While We Wait - What Are We Waiting For

Psalms 130:1-8 NIV 

[1] Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; [2] Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. [3] If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? [4] But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. [5] I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. [6] I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. [7] Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. [8] He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.1-8.NIV)

Due to vacations and a family situation, this year we found ourselves in massive landmarks where people wait a lot in three continents and eleven cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Geneva, Tbilisi, Istanbul, Taipei, Cebu, Washington DC, New York, Miami). These are also places where people look to make a fortune from those who wait there, but, as strange as it might seem, not everyone there is waiting on the same thing. 

I’m talking, of course, about airports. 

Yes, most people who go there are waiting on flights. That much is true. Most people are waiting to catch flights or on other people arriving on flights, or to watch as the planes take off and land. Other people are waiting on buses or taxis or trains.  

But there are some airports, like Changi in Singapore, where people go even though they have no intention of flying or to meet people who have been flying. They are not even waiting at all. They are there to shop and to eat at a massive landside shopping mall. 

It’s a place where a lot of people wait, but not everyone is waiting for the same reason and some people aren’t waiting at all. 

And plenty of people are out to make a fast buck out of those who are waiting. 

This is a psalm about waiting. It’s short and very powerful. But not everyone is waiting on God for the same reason. For most people, it’s so their situation – or someone else’s situation – will change. But while we’re tense and stressed waiting for a different life, do we ever think about why it is that we want or need to wait on God? 

People fly out of airports for different reasons: business, tourism, holidays or going home. They wait because their flight hasn’t arrived or left yet, or because their transport hasn’t arrived. 

But do we fully understand why we need to wait on God? 

This psalm gives us one possible reason. It’s not nice to hear, but it’s one we need to heed. 

We wait for God to save us because we need to be saved. We need to be saved because we have sinned. 

That is the tragic and unfortunate truth.  

We have brought our situation on ourselves. 

Of course, there are many situations in life from which we are longing for salvation that are not our fault.  

But there are many that are. And it’s for these that this psalm was written.  

Let’s see what exactly it is that we are waiting for. 

The first of these is Mercy. 

Mercy 

Psalms 130:1-2 NIV 

[1] Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; [2] Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.1-2.NIV)

It is never nice to be at the mercy of another human being. 

My family was in that position for at least seventeen years. We had been re-housed in a bad housing area by the local council and badly needed to move again. But our expanding family – there were six of us – was too big for most social housing stock, particularly anything in a better area, so we remained there for seventeen years. For seven of those years, my father was looking for a job. We were dependent on social security payments. 

Once I met my wife, we were again dependent on others. We had to seek the favour of government officials for her visa, and then her right to remain, and then her citizenship.  

When we moved house, we were dependent on officials agreeing to let my daughter remain in her school. 

Every time I’ve ever been to a job interview, I have been seeking the favour of prospective employers and bosses. 

These verses are based on a very ancient concept. Poorer people would often seek the favour of their betters to resolve disputes, or to allocate land or resources. We might think that it’s confined to history. 

It is not. 

Every time we wait on God, we are admitting that we need help: what who we are and what we have and what we can do are not enough, but God is. 

Waiting on God is an insult to our independence and an assault on our self-sufficiency.  

Why? 

Because we are not seeking persuade God from a position of strength, but seeking His mercy from a position of weakness. 

That is what this psalm is all about.

And it is far from alone: 

Psalms 51:1 NIV 

[1] Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.51.1.NIV)

Psalms 123:1-2 NIV 

[1] I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven. [2] As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.123.1-2.NIV)

And the New Testament echoes it: 

Titus 3:3-7 NIV 

[3] At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. [4] But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, [5] he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, [6] whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7] so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/tit.3.3-7.NIV)

Ephesians 2:3-5 NIV 

[3] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. [4] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.2.3-5.NIV)

Hebrews 4:16 NIV 

[16] Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/heb.4.16.NIV)

We wait on God not because we are owed or because God is obligated and we have some form of claim. Waiting on God is not about coming into His Presence and arguing your case to obtain your right. Our covenant and our relationship with God are not like that at all. 

No, we wait on God, and we wait patiently, precisely because we have no claim, we have no right, we have no argument, and we are pleading for Him to help us on the basis of His grace, His love and His mercy. 

If we were to come before a rich and powerful human being on the same basis and in the same way, we would be fearful. And not without good reason. Those who have this power can often be cruel, compassionless and capricious, readily abusing those they perceive as beneath them for their own amusement and to boost their own ego. 

God is not like that: 

Psalms 145:8-9 NIV 

[8] The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. [9] The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.145.8-9.NIV)

We wait on God because we are needy and in need of His help. When we see the words ‘depths’ here, it refers to the depths of the sea. We come to God looking for His mercy because we feel like we were drowning and are overwhelmed and are depending on Him to save us because we cannot do it ourselves. 

Waiting on God is not always a comfortable position. 

So tell me: are you waiting on God? 

But this psalm is not done telling us about the vulnerability of our situation. As well as mercy, we also need Forgiveness. 

Forgiveness 

Psalms 130:3-4 NIV 

[3] If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? [4] But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.3-4.NIV)

If someone needs to be woken up, what state do they have to be in first?

Of course, they have to be asleep. 

If someone needs to be revived, what state do they have to be in first? 

Of course, they have to be unconscious. 

If someone needs to be forgiven, what state do they have to be in first? 

Of course, they have to be a sinner. 

Which means that the psalmist who wrote and sung these words had to be a sinner too. 

We saw earlier that the reason we wait on God is that we lack something God has. The biggest lack we have is forgiveness. There are people who even take their own lives because they cannot forgive themselves for what they have done. This week I even read of a young neurodiverse lad who was falsely accused of wrongdoing and took his life even though he didn’t do it – which is truly tragic. 

This verse has our sin and our need for forgiveness in its crosshairs and it really does not miss.

The Jews who sung this song while on pilgrimage to the Temple did so admitting that they had sinned. To do so might seem bruising to our ego, but the New Testament is plain: we are all sinners (Romans 3:23-24). That is the truth. 

What matters is what we do with that sin. 

The psalmist talks of three aspects of our sin. The first is the record.  

Psalms 130:3 NIV 

[3] If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.3.NIV)

The thing is that God does keep a record, and we cannot stand – not without Jesus anyway: 

Revelation 20:11-13 NIV 

[11] Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. [12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. [13] The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.20.11-13.NIV)

Revelation 20:15 NIV 

[15] Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.20.15.NIV)

Revelation 22:12-15 NIV 

[12]  “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. [13] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. [14]  “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. [15] Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.22.12-15.NIV)

These would be impossible if God did not keep a record. 

My wife is an accountant and bookkeeper. She keeps and manages financial records for her clients. Some are honest and accept things as they are. Others try to fudge the figures to pay less tax. 

But with God, that is impossible. He knows: 

Psalms 139:1-6 NIV 

[1] You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. [2] You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. [3] You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. [4] Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. [5] You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. [6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.139.1-6.NIV)

There is absolutely no point trying to conceal or justify sin before God. 

Because He knows. 

The second is God’s response: how He deals with the clear and obvious shortcomings of the people He has made. 

The answer is plain: forgiveness. God forgives sin. 

Now, for some of us, to hear this lifts an enormous burden from our shoulders. We struggle to forgive ourselves, so to hear that Almighty God is willing and able to forgive us our sins is thrilling. 

But there others who find this difficult to hear. How can God be just if He simply forgives sinners? 

The answer is Jesus: 

Ephesians 1:7-8 NIV 

[7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace [8] that he lavished on us.

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.1.7-8.NIV)

Colossians 1:13-14 NIV 

[13] For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.1.13-14.NIV)

The record of our sin stands against us, but Jesus Christ paid the penalty for those sins and wiped our record clean: 

Colossians 2:13-14 NIV 

[13] When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, [14] having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.2.13-14.NIV)

In the days of the psalmist, the sins of the people were transferred to animal, which was then sacrificed (Leviticus 16). In Jesus’ death on the cross, the requirements of that sacrifice have been met: 

Hebrews 10:11-14 NIV 

[11] Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. [12] But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, [13] and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. [14] For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/heb.10.11-14.NIV)

So if we are struggling to forgive ourselves and are waiting for someone to help, the solution is here. Jesus died to bring you forgiveness. It came at a very high price. 

Why not accept it? 

Apart from God’s record and His response to our sin, we also see how we should receive the amazing gift of forgiveness, which is with reverence. 

I am very interested to watch how our more left wing, civil liberties oriented societies respond to the increased use of technology to surveil us.  Once people hear about browser cookies, CCTV cameras, facial recognition, AI and the like, they become afraid that they are living in some dystopian nightmare. They are afraid that their movements and the things they do will be exposed. This leads to increasing paranoia and conspiracy theories, many of which, to be honest, are totally removed from reality. 

Every single Christian believes in a God who knows everything there is to know about them.

This God needs no technology and is not bound by any privacy laws. 

He knows all, and yet He forgives all. 

So how should we react to that? 

Many people treat this amazing gift with, to be honest, total contempt. They accept God’s forgiveness and then proceed with the life that got them into trouble without the slightest bit of care about how much that forgiveness cost. It’s these people who repeat the oft-heard mantra of the religious hedonist: ‘sin at haste, repent at leisure’. 

But let me make it plain: whatever these people do in churches, and whatever church they attend or even serve in, they are not Christians. They are barely a caricature of one. 

Because that is not how Jesus lived. 

Romans 6:1-2 NIV 

[1] What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? [2] By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.6.1-2.NIV)

If someone has any regard for Jesus at all – not to mention love – they will not behave like this towards Jesus. Not ever. 

If we feel someone knows too much information about us, we are afraid of their intentions and wonder what they will do about it. 

God knows everything. He has forgiven everything. The correct response to this is not to be terrified of Him or to despise Him, but to revere Him. 

As the prophet Micah exclaimed: 

Micah 7:18-19 NIV 

[18] Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. [19] You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mic.7.18-19.NIV)

And David: 

Psalms 103:1-4 NIV 

[1] Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. [2] Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— [3] who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, [4] who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.103.1-4.NIV)

That awe and reverence at being forgiven ought to lead us to love: 

Luke 7:47 NIV 

[47] Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.7.47.NIV)

And love ought to drive us to obey. 

In the board game ‘Monopoly’, there is a card you can play that gets you out of jail without paying a fine. That card is dealt randomly or paid for, and is a big help if your piece lands on the jail squares. 

God’s forgiveness is not a ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card. Firstly, it is far from free and does not arrive randomly into our hands. It cost Jesus His life. Being forgiven is not a card that allows us to play the game of life by our own rules without consequence. The grace of God given to us in forgiveness is something that does not affirm our lifestyle but changes it forever. 

Often people long for something without really knowing what it is, then when they receive it they are disappointed.  

Don’t make that mistake with forgiveness. Long for it, of course. We all need it. 

But be aware that when you have it, everything changes. 

So we have seen that the psalmist longed, like many of us do, for mercy and forgiveness. He also longed for Love. 

Love 

Psalms 130:7 NIV 

[7] Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.7.NIV)

The week before I wrote these lines, an engineer came to our house to give our hot water boiler its annual service. He noted the age of our boiler. It’s been going strong, with only a few relatively minor faults, for eighteen years. He was actually impressed by it. Each year, the engineers who have visited have expressed their admiration for how well our boiler is working and how solid similar boilers are. 

He also told me that, were we to replace it, a similar boiler nowadays would not last as long – at most ten years. If we decided to replace it, we’d be spending a lot of money on a device that does the same job and is guaranteed to break down sooner. 

In times gone past, things that we bought were built to last. When I was a student, there was a joke that if there was ever a nuclear apocalypse , only two things would survive: cockroaches and the Nokia 3210 mobile phone. 

Nowadays, the things we buy are not built to last. Our cheap clothes are designed to wear out quickly. Our desktop computers might last five years; our laptops and phones three years; some leased cars are replaced every year. The things we buy have a use by date and have obsolescence built in. 

The reason why is simple, but very cynical: manufactures and stores make more money if they sell us things that are designed to break sooner. 

Love is quite similar. God’s design for love is beautifully explained in 1 Corinthians 13. But our culture has, for as long as humans have existed, equated love with sex. If you are having sex, or have the potential to have sex, then you are loved. If you don’t, then you are not.

With that sense of love comes our sense of self-worth and of not feeling alone. So those who do not have sex or the opportunity to have it feel abandoned, left out, lonely and have low self worth. 

This is a cheap imitation of love with obsolescence built in. It's designed to break, not to last.

But here’s the thing: sex does not equate to love. Not even close. Ask any victim of sexual abuse or rape and they will be quick to tell you that they were not loved. No, they were hated. They were despised. They were not valued – they were treated like garbage. 

What we see here in this passage is not sex. Nor even the possibility of sex. This is instead love. Real love. The best love you will ever find anywhere. 

There are three qualities of this love that make it stand out. 

Firstly, it is better in substance. 

The Hebrew word used here is ‘hesed’. This is a deep covenantal, relational love that is an expression of God’s faithful love for His unfaithful people. It is a saving love that seeks to save that which is not worth saving. It is steadfast, loyal, devoted and enduring. 

It is leagues better than the cheap thrill of a one night stand, and far superior to the thrill we get from feeling loved while on a date. It is not a love that would ever use us to feel good or to boost our ego.  

This is love at its purest. And it’s ultimate expression is quite simply awe-inspiring: 

Romans 5:8 NIV 

[8] But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.5.8.NIV)

1 John 4:7-10 NIV 

[7] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [10] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1jn.4.7-10.NIV)

It’s ultimate gesture is not a Valentine’s Day card or a surprise meal or a nice treat. No, it’s a bloodied cross, where Jesus sacrificed His life for ours. 

It’s also greater in magnitude: 

John 15:13 NIV 

[13] Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.13.NIV)

John 3:16 NIV 

[16] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.3.16.NIV)

There is simply nothing that can surpass it: 

Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV 

[14] For this reason I kneel before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. [16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.3.14-19.NIV)

Romans 8:38-39 NIV 

[38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.38-39.NIV)

There are some sights in this world that impress us with their size. Deserts impress me. As do oceans. When you finding yourself with a seemingly endless view towards a deeply distant horizon, you can’t help but be impressed. Mountains too, when you look at something that is just plain enormous. The view from the top of Zugspitze Mountain in Germany that is so large you can see peaks from five different countries and is deeply, deeply impressive. 

But God’s love is more vast than that. So vast that it blows our minds. We simply cannot comprehend its scale. 

It’s also far greater in its duration. 

There are always Hollywood stars who seem to go through romantic partners like most of us go through shirts. These are people who should not be praised for their messy romantic life. They leave a torrent of pain and disappointment and loneliness behind them. That is not to be lauded at all. 

Their love seems to be short-lived. Their conscience is also small – they are simply using people for their own entertainment. 

But not God. 

Psalms 103:17-18 NIV 

[17] But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— [18] with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.103.17-18.NIV)

Jeremiah 31:3 NIV 

[3] The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.31.3.NIV)

If you take a rubber band and stretch it, it becomes thinner and thinner until it snaps. Sometimes when it snaps, it causes pain. 

God’s love is greater in substance, in magnitude and duration. It does not snap. It cannot snap. 

Psalms 86:5 NIV 

[5] You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.86.5.NIV)

Now, you can search wherever you like and go whoever you want for as long as you like, but you will never find a love like this anywhere else. Only in God can it be found. 

So if today you are seeking companionship and love from another human being so you can gain a little self-respect and feel good about yourself, if you only feel happy when you have someone pretty on your shoulder, if you feel bitterly alone and unloved because you have none of these things, I need to tell you the truth: you are seeking true love in the wrong places. It’s like trying to catch a bus in the middle of a swamp, or a flight in a rice field, or a ship in a desert. It makes no sense. It will not work. 

But if you are waiting on love and longing for love, then you are waiting on and longing for God, because God is love. 

Apart from mercy, forgiveness and love, there is one last thing that the psalmist was waiting for that only God provides: Redemption. 

Redemption 

Psalms 130:7-8 NIV 

[7] Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. [8] He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.7-8.NIV)

Nineteen year old Bella Culley was all over the news during the week when this post was written. She was caught smuggling drugs in Tbilisi, Georgia. She faced a long jail sentence. However, her family raised £137,000 to free her. 

She claimed to have been tortured into smuggling drugs from Thailand via Sharjah to Tbilisi. But it didn’t matter. She had done the crime; she did the time. 

Until, that is, her parents paid the fine to the Georgian court. Then she was freed on the basis of time served and could leave the country. 

That money was, in a sense, redemption money: it was money to pay the price for her freedom. 

Her case was controversial, and for some, contentious, but it is a good picture of what redemption means. We have done wrong. We have lost our freedom. We are in thrall to another who has no love for us at all. God freed us by sending His Son Jesus to pay pur price.

The story of the prophet Hosea is a perfect example. He was a priest who was told by God to violate his priestly confession and marry an unfaithful women so that the people of Israel would see and understand how they were being spiritually unfaithful to God (Hosea 1:1-3). 

His wife Gomer’s situation reached the depths of needing to be bought back from a slave market, such was her promiscuity and prostitution. Yet Hosea, priest as he was, went to that market, bearing the shame and ignominy, and bought back his own wife (Hosea 3:1-3). 

That was a picture of what God was about to do. God’s people had stayed. They were worshipping other gods, with all the immorality and horrors that entailed. Yet God loved them and would redeem them. 

And He did it through Jesus: 

1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV 

[18] For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, [19] but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.1.18-19.NIV)

The Bible takes this image further. We were not just imprisoned by our sin, we were enslaved by it, and Jesus freed us from even that (Romans 6).  As Paul said to Timothy:

1 Timothy 2:5-6 NIV 

[5] For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, [6] who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ti.2.5-6.NIV)

So today, if you are caught up in sinful habits and dependencies from which you cannot break free, and you don’t know if you will ever be free, look to Jesus. He can free you. He has freed you. You can go free.  

This is what God brings to those who wait for Him. 

Conclusion 

Psalms 130:5-6 NIV 

[5] I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. [6] I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.5-6.NIV)

Back when I was courting my wife, I would often go from her home village to the centre of Ormoc City to meet her from work. I would stand at the bus stop outside the elementary school and wait. And sometimes wait some more. None of the public transportation had anything approaching a timetable. I knew where I wanted to go. I had no idea how I would get there. Maybe it would be by bus. Maybe by jeepney. Maybe by air conditioned van. Definitely not by taxi – there were none. I would just take my chances with whatever came first. 

Sometimes we find people in this position.  They long for just what we have outlined in this study: for mercy, forgiveness, love, redemption. They might be in a pretty bad way while they wait. But they have no idea at all what will bring them these things. 

When I waited for transportation to Ormoc City, I knew that whatever vehicle I took would get me to the same transportation hub in the city.  

But the same thing cannot be said for these people. Often we wait and we long and we grasp at any solution that promises to help. But often they don’t. Often they leave us as empty as we were before, with the added disappointment of knowing that we failed to get what we need. 

So we go back and try again. And again. And each time we feel empty. And each time we feel hopeless.  

Sooner or later, we give up and sink into bleak, nihilistic despair. 

But that is not what happens to those who wait on God. 

They find precisely what they are looking for and precisely what they need. 

If you feel the lack of mercy, forgiveness, love and redemption, then I want you to see in this psalm that submitting yourself to God and obeying Him, believing in Jesus Christ as your Saviour and your Lord, is the only way to receive them. Don’t neglect this opportunity to receive what you need. 

But if you are a Christian and you wonder how this psalm applies to you, I want you to ponder these questions: 

When does someone need to be woken up? Is it not when they are asleep? 

When does someone need to be revived? Is it not when they are unconscious? 

When does a nation or a church or a person need to be spiritually revived? Is it not when they are far from God and not who they should be? 

In that case, what will fix the problem? Will prayer meetings do it? Or rallies? Or televised sermons? Or books, podcasts, TV shows? 

This psalm contains the answer: it’s repentance, submission to His Word, seeking mercy and forgiveness and love and redemption. It’s treating Him with the reverence and awe He deserves. 

Every revival begins with repentance: with realising that we are wrong and putting it right, while seeking God for forgiveness. 

So, Christian, will you wait on God today? 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, I confess that I have wandered. I am not who I should be. I confess my sins and my failings. I seek Your mercy, forgiveness, love and redemption. I will treat You with the reverence and awe You deserve. From this day onwards, I will wait on You and follow You. Amen. 

Questions for Contemplation  

• When the psalmist was waiting on God, was this from a position of weakness or strength? What makes you believe this? 

• What are the three benefits the psalmist longed to receive from God? 

• How should we treat God, according to this psalm? What difference should that make to our everyday life?