Waiting for God — E.A. Johnston

Psalm 40 in a Federal Penitentiary

I guess it was about 23 years ago when I had the opportunity to preach in a federal penitentiary in the South. And I and another evangelist were led through several checkpoints in that prison until we came to a room that had about 30 chairs in it.

And the prison guard opened a side door, and in came the murderers, rapists, and thieves. And as they took their seats, the guard left me in the room with them. And as I stared at those hoarded criminals, I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

It was the first time I ever preached publicly, and I had chosen for my text, Psalm 40, our passage today. And looking back on it now, those men deserved a more experienced preacher. But I did my best I could in relating to them the story about a man, this man David, who wrote this psalm, that this was a desperate man who was stuck in a prison, and he couldn't get out.

I then explained to these prisoners what an old bottleneck prison was for this was the type of prison David was in. I told them that back in Bible times, they didn't have fancy prisons like the one they were in now.

But to keep a prisoner in those days, it was common to find a pit in the ground and use that as a prison, as was done with David and the prophet Jeremiah. A pit dug out in the shape of a bottleneck, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, and the sides were sloped in, and it was impossible to climb out of that pit of a prison.

And rainwater would collect at the bottom and turn the dirt floor to slippery mud and mire. Hence, David refers that he was in a horrible pit of miry clay. My whole message for these men was one of hope, that the only thing this desperate man David had was hope that he would someday get out of that prison.

The men looked at me intently and thoughtfully as I did my best to preach to them that night. I finished my message saying that this prisoner, this desperate man, had his hope in God, and I hoped they would put their hope in him.

Then something strange happened when I stopped talking. I was rushed by a few men on the front row. I feared that this was the end of me, and I pulled back. But what they did was to rush up and throw their arms around me, and they hugged me tight and told me that they loved me and that they thanked me for coming all the way out to the country that night to visit them in that prison.

The Lifelong Discipline of Waiting on God

And now I'm an old preacher who has preached out of Psalm 40 numerous times since then, and my message is always different each time, deeper each time, with the years of experience from walking with God for his word is a deep reservoir.

And today, friends, I have a message for you out of Psalm 40 that is different from all the other sermons I've preached on this rich text. The emphasis of my message today is the doctrine of waiting upon God.

And if you were to search through your Bible and find the passages on waiting upon God, particularly in the book of Isaiah and in the Psalms, that is a study that will reward you richly. The title of my message today, friends, is Waiting for God, and there is a lifetime of experience for the Christian who learns how to patiently wait for God.

Oh, friends, I can't cram into one sermon the deep reality of what it means to wait on God. Noah, Noah learned it as he built the ark. Moses learned it on the backside of the Midian Desert, where hope after hope went down in flames.

Abraham learned the doctrine of waiting on God as he saw his boy Isaac born, even after his own body was as good as dead. Joseph learned that hard lesson as he rotted in an Egyptian prison before his release and exaltation.

And the disciples learned it time and time again as their master taught them the benefits of waiting God's time. I'm going to do my level best, friends, to glean from this passage all the gold and silver and precious stones out of the doctrine of waiting upon God.

For it is the waiting, it is in the waiting, that we learn our own sinfulness and failure and our utter need and dependence upon only God. If you haven't done so already, please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 40.

Psalm 40: Patient Waiting and Divine Deliverance

I'm only going to read four verses. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His holy Word. Do you know why I always say that, friends? Because God doesn't have to bless what I say, but He must and will bless His Word, and the only way you'll get a blessing is if God's Spirit brings His truth into you and penetrates your understanding.

I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.

Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. I will stop there. My whole message today, friends, is bound up in the first three words of our passage, I waited patiently.

And it is here where we can sit and learn the useful doctrine of waiting upon God. Oh, friends, the tears I've shed and the mistakes I've made and the black eyes I've received from not waiting on God.

When the psalmist says, I waited patiently, this is the antithesis of impatience, rebellion, and sin. To wait patiently for God means to resolutely surrender to God's will and providence, even if it goes against your will and desire.

Job came to understand the doctrine of waiting upon God for deliverance. He had to learn to die to his self-life, die to his preconceived notions of God, and he had to die to all his emotions. It wasn't until this occurred that we read the last line of his book.

So Job died, being old and full of days. Job had to learn to cope and hope and to have patience in the promise. That's a hard lesson to learn, friends. I want to break down in the Hebrew what these first three words mean.

The Hebrew Meaning of Kava

I waited patiently. I believe when a believer learns what it means to wait patiently on God, it can be a crossing of the Rubicon in their spiritual life. The meaning, waited patiently, is found in the Hebrew word kava, and it's a verb meaning to wait for, to look, to hope.

It has an interesting primitive root that means to bind together, like in twisting or winding a strand of cord or rope. It's all bound up in the description of the hopes of someone, hoping for what God has promised and not letting go of that hope, even though the fulfillment of that expectation doesn't appear in the short run.

And it is here where all the emphasis is placed, and I waited patiently. Here is this man, David, who, for whatever reason, finds himself in a jam that he cannot extricate himself from on his own. He needs help from another.

He is in, literally or figuratively, a bottleneck prison, and he's sinking into miry clay as he struggles to get out and to no avail. Going back to the Hebrew word kava and its primitive root meaning of twisting or winding a strand of cord, we can just picture David in our mind's eye sitting there in the mud with a strand of cord he keeps twisting in his hands, knowing in his heart that this is the means of his escape.

Out of his predicament, if only someone would come along and reach down to grab hold of this cord, this rope, and then, with enough strength, pull the desperate man out to safety. And all David can do is wait for someone to come by.

He has worn his voice thin, worn his voice out, its hoarse from all the hollering for someone to hear him. In ancient times, when a person fell into or was thrown into a bottleneck pit, the only hope they had was to yell and holler so some stranger passing by or a caravan passing by would hear their desperate cries and come to their rescue.

The term horrible pit in our passage literally means pit of noise from all the hollering going on. I want to focus on this Hebrew word kava and its attendant meaning. This word meaning to look patiently, tarry, wait, hope.

Expectant Waiting for the Lord's Deliverance

The word is used to signify depending on and ordering activities around a future event. In Psalm 40, this would be a coming deliverance for we see the deliverance materialize in verse 2. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock.

Well, who brought David out of his trouble? We learn the subject of his three words, waited patiently. In the following three words, for the Lord. David is waiting for his God. He is expectantly waiting for Jehovah to appear and deliver him as he has done time and time again in his adventure-filled life.

David has the benefit of confidence in God, in God's authority, God's availability, and in God's ability to save. If we walk slowly over to the opening in the ground where David is and we peer down into the darkness to see his form, if we look closely and listen intently, we can see him patiently twisting the strand of cord in his hands as he continually offers up prayers to the one who can hear him.

Up from the pit come desperate cries for help and deliverance carried on the wings of prayer. David waits day after day. Some wait month after month and year after year for deliverance to come. All of David's hope is pinned on his God and in his promises.

That little sentence that refers to the Almighty. And he inclined unto me and heard my cry gives us a vivid picture of the Lord, holy, seated on his throne. And he cups his hand to his ear and leans over so better to hear the cries of his servant as they rise from that earthen pit to heaven's throne room.

Oh, the majesty and wonder bound up in those three words. Heard my cry. There's an old painting that hangs in a Spanish gallery and in this painting is a farmer who is kneeling beside his straw hat. He has just laid down his farm implements and his plow.

In the distance is a town and a bell tower of a church and it is obvious from looking at this painting that the church bell has just rung to call the village to a time of prayer. But if you look more carefully at this painting, friends, in the top right corner, you'd see the form of an angel that has just picked up the reins of the team of mules and is behind the plow as it turns a fresh furrow in the ground.

There is a brass plate with a caption below the painting and it has three words engraved in capital letters and they read No. Time. Lost. No time lost. Meaning that when we pray all of heaven is enlisted on our behalf.

Why, we get more done in prayer than out of prayer. No time lost. And as David sat in that muddy pit and twisted that strand of cord in his hands, he prayed and he prayed and he prayed until we read. And he inclined unto me and heard my cry.

It was in the waiting that David continually prayed. His hope was prayer and he waited for his deliverance to come from the hand of God. He was sinking in that miry clay but he held on to God in prayer and he answers that prayer and brings him up out of the miry clay.

The Gospel of Rescue from the Mire

My thoughts run back to a story that my late homiletical mentor Dr. Stephen F. Offord related to me one day of an incident that occurred in his childhood and I will close this message with this story, friends.

Born in Africa to missionary parents Stephen Offord grew up in the African bush in a humble little cottage. It was Christmas and young Stephen decided to sneak out of the cottage early one morning to go bag a wild goose for Christmas dinner.

Before daylight he left his parents' home quietly so not to awaken them. Into the darkness he walked with his rifle beneath his arm. Making his way to the gate he unlatched it but it made a squeak. He kept going into the dark bush to a distant field where he knew wild geese would be.

Slowly he moved into darkness but unfortunately his next step landed him in a treacherous bog of mire. There he was sinking in the miry bog as he held his rifle above his head with one hand while frantically trying to extricate himself with the other.

He realized he was in grave danger and sinking to his death. But unknown to him the native servant of his father's house was awakened by the squeak of the gate and this African had followed him into darkness without his knowledge.

There stood the African as the morning sun began to break over the field. He was attired in a colorful robe of silk which was wrapped around his naked body. Quickly the native began to unfold his cloak about him.

It unfolded into one long piece of material and as he unfolded it he reached the garment over to the desperate Stephen Oldford. Stephen grabbed it and hung on for dear life as he was pulled to safety.

Dr. Oldford related to me that this action of the African was like the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus stepped out of the glories of Heaven to come to Earth to save lost man who was sunk in the mire of sin and in his great mercy he unfolded his royal robe of righteousness and reached it out for us to grab hold of by faith.

Prayer, Repentance, and Hope in Psalm 40

Well in our passage here in Psalm 40 we find a man stuck in mire and he can't get out on his own. All of David's energies are tied up in the work of prayer and in exercising patience in the hope of help coming from God in deliverance.

Pray and wait. Wait and pray. Kava. He looks. He waits. He hopes. And it is in the waiting upon his God that he discovers his own heart. He says in verse 12. My iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up.

They are more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord to deliver me. O Lord make haste to help me. The doctrine, friends, of waiting for God in prayer is a benefit to all who are in need of deliverance.

Let this message sink down in our hearts and make a lasting impression and to ask God to give us the grace to wait upon him while he is active in our lives working to will and do on our behalf for our good and for his glory.

Let us pray.