By Stephen Green
First Published in Christian Voice April 2012
Psalm 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 37:34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.
Proverbs 20:22 Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.
Most of us when thinking about the expression ‘Wait on the Lord’ assume that a great degree of patience is involved. We have scriptures in mind like this one:
Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
The importunate widow in Luke 18 kept on and on at the unrighteous judge asking to be avenged until he eventually relented. The Lord Jesus was teaching us not to give up in prayer, even though the answer may appear to be delayed. Even then the Lord went on to say that God will avenge the elect ‘speedily’:
Luke 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
We need faith when persevering in prayer. Many people spend a lifetime praying for their partner or for their children, for neighbours, for revival, and these prayers made importunately, or persistently, need faith and they need patience.
But let us return to the subject of ‘Waiting on the Lord’. Most studies on this subject emphasise the need for patience. The Lord is not limited to time and space, they rightly say:
2Pet 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The studies speak of our unwillingness to wait, of us being in too much of a hurry, likening ‘waiting on the Lord’ to the time we might spend in a doctor’s waiting room, or at the bus station. Slow down, they say, and give the Lord time. Wait for the Lord’s reply. These studies are consistent with a version of Christianity in which the idea of doing anything about a matter except pray is greeted with surprise and even derision. ‘Leave it to the Lord’. ‘Be still’. ‘Do nothing but wait; He will answer.’
There are very few people like that in the Bible. The man who wrote the two psalms with which we opened, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was a man of action. We read about what he did in the Lord’s service. So I believe there is more to this ‘waiting on the Lord’ than patience and quietude.
The Hebrew word translated ‘wait’ is ‘qavah’ which Strong’s dictionary says means ‘to bind together (perhaps by twisting), that is, collect; (figuratively) to expect: – gather (together), look patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon).’
The word translated ‘on’ is ‘el ‘el’ which is a ‘primitive particle, properly denoting motion towards, but occasionally used of a quiescent position’.
So these words have been well translated as ‘wait on’ in the KJV and many other Bible versions.
But waiting ‘on’ the Lord is not the same as waiting ‘for’ the Lord and this is where I think most of the studies have it wrong. There are two different meanings of the word ‘wait’ according to whether it is qualified by the ‘on’ or the word ‘for’. In that doctor’s waiting room or at the bus stop we are waiting ‘for’ someone or something, not waiting ‘on’ them.
I believe the analogy should not be the hospital, it should be the restaurant. In a restaurant there are waiters. Their job, we might assume from their name, is to wait. But they do not wait around. They are busy people. They are moving purposely from one table to another, taking instructions.
They say things like: ‘May I take your order Madam?’ ‘Are you ready to order yet, Sir?’ ‘May I bring you something to drink?’ ‘Would you like to see the desert menu?’ ‘Is everything to your satisfaction?’
Her Majesty the Queen has ‘Ladies in Waiting’. They are not waiting patiently somewhere on the off-chance that Her Majesty might grant them a request. They are servants carrying out orders, just like the waiters in the restaurant. They fetch and carry, lay out clothes, answer letters, take messages. They attend to Her Majesty’s needs. They do as she tells them.
So we see that to ‘wait on’ someone is quite different from to ‘wait for’ someone. Yes, those waiters are waiting for you to order. They are waiting for you to make up your mind. But their whole motivation is to wait on you, to be eager to take your instructions, so they can go away and fulfill your order, make it a reality and bring it back to you.
And that is exactly what Jesus taught in his parables of the talents. The Lord gives his instructions to his servants and expects them to do what he says. He expects to see results when he returns. In the word used in Luke 19:13, we are to occupy ourselves, and perhaps even occupy the land, as useful and faithful servants, just like the Levites who waited on the priests in the temple:
1Chr 23:28 Because their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, and the work of the service of the house of God;
Those Levites were about the Lord’s business, waiting on the priests for their orders. So I am suggesting that too much of today’s prayer lies in telling God our needs and too little of it is in listening out for instructions.
If we are really ‘waiting on the Lord’ we need to be like the waiters at the table. ‘Lord, are you ready to give me an order?’ ‘Where do you want me to go?’ ‘Lord, there is this situation, what should I do?’ Especially at a time when our nation needs to hear Christian witness and see Christian care for the needy, we should be willing servants, open to whatever our King wants us to do. Waiting on the Lord is not to be passive but busy.
To hear the Lord’s voice properly, we shall need to be keeping his way, as Psalm 37.34 tells us. Unless our mind is tuned in to the Lord’s mind, which means studying, praying and meditating his word in Scripture, we shall never hear his voice.
But when we receive the answers to those prayers, we shall need the courage spoken of in Psalm 27.14 above. The Lord will probably take us right out of our comfort zone and tell us to do something we have never done before. And as we carry out his orders he will strengthen our hearts and we shall see his victories over his enemies and ours, as Proverbs 20:22 implies, and the wicked cut off.
I am not against patience. We need it when presenting petitions against the odds. But does not the Lord need rather more patience, sitting there at table waiting for his people to get off their backsides, stop their chatting and come across and say, ‘Lord, may I take your order?’
The Lord is looking for those like Isaiah to say, ‘Here am I Lord, send me.’
That is true waiting on the Lord, in my humble opinion.
