Psalm 27:14 - Wait On The Lord and He Will Strengthen You. [addendum]
Psalm 27:14 - Wait On The Lord and He Will Strengthen You.
[addendum]
Psalm 27:14 (NKJV) Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He
shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Waiting can feel like torture when you're afraid. David wrote
Psalm 27 at a time when he was terribly afraid, but he didn't panic.
Instead, he called upon the Lord and pleaded his case before him. Then he
waited patiently for the Lord to rescue him. Any scared person knows
that fear can cause people to make hasty, unwise decisions, and cause
them to act before they're ready. Fear can make people impatient and
reckless. As you read this psalm, learn from David's example about taking
your fears to God.
The three other psalms in this reading also have something to
say about times of fear: when you're afraid of losing your honor
(Psalm 25); your reputation (Psalm 26); or even your life (Psalm 28).
David's men wanted him to kill Saul. David knew that it was
not his job--the fulfillment of God's promise would come about in
God's own timing. So David placed his trust in God and waited for the
Lord, despite his fear (Psalm 27:14). As it turns out, David had to
wait fourteen years before being crowned king.
Waiting for God takes effort. It may seem as though God has
refused to answer our prayers or doesn't feel the urgency of our
situation. But God knows much more than we do. Lamentations 3:24-26 urges
us to hope in and wait for the Lord because often God uses waiting
to refresh, renew, and teach us.
David trusted God to do what was right. Trust in God's timing
and make use of your times of waiting by discovering what God may be
trying to teach you. [The One Year Through the Bible Devotional by Dave
Veerman re Psa. 27:1-6]
Waiting is one of the hardest things to do. We want to be
people of action. We feel better if we are doing something to address
our need, but waiting forces us to rely on God. David learned what
it meant to wait. He was chosen by God to be the next king of
Israel, then spent years waiting for the day God's word would come to
pass in his life. As he waited, a paranoid, egocentric king occupied
the throne that had been promised to him. David spent his time
hiding in caves and living among his enemies. As he waited he saw good
friends murdered and his family and possessions taken. He saw Israel's
enemies wreak havoc on his nation. Perhaps no one ever faced greater
adversity while waiting upon God's promise than David did. He certainly
understood what it meant to become discouraged and fearful.
But David also enjoyed the reward for waiting upon the Lord.
He became the greatest king in Israel's history, and, more
importantly, through his trials he became a man after God's own heart. The
psalms David wrote during his days as a fugitive have been cherished
words of encouragement for millions of people through the ages.
Through David's descendants came the Messiah. David's willingness to
wait has blessed us all.
Times of waiting on the Lord can be some of the most precious
moments in your life (John 11:1-6). If you are waiting on God for
something, read Isaiah 40:31 and find encouragement as you wait for Him to
fulfill His promises to you. [Experiencing God Day by Day by Henry and
Richard Blackaby re Psa. 27:14]
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They
shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be
weary, They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)
Life is full of choices, and if we want to make the right
choices--those that glorify God and benefit us and others--we need God's
guidance. All of us will eventually come to places and times when we will
desperately need God's guidance. How can believers find that guidance? Seven
words may help.
1. Cleansing. We need to ask, "Is anything in my life hindering
me from hearing what You are saying? If so, what is it?" Cleansing
comes by confession (1 John 1:9).
2. Surrendering. Submitting to the will of God is both a
humbling and an uplifting experience (1 Pet. 5:6).
3. Asking. God promises that when we ask according to His will,
He hears us. And when we know that He hears us, we know He has
answered (1 John 5:14, 15)--even though the answer may come over a long
period of time.
4. Meditating. God promises that His Word will be a light to our
paths (Ps. 119:105), so the more we think about His Word, the clearer
our path will become.
5. Believing. In Mark's Gospel, we learn that when we ask, we
must believe He is going to give us what we have requested (Mark
11:22-24).
6. Waiting. God promises that He acts on our behalf when we wait
for Him (Is. 64:4). If we want to, we can run ahead of Him, dash in
and try to fix things on our own, or manipulate circumstances. If we
wait on the Lord, then our sovereign, divine, omnipotent God will act
on our behalf. It's our choice.
7. Receiving. When we obediently seek the will of God, we can be
sure that He'll hear us and give us the wisdom we need to make the
right life choices (Matt. 7:7, 8; James 1:5).
You will find great peace and confidence in knowing that you
are making choices based on God's guidance. Perhaps no one else will
understand or agree with your decision--but you will have heard from the One
who matters the most. [Life Principles SB By Charles Stanley re Psa.
27:14]
The power that set the galaxies spinning, that holds the earth
in place, that calmed the seas, that turned water into wine--that
power is in your life. Why would we go through life trying to do
things in our own strength? And yet, so many of us fall into that very
temptation. Be different. Thank God for his power at work in your life and
on your behalf. Rely on him instead of yourself. [The One Year
Bible for New Believers re Eph.1:19, 20]
On every level of life from housework to heights of prayer, in
all judgment and all efforts to get things done, hurry and
impatience are sure marks of the amateur. Evelyn Underhill
www.aBible.com
