Waiting for God.
"I will wait for the God of my salvation." The good, personified, are here represented as declaring that they would place themselves in harmony with the wise and holy will of God; that they would trustingly acquiesce and quietly endure, drawing from intimate personal relationship to God that holy inspiration which would enable them in the dark days now before them, with true heroism to encounter every difficulty, and with calm resignation to bear every sorrow, and to find in so doing tranquillity and peace. "I will wait," etc. (Micah 7:7).
I. OUR CIRCUMSTANCES IN LIFE OFTEN CALL FOR THE EXERCISE OF THIS SPIRIT OF PATIENT WAITING FOR GOD. It is the method of our God by slow processes to bring to pass all that he has designed, whether in nature, in providence, or in grace. His purposes are gradually evolved. His delays are for wise and gracious reasons. Hence instead of fretting and repining and growing impatient under adversity, as though some strange thing were happening to us, it behoves us to "rest in the Lord," and so be cheerful even in the night and under the shadow of the cloud, assured that to those rightly exercised by sorrow "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope" (Romans 5:8, Romans 5:4).
II. THE CHERISHING OF THIS SPIRIT ENNOBLES HUMAN CHARACTER.
1. You see in such a case a man who is continually gaining triumphs where multitudes are worsted and defeated. There are many who can do, but who cannot bear. They can actively serve God and strive to promote the interests of men, but they cannot passively yield themselves up to the will of God, and, without resentment, bear the reproaches of those who seek their hurt. And certainly the man who is able to do this is the more royal. Who can doubt the wisdom of Solomon when he said, "He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city" (Proverbs 16:32)?
2. You see in such a case a man who is clearly under the influence of high Christian motives. The influences which impel a man calmly and trustingly to submit to God's all-wise but often inscrutable appointments, are not human, but Divine. There is nothing in mere earthly considerations that is at all calculated to inspire this patience. It is only as we bring the realities of eternity to bear upon our present experiences that we become lifted up to a higher realm, and are enabled patiently to endure.
III. BY THIS PATIENT WAITING GOD IS GLORIFIED AND SERVED. The thought of service to God is too often restricted to active endeavour. It is overlooked that he may be nerved by us passively as well as actively; by quiet resignation to his will as well as by open and earnest toil in seeking the good of others. "They also serve who only stand and wait." Great was the service rendered by the Man Christ Jesus as he traversed the cities and villages of Palestine, going about doing good, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God; but yet higher service was rendered by him as with holy resignation he acquiesced in the great Father's will and "endured the cross, despising the shame."
IV. THIS WAITING FOR THE LORD SHALL IN NO WISE LOSE ITS REWARD. There shall be ultimate deliverance; salvation shall come, and the thankful acknowledgment shall be, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he hath saved us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will evermore be glad and rejoice in his salvation" (Isaiah 25:9).
From darkness into light.
"When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a Light unto me.. He will bring me forth to the light." The Bible is "the heart book of the world." 'In order to the unravelment of its deep spiritual teaching, we must study it in the light of our own soul experiences - of our joys and sorrows and needs. It is one thing to be able to understand the volume in the meaning of its words and the construction of its phrases and forms of expression; but it is quite another thing to feel that it is ours to enter into the inward experiences of God's saints of old, through whom he speaks to us in these wondrous pages—experiences by which he has fitted them to be his messengers of help and hope to the world; and to enter into these we must bring our hearts as well as our intellects to the study of the book, and endeavour to trace the application of its teachings to the wants and aspirations of the human spirit. Notice in the human experience here described—
I. DARKNESS. The adverse influences of life are thus symbolized. We are constantly attended by these. It must be so. Human life is a pilgrimage, and no traveller can expect to reach the end of his journey without feeling weary and worn. It is a voyage, and hence we must encounter storms. The world is a stage, and we are the players, and although to outward appearances it may seem that we are acting our respective parts with ease, who can tell what anxiety is encountered behind the scenes? These adverse influences meet us in life's daily duties. They are often occasioned by differences in temper and disposition, giving rise to misunderstanding; or by the temporal circumstances being straitened; or by prolonged and tedious suspense in reference to the success or failure of certain projects; or by baffled hopes and expecta
tions. They come to us in the form of the sorrows of life. There is failure of health, with the anxious days and weary nights it brings to the household. There is bereavement, with its attendant grief and gloom. There are also cruel misrepresentations, malicious censures, unjust reproaches (Micah 7:10). And these adverse influences follow in quick succession.
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions"
They fill the heart with sadness, and there settles down upon the troubled spirit the darkness of night. "I sit in darkness."
II. LIGHT IN DARKNESS. Light is revealing, restoring, gladdening, in its effects. Under its influence that which was before concealed becomes manifest to us; new life is put into us, and joy and gladness become inspired within. So shall it be with the good in a spiritual sense. In their gloomiest seasons these gracious influences shall be experienced by them by reason of the presence with them of the Lord their God. It is not so much that the Lord will cause light to break in upon them (although that is gloriously true), as that he himself will be with them as their Light. "When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me;" "The Lord is my Light and my Salvation." (Psalms 27:1); "In his favour is life" (Psalms 30:5). Light in darkness, springing from the conscious presence of the Lord, is the thought here expressed. And in the next verse is the additional, yet closely related thought of—
III. PASSING OUT OF DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT. "He will bring me forth to the light" (Micah 7:9). So has it been in the past in the experience of the good. Jacob (comp. Genesis 42:36. with Genesis 45:26-28); Elijah; the Sunammite; the Captivity (comp. Psalms 123:1-4. with Psalms 126:1-6.). So still to all trusting hearts; and so hereafter, "The Lord shall be thine everlasting Light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended" (Isaiah 60:20).