Wait

Devotion by: Bill Wagner

Psalm 33:2-12, 20-21

²Praise the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
³Sing to him a new song;
play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
⁴For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
⁵He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord
⁶By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
⁷He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
he put the deeps in storehouses.
⁸Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
⁹For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
¹⁰The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹The counsel of the Lord stands for ever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
¹²Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.
²⁰Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
²¹Our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.

The first section of this psalm is focused on praising God with music and song for all he has done. Then it mentions how His plans can overtake the plans of people and nations. Finally, the last two verses state that “our soul waits for the Lord……our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in His holy name”. As humans, we all have a problem with waiting, whether in traffic, in the line at the checkout counter, for the results of medical tests, for the long-awaited TV special, or for Christmas and the birth of the Baby Jesus. We should make use of the time of Advent to embrace the spiritual discipline of waiting. During Advent we can experience the spiritual gifts of waiting – patience, loss of control, living in the present, compassion, gratitude, humility and, most of all, trust in God. In our present society, everything seems to be geared to “instant gratification”. E-mail has to be answered at once, and if this is not fast enough, then people do “instant messaging”. Cell phones allow us to be in instant communication at all times. For many of us, we sometimes long for the past when people wrote letters and had time to think about what they were writing and then waiting for the answer to your letter, perhaps in 2-3 weeks or more. Advent is a time for us to sit back, and experience the wonderful sense of anticipation as we await the coming of Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem.

Prayer: Lord, help us to use this time of waiting to be grateful for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to be patient and know that we are not in charge of all things. Give us the gifts of humility and compassion as we put our trust in God during this wonderful season of Advent. Amen.