FRIDAY
This week, we’ve seen the link between courage and trusting God to fight for us. We’ve seen examples of this in the conquest of Canaan, especially at Jericho, and in the life of Jesus.
Today, I want to share a short reflection on a couple of Psalms.
Psalm 31:24 (ESV) 24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!
The heart is often used of the will in the Hebrew Bible. So, here, David is imploring us to strengthen our will, be courageous, as those who wait for the Lord. “Be courageous, you who wait,” is a good summary.
The verb here for wait (yakhal), is translated “wait” and “hope” almost equally (about 20x each in the Old Testament). So the idea of waiting on God, being still and allowing God to fight for us, is linked closely to the idea of hope. We see a similar idea at the end of Psalm 27.
Psalm 27:13–14 (ESV) 13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! 14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Here, the word translated wait is the word quavah, which is often translated hope as well. This word comes from the root of the word for rope and implies a tense rope, like the string of an instrument, waiting for release when it breaks.
This is a great picture of our current state of hope and waiting. Sometimes the tensions of life leave us feeling like a stretched guitar string just waiting for the tension to be released. This tension can be produced by broken relationships, financial crises, health issues, the longing to be reunited with a loved one, among many other things. We feel like we are being stretched and we are longing for release from the tension.
Note again what the Psalmists say they are waiting for—the Lord, himself. The Psalmists most often say that they are waiting on the Lord, not the deliverance of the Lord or the salvation of the Lord. They often just say the Lord. As Tim Mackey with the Bible Project says in their video on hope, “Biblical hope is based on a person.” Our hope is not based on the circumstances around us, but it is based on God and his character. We will talk more about this next week.
It takes great courage to remain in the tensions of life, waiting on the Lord, as the Psalmists reflect on time and time again. May you be strong and let your heart take courage as you wait on the Lord.
To develop this courage, we need to develop a deep faith because courage is the result of faith. If we truly trust God, we can have courage to do his will even when it’s scary or it doesn’t make sense. If we truly trust God, we have courage to do what is right even if we see no way of winning. If we truly trust God, we can have courage to wait on him to fight for us in the midst of a financial crisis or a health issue. If we trust God, we can have courage to wait on him to change a loved one’s heart in the midst of a fractured relationship. If we trust God, we can have courage as we wait to be reunited with a loved one we have lost.
George Müller, a 19th century pastor, was called by God to start an orphanage. He never once asked anyone for money for the orphanage. He only prayed and sought the Lord and the Lord always provided even though many times the situations were rather dire. The kids always had enough. In his little book, Answers to Prayer, he writes:
"We will rather work a deliverance of our own somehow or other, than simply look to God and wait for His help. But if we do not patiently wait for God's help, if we work a deliverance of our own then at the next trial of our faith it will be thus again, we shall be again inclined to deliver ourselves; and thus with every fresh instance of that kind, our faith will decrease; whilst on the contrary, were we to stand still, in order to see the salvation of God, to see His hand stretched out on our behalf, trusting in Him alone, then our faith would be increased, and with every fresh case in which the hand of God is stretched out on our behalf in the hour of trial of our faith, our faith would be increased yet more. Would the believer, therefore, have his faith strengthened, he must especially, give time to God, who tries his faith in order to prove to His child, in the end, how willing He is to help and deliver him, the moment it is good for him."
—George Müller
So to increase your faith, I would challenge you to desperately pray and wait upon the Lord before the seemingly insurmountable obstacles you are currently facing.
