Living By the Prayer Jesus Died By: A Prayer of Our Praise (Ps. 31:19-24)

Author John Ortberg presents the following scenarios:[1]

“At a tollbooth, the driver of the car in front of you is having an extended conversation with the tollbooth operator.  You…

1. A.    Are happy they are experiencing the tollbooth in community.  You think about joining them and forming a small group.
2. B.    Dream of things you would like to say to the tollbooth operator.
3. C.     Attempt to drive your vehicle between the other guy’s car and the tollbooth.

You have been sitting in the waiting room of your doctor’s office for an hour.  You…

1. A.    Are grateful for the chance to catch up on the 1993 Reader’s Digest.
2. B.    Tell the other patients you have a highly contagious and fatal disease, hoping this will empty the waiting room.
3. Force yourself to hyperventilate to get immediate attention.”

 

We don’t like to wait do we?  John Ortberg writes, “We are not a patient people.  We tend to be in a horn-honking, microwaving, Fed-Ex mailing, fast-food eating, express-lane shopping hurry.”[2]  We don’t like to wait.  In fact, most of the time when we are forced to wait, we whine.  Our family was recently reminiscing about last summer’s vacation.  We went to Schlitterbahn, one of the largest waterparks in the United States.  And we remembered with groans a ride we stood in line for.  We waited in line two hours to experience a water slide that lasted about thirty seconds.  And the longer we waited, the more we whined.  We did it once and never again.

 

We don’t like to wait.  Whether it’s rush hour traffic, the long line at the grocery store, a worship service that’s going too long, a coworker who’s taking forever to tell a story, or a package that takes 5 days rather than 2 to arrive in the mail, we don’t like to wait.  And when forced to wait, we often whine.

 

But it’s one thing to wait on traffic.  It’s one thing to wait on a waiter.  But it’s another to have to wait on God.  It’s far worse when God is the one causing a delay.

 

I had lunch last week with a friend who is waiting on God.  He’s been applying for preaching jobs for months.  He’s nearly finished his training and he wants to preach full-time.  Finally a church showed great interest in him and his family.  It seemed like the perfect fit.  The interview went better than he could have even hoped.  But recently, the church told him he didn’t make the cut.  And now he’s just waiting.  He’s waiting for God to open a door to a congregation where he can preach.  And it was clear that waiting was very hard on him.

 

I had coffee last week with a friend who is waiting on God.  Two years ago he suffered a devastating loss.  Someone very dear to him died.  And he’s still waiting.  Waiting for God to bring healing.  Waiting for God to explain why this loss had to happen.  Waiting for God to return life back to some semblance of normalcy.  And it was clear that waiting was very hard on him.

 

How about you?  What are you waiting on God for?  Some here this morning are waiting on God to finally give you a child.  Some are waiting for God to finally heal that illness or injury.  Some are waiting on God to finally end the conflict they are caught up in at work or at home.  Some are waiting on God to finally repair that marriage which almost seems beyond repair.  Some are waiting for God to lead you to that person you can share your life with.  Some are waiting on God to lift the depression.  Some are waiting on God to end the recession.  And that waiting is very hard on us.

 

Oddly, waiting on God is a lot more common than we might imagine.  For centuries, faithful and godly people have had to wait on God.  Just listen to these descriptions peppered throughout the Psalms:

• Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. (Psalm 25:5 ESV)
• For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. (Psalm 62:5 ESV)
• I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. (Psalm 69:3 ESV)
• my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. (Psalm 130:6 ESV)

David, and other authors of the Psalms, spent a lot of time waiting on God.

 

Some of us may have the wrong picture in our minds about how the people of the Bible experienced God.  We may have the impression that God was at their beck and call.  Whenever people in the Bible asked God to do something, God immediately acted.  And we wonder why that’s not true for us today.  But in reality, the people in the Bible waited just like we do.  More often than not, the people of the Bible were waiting on God.  They asked God to do something, and then they had to wait and wait and wait.  And that divine delay was very hard on them.

 

It was especially difficult in times of suffering.  Psalm 13 famously asks, “How long, O LORD?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?  How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” (Ps. 13:1-2 ESV).  This is not just a whine.  This is a wail.  It is a cry of desperation.  David is waiting on the Lord.  He’s suffering and he’s waiting for God to do something about it.  The clock is ticking and God is sleeping.  So David wails aloud about the delay.

 

When we are forced to wait, and God is the one we are waiting on, we not only whine.  We often wail.  We hear wailing again and again in the Psalms:

• My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD— how long? (Ps. 6:3 ESV)
• How long, O Lord, will you look on? (Ps. 35:17 ESV)
• How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? (Ps. 74:10 ESV)
• How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? (Ps. 89:46 ESV)
• LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? (Ps. 94:3 ESV)

It’s one thing to wait on a customer service representative on the phone.  It’s another to have to wait on God, to experience the sense that God is not on duty.  And for those of you who have been waiting on God for something, you’ve probably been wailing along with David.

 

And that’s OK.  I want you to know that it’s OK to wail when you have to wait on God.  That is one thing the Psalms teach us.  It’s OK to complain to God about that delay.  You’re not unfaithful just because you wail when you have to wait on God.

 

Psalm 31 is our focus right now on Sunday mornings.  This is our fourth Sunday in this Psalm.  And it teaches us that there is something else we can do while waiting on God.  It challenges us to consider that there may be more for us to do than just wail.  Psalm 31 is written by someone who has had to wait on God.  In fact the Psalm ends with reference to “all you who wait for the Lord.”  (Ps. 31:24 ESV)  David knows that we’ve had to wait.  He knows his readers have experienced waiting.  So he shares this psalm about his own waiting.

 

The Psalm begins with David praying for relief.  David cries out “in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily!” (Ps. 31:1-2 ESV)   But it’s not until verse 22 that God actually answers that prayer.  In verse 22 David says, “But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.” (Ps. 31:22 ESV).  In vv. 1-2 David asks God to hear him and help him.  Finally in vs. 22 God does.  But in between those verses David has to wait.  God does not act immediately upon David’s request.  David is forced to deal with a divine delay.  That’s why he ends the psalm by addressing “all” of us who wait for the Lord.  David is writing as a fellow waiter.  For some twenty verses David has had to wait.

 

And that waiting has been very hard.  In vs. 21 David summarizes what it’s been like.  Waiting, David says, has been like living in a “besieged city.”  David says that waiting on God has been like living in a fortified city and every enemy from every corner of the world has come with their catapults and their battering rods and their flaming arrows and their sharp swords.  And they are relentlessly attacking and charging.  Day after day.  Night after night.  There’s no end.  And the walls are starting to crumble.  The foundations are starting to crack.  And David’s been asking God for help.  He’s been crying out for God to do something.  But for twenty verses David’s been stuck in the “besieged city” which is his life.  David’s been waiting on the Lord.

 

Perhaps that’s why Jesus chose this Psalm to die by.  As we seen, Jesus quotes this Psalm as his last words from the cross in Luke’s Gospel.  Why?  There are many reasons.  But perhaps on reason is that this psalm touches on what it’s like to wait on God.  Because Jesus, it seems, has also been waiting on God.  The soldiers have been beating him, but there’s no divine rescue.  The cross has been dropped on his shoulders, but there’s still no divine rescue.  The nails are being driven through skin and muscle, but there’s still no divine rescue.  For six hours Jesus has been hanging and dying slowly and painfully, and there’s still no divine rescue.  Jesus has been waiting on the Lord.  Perhaps that’s why his last words in Luke’s gospel come from Ps. 31.  Because this is a Psalm written by someone who is also waiting on God.

 

But what’s remarkable about this Psalm is that David does not whine.  In other psalms David does.  He wants us to know in other psalms that it’s OK to wail.  But here David models a different approach.  While waiting here he doesn’t wail.  Instead, he worships: ¹⁹ Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!  ²⁰ In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.  ²¹ Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.  ²² I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.”  But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.  ²³ Love the Lord, all you his saints!  The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.  ²⁴ Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! (Ps. 31:19-24 ESV)  While David is waiting on God, while David is waiting for verse 22 to get here, he doesn’t whine.  David worships.  David shows us that it is possible to worship when we are forced to wait.

 

Notice the reason for David’s praise.  He puts it this way in vs. 19: Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!  The word “goodness”—“how abundant is your goodness”—refers to the wealth and wares of God.  It refers to many things in God’s possession.^[3] It refers to all those things we want God to do for us.  At a certain level it can refer to the very thing you are waiting on God for right now.  But while David is waiting, he realizes that God has “stored up” these goods—“how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up…”  That phrase “stored up” refers to the way God has collected and gathered good things for us but right now he’s got them concealed.  They are hidden away or “stored up” in a secure location.  They aren’t necessarily visible to us right now. ^[4]  But in his own time, David says, God takes those good things and “works” them—“how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you…”   David sees that eventually God takes those good things out of his heavenly warehouse and puts them to work for us.^[5]

 

Here’s what David is saying: there may be delay.  But we can be assured that what we need, God’s got plenty of.  He’s got a whole warehouse full of whatever it is we are waiting for.  What we need is safe and secure in God’s bank vault.  And when the time is right, God’s going to deliver it to us.  We may have to wait.  But we can be assured that God has whatever you most need in your most desperate situation and in his time he will deliver it.  He will put it to work for you.  For this David worships even though God delays.

 

David continues: ²⁰ In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men…  David is writing here about others who are waiting.  Some are waiting on God to stop “the plots of men.”  David is describing people who, like him, are being attacked unfairly and are waiting on God to do something about it.  But as they wait, David points out why they can worship.  David reminds them that even in the midst of the “plots of men” they enjoy the “cover of your presence.”  The phrase “your presence” literally means “your face.” ^[6]  It’s a way of talking about the personal presence of God.  David is reminding these people who are suffering and being attacked that while they wait on God’s action, God is personally present with them.  God may not be acting yet.  But God is personally present with them.  It’s not like God is absent and will eventually swoop in.  No, God’s already swooped in.  He’s already present with them.  He just hasn’t acted yet.  But he is there.  He is a companion in the midst of the waiting.  They are not waiting alone.  They are waiting with God himself.  And for this David worships, even though God delays.

 

And eventually, David sings in vs. 21, God will “wondrously show” his “steadfast love.”  “Wondrously show” means to do something that is marvelous, something that is awesome, something that will leave you speechless. ^[7]  And that action of God’s will be rooted in God’s “steadfast love.”  This refers to his covenant love.  It’s the kind of love that never fails. ^[8]  David is saying, “I know right now you are waiting.  So was I.  But in the end, God came through.  He came through in a wondrous way.  He came through in a way that proved to me that he is loyal to us and will never fail us.”  And for this David worships even though God delays.

 

Perhaps this is another reason Jesus uttered this Psalm as his final words from the cross.  Because Jesus had also learned to face pain with praise.  There are ten occasions on which we have the words Jesus actually used in a prayer.  All ten of these occasions came during times of distress and difficulty.  Yet several times Jesus worships in the mist of his woe.

• In Matt. 11:25-26 Jesus praises God even in a period of great disappointment.
• In John 11:41-43 Jesus praises God in the midst of Lazarus’ death.
• In Jn. 19:30 Jesus praises God from the cross because God’s work is now finished.

Perhaps Jesus died by Psalm 31 because he also lived by it.  He too knew how to worship even when waiting on the Lord.

 

I’m not saying this is easy.  I’m not saying it’ll be your first inclination.  But it is possible while waiting to learn to worship.

 

Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, reflected on his visit to a church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti a year after the earthquake. The church’s building consisted of a tent.  Here’s his description of the worship that took place in that tent:[9] In the front row sat six amputees ranging in age from 6 to 60. They were clapping and smiling as they sang song after song and lifted their prayers to God. The worship was full of hope … [and] with thanksgiving to the Lord.  No one was singing louder or praying more fervently than Demosi Louphine, a 32-year-old unemployed single mother of two. During the earthquake, a collapsed building crushed her right arm and left leg. After four days both limbs had to be amputated.  She was leading the choir, leading prayers, standing on her prosthesis and lifting her one hand high in praise to God .… It makes no sense to me as an “entitled American” who grouses at the smallest inconveniences—a clogged drain or a slow wi-fi connection in my home. Yet here in this place, many people who had lost everything … expressed nothing but praise.  Can you see those people waiting?  Can you see these amputees waiting on God to bring relief and rescue?  And yet what are they doing?  They are not wailing.  They are worshiping.  Supported by crutches and each other, with wounded hands raised high, they worship.  They believed in a God who had stored up abundant goods for them and who would deliver them at the right time. They believed in a God who was present with them though he had not yet acted for them.  They believed in a God who would wondrously show his steadfast love, and who had already shown such love in the giving of his son for their souls.  And for this they worshiped, though God delayed.

 

How about you?  Are you waiting?  Has God been delaying?  Then listen to David’s closing line:  ²⁴ Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! (Ps. 31:24 ESV)  It’s the prayer Jesus died by.  It’s a prayer we must learn to live by.