Psalm 130
De profundis
1 Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice; *
let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.
2 If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, *
O Lord, who could stand?
3 For there is forgiveness with you; *
therefore you shall be feared.
4 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; *
in his word is my hope.
5 My soul waits for the Lord,
more than watchmen for the morning, *
more than watchmen for the morning.
6 O Israel, wait for the Lord, *
for with the Lord there is mercy;
7 With him there is plenteous redemption, *
and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.
What is another way of saying “wait for the Lord”? How about “trust the Lord”. They are almost the same thing. When I don’t see the Lord acting quick enough or in the way that I am hoping for things to go, I am tempted then to take matters into my own hands and start doing what I think should be done.
The last few days, and I know this sounds crazy, I have been praying more and what has developed is a stronger awareness of God’s presence. This stronger awareness of His presence has led to my mind pausing before moving on to the next thing that I am doing in my day and praying.
While this hardly sounds revelatory, it has opened my mind to a healthier place. Again I know this sounds crazy, especially from me because I have openly said that I don’t think that God really gets involved in the small details of our lives like what we eat for lunch or what color socks we should wear. But I may have to re-think that.
Overall I am sensing the Spirit calling me to be more intentional about everything. So praying about what I eat, what I watch on TV, what I put on my To-Do List, etc. is to practice intentionality. I don’t know that God really does care about what I eat for lunch but I do believe that God doesn’t want me to go through my days mindlessly jumping from one thing to the next.
So If I believe that the Holy Spirit wants me to eat a ham sandwich rather than a turkey sandwich, there is no real harm in believing that. Its weird, I’ll give you that and I’m not comfortable giving voice to it. But what I am comfortable with is the practice of intentionality through prayer. Pausing and giving awareness to the Holy Spirit’s presence and inviting the Lord to weigh in on my next actions.
That may sound strange as well but somehow it is not as strange as saying that I am a Christian and I seek the will of God in my life. But then when you examine my life, you will find little evidence that I ever seek God’s will for anything in my life.
This psalm gives voice to the anxiety we deeply feel when we need an answer from God and there seems to be none. All that I have said so far is fine if there really is an answer from the Spirit. But when we know the right thing to do and the right thing to do involves waiting, that is when all this gets put to the test. “Lord lead us not into temptation”. Waiting is always a test! Even when it isn’t.
