. wondering what in the world God is up to…why He isn’t showing up…. It’s hard and I haven’t always handled it well. Even these past few weeks I’ve wrestled with this. There are some areas in my life where I just want resolution. I want God to hurry up and do something. I feel like I’m trying to do the right thing. I’m trying to be obedient, and generous, and faithful….but God isn’t reciprocating, and I get frustrated... But do you hear the self-righteousness and entitlement in my attitude? God doesn’t owe me anything, and I don’t know more than him. It’s ok to express these feelings of frustration to God, but we have to come to a place of brokenness, like David, where we realize that our sin is immense and we need God’s forgiveness. So, the fifth takeaway is: In the waiting, God continues to be forgiving.
Thank God that He is forgiving. Thank God that when we get mad at Him, He doesn’t reciprocate that! Thank Jesus that he took on that wrath so that we get the mercy. And as David says, it’s for His name’s sake….for His glory! In Psalm 23 we also saw that God always has one primary goal, our good for His glory. In our brokenness, He is glorified. In our repentance, He is glorified. In our forgiveness, He is glorified. In our thanksgiving, He is glorified. Therefore, in our waiting, He is glorified. See we may be waiting, but God is always working. His plan is so much better than ours.
Look at verses 12-15:
12 Who is this person who fears the Lord?
He will show him the way he should choose.
13 He will live a good life,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The secret counsel of the Lord
is for those who fear him,
and he reveals his covenant to them.
15 My eyes are always on the Lord,
for he will pull my feet out of the net.
Summary: This is what I will receive from you.
If we look at this as a logical argument, then all the truths and characteristics David pointed out in the previous verses lead to this conclusion – God will come through. He will keep His word. He will act consistent with His nature and so the key takeaway from these verses is: In the waiting, God is still a promise keeper.
There are many places we can look in Scripture to see God’s promises and how He has fulfilled them, and some promises are yet to be fulfilled but will be at the second coming of Christ. But 2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us that, “every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in [Jesus].” Just like we look to God’s character and purpose to find comfort, we look to Jesus and the Gospel to find hope. We have hope that no matter how long we wait on this earth, we know that we will inherit the Promised Land through our faith in Jesus. No matter how much we have to suffer and endure in this life, we will live a good life in Heaven.
Parents, fathers, how many times have we made empty promises to our kids, promises we can’t fulfill, maybe promises we never intended to fulfill? Let this be a reminder that we need to reflect the integrity and reliability of God to our children, to be promise keepers, but when we fail, it’s an opportunity to remind them and ourselves that while we are imperfect fathers, there is a perfect Heavenly Father who will never let us down. He keeps His word. He will not disappoint. He is the ultimate promise keeper, and even in the waiting, He is working.
Let’s look at the last few verses.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am alone and afflicted.
17 The distresses of my heart increase;
bring me out of my sufferings.
18 Consider my affliction and trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider my enemies; they are numerous,
and they hate me violently.
20 Guard me and rescue me;
do not let me be disgraced,
for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and what is right
watch over me,
for I wait for you.
David’s final words are: I find my rest in you.
In the midst of the affliction and looming threat from his enemies, he finds his refuge in God. You know, wild animals always amaze me. I came home the other night, and it was pouring down rain, there was thunder and lightning…and in my neighbor’s yard were two deer just lying there out in the open. So, I walked over to them with my umbrella and invited them inside. I said come have some tea and get warm….and that’s exactly what God does for us….he invites us in…(just kidding!). Wild animals are at home in the wild, meanwhile, I ran for the front door like I was going to melt. But, we long for the comfort and peace of the shelter. In Psalm 17 David prayed, “Hide me in the shadow of your wings.” Thankfully God doesn’t make us stand out in the storm exposed. He offers us shelter. He is our refuge. Our last key takeaway is:In the waiting, God offers us peace.
We have peace because of all these other truths that we’ve seen. God is trustworthy, He is guiding us, He is loving and forgiving, and give us hope for eternity…. This is a God who invites us to rest in His presence and to trust in His care. Philippians 4 tells us that when we set our mind on these truths, we receive a peace that surpasses understanding.
I know that we have a lot of people in our church right now who need refuge. We’re waiting for the storm to pass, waiting to see the clouds break…. I have to regularly sit back, and pray, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to me…. “God, You are enough, You love me, You know what I need, You are in control. Help my unbelief and help me to find my rest in you.” And in the waiting, God offers me peace.
I don’t know what you’re going through today. Maybe you’re in a season of waiting, maybe not. The reality is we all are to some extent, because we’re walking through this wilderness as we wait for Jesus to return. And while much of the “unfolding” and timing is out of our hands, our role is to offer up our lives to God just like David, trusting that integrity and what is right will watch over us as we wait for Him. It’s not an idle waiting, sitting around with no responsibility. Our waiting is a measured one. It’s like being stuck in traffic on the interstate. You can’t see what’s happening up ahead and everything comes to a stop. You can get off on the side and speed up to the next exit or cut in front of a bunch of cars, or you can stay in your lane, and trust that whoever’s in charge of solving the problem is doing their job to get you where you’re going.
Psalm 25 shows us that God is always ahead of us. When we are waiting, He is working. You may feel like giving up or like trying to take matters into your own hands, but David said I will wait for you. I pray that will be our commitment as well.
