During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
I waited patiently for the Lord;
Psalm 40:1
he turned to me and heard my cry.
In the midst of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go, the protagonist is found in what is described as “a most useless place. The Waiting Place … for people just waiting.” Seuss continues by listing all of the different things for which people are waiting. That image—sitting quietly in a “waiting place” waiting for something to change—is what many of us think of when we read the first line of our Psalm for this week: “I waited patiently for the Lord.”
To the Psalmist writing these words, the idea of waiting patiently for the Lord is not one of simply sitting there. Rather it is an active process, where we try to prepare our hearts, our minds, and our souls for the moment that will come when God acts. We are called not just to sit in a place where we do nothing, for waiting is not a passive activity. Rather when we wait patiently for the Lord, we should turn our hearts to God; we should continue to offer prayers to Him, entreating Him to intervene on our behalf. We pray in this manner not with the belief that we will cause God to change His mind but out of an act of trust, an offering to our Creator that we believe He will work for our good.
This ability to wait patiently reminds me of the moment described in Exodus before the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, when Moses declared to the people, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” That stillness and the patient waiting of the Psalmist requires trust; it requires that we have faith in the times when we feel as though we have absolutely no ability to change the situation in which we find ourselves.
As easy as it is to type these words on my computer, it is much harder to put them into action. The times when I cannot change a situation are the ones when I always desire to do so most. The times when I know in the depths of my heart and soul that only God can fix things are always the times when I try to exert my control the most.
For Reflection
- What helps you to remember to step back and trust in God’s ability to handle a situation?
- Describe a time in your life which has required waiting patiently to be an active moment.
Prayer
Gracious God, throughout Scripture you call us to wait for you, to be still, and to trust in your good work. Help us to actively wait for you, offering our prayers to you in the times when that is all that we are capable of doing. Let us see your hand at work in the places where we must wait patiently. In Jesus’ name we pray; amen.
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Devotionals