O my soul,

What is the hardest thing?

I mean, what is the hardest thing to endure? That which leads you to think you have been forgotten by the Lord and he has withdrawn himself? That which is the loneliest path to walk? That which keeps you in sorrow throughout the day? That which makes you cry out with that most earnest and desperate question, how long, O Lord?

Is it not waiting?

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?

― Psalm 13:1-2

Does not that waiting time seem like death or defeat?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

― Psalm 13:3-4

That waiting time can be unspeakably awful, seemingly almost too hard to bear. And isn’t it all such a terrible waste of time?

By no means!

We have to notice something. O my soul, you must notice quite how much waiting is done by those in whom and through whom the Lord does great works.

Moses waited for forty years. In the wilderness. Tending sheep.

Joseph waited for more than ten. In prison. Apparently forgotten.

Jesus himself waited thirty years. In obscurity.

Could it be that somehow the waiting time is when the Lord does his most important work of preparation?

Recall what happened at the end of Moses’ waiting time, his forty years in the wilderness of Midian, that apparently wasted time.

Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

“Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

― Exodus 3:7-8, 10

Finally Moses was ready to be used by the Lord for this great task. How do we know that?

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

― Exodus 3:11

Moses had become nothing. He had died to self. It had taken forty years, because there had previously been so much pride in his heart. He had previously been so full of Moses, so pleased with himself. And now he regarded himself as nothing at all. But he wasn’t. He was finally ready to be used greatly by the Lord. And he was.

And Joseph? After more than ten years in prison, he had to wait yet another seven before the Lord used him to rescue the people of Israel from famine in the land of Canaan. What was his testimony then?

Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore them to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.” The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”⁠

― Genesis 41:50-52

O my soul, praise the Lord for his faithfulness to Joseph, and rest in that same faithfulness. He knows precisely what he is doing, and all his paths are steadfast love and faithfulness. He takes the years that are required, and those years are not wasted. Rather they are the time of preparation and meticulous restoration and transforming grace.

Do you know how a diamond is formed? Under intense pressure and heat and a billion years of waiting. Are those wasted years?

And Jesus? Even as a twelve year old he displayed such understanding. Do you not think he would have wanted to heal the sick and the brokenhearted and rescue the lost when he was seventeen? When he was twenty-three? When he was twenty-eight?

O my soul, in your own waiting time know that Jesus understands.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

― Hebrews 4:14-16

What is the greatest temptation in the waiting time? Is it not to doubt the goodness and faithfulness and sufficiency of God? Repent of those doubts and trust the Lord!

And did you notice that question which was asked four times by the psalmist and still not answered? How long O Lord? How long? This is the most unanswered question, and painfully so. But what is the psalmist really asking for?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.

― Psalm 13:3

It is not really an answer to his question that the psalmist is seeking. It is the answer which is the presence and compassion and adequacy and rescue of God.

And notice too how this answer is received.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

― Psalm 13:5

O my soul, in your own waiting time you must trust in the Lord’s steadfast love. And here is trust. It is to assert and to dwell in the wisdom and kindness and faithfulness and sufficiency of the Lord right in the middle of that painful longing. Right there in the middle of the waiting is the only opportunity to trust. So do that, and rejoice in his salvation!

And what then?

I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

― Psalm 13:6

O my soul, sing to the Lord, because he has already dealt bountifully with you! 🙏