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

Psalm 130:5-6

Watchmen wait for dawn with no hesitation because they’re certain it will come.

The sun goes down and darkness falls, but they know the sun will rise again.

Like they who wait for first light, may we wait for God — preparing our hearts to receive Him.

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Waiting on the Lord

In Hebrew, there are two words primarily translated to wait. Yakhal is a type of waiting held together by patience and trust, marking Noah’s patience for the flood waters to recede, or Job’s waiting on God in the midst of his suffering. It’s the waiting in Jeremiah that drew God’s people to search for light in the darkest of times.

Used 49 times, Qavah expresses a waiting, tarrying, and gathering together that is expectant, preparatory, and active. This is the longing of God’s people in Isaiah and the Psalms, waiting eagerly and desperately for the presence of God. It is their hunger for His righteousness, their hope for His coming light, and their expectation for the Messiah’s arrival just as God said He would come. They waited on God because they believed Him when He said He would deliver them, restore them, heal them, bring blessing upon them, and send One who would save them.

God is a keeper of covenant. He’s worth waiting for.

As people of God, we are invited, challenged, and encouraged to wait for Jesus’ arrival with great anticipation and hopeful trust, believing that He is a Man of His Word.

In the Old Testament, as the Israelites longed for God’s deliverance, their hope was sometimes messy, always eager, and ripe with expectation. When the Son of Man comes, they’d say, I’m not going to miss Him.

When He comes, I’ll be ready.

In the midst of their hope, God’s people were honest in their ache for His presence in their lives. How long O Lord, the Psalmists say countless times. It was a soul-bearing confession from their hearts to His in the midst of their troubles, and it was there that they found renewed hope. As they came before God with their God-help-me’s and Lord-help-my-unbelief’s, God was renewing their hearts and restoring their hope by reminding them who He was. He drew close in their afflictions, then set their feet upon higher places.

So often, we think honesty and longing are evidence of meager, weak faith, but in many cases in scripture, it’s the opposite. Bold faith doesn’t come when doubt is absent, but instead when we come to God with shaky faith – offering him what little we have, and trusting He can do something with it. Sometimes, bold faith is cultivated in the trenches.

The Israelites’ waiting wasn’t marked by perfect patience or politeness, but deep longing as their hearts cried out for God’s deliverance. In Psalm 130, it’s what drew the writer to wait on God as watchmen wait for dawn – scanning the horizon for first light – knowing it’s not a question of if but when.

God’s Redemption

As watchmen are delivered from their waiting with the breaking of dawn, the tension of our waiting is broken with the arrival of God’s Son.

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In our doubt or longing, we tug on the threads of God’s redemption story, from Genesis to Exodus to 2 Samuel to Jeremiah then to the Gospels and beyond, looking for flaws in what He’s crafted. But from generation to generation we don’t find abandonment or forgetfulness. What we find is God’s faithfulness.

So, let us remember Him.

In Jesus, we see the fulfillment of the Psalmists’ longing, their waiting coming to an end with His long awaited arrival. For us, who find ourselves between Christ’s First and Second Coming, we too find ourselves in faithful, honest, expectant waiting – opening our hearts to believe that Jesus will come again to make all things new.

If our prayers sound like the Psalms, then let our praises sound like them, too. As we wait, we don’t have to be led to despair. By making Christ the subject of our hearts’ deepest worship, our waiting can become a place of preparation. Israel’s affectionate hearts chased wholeheartedly after the Lord in mourning and in dancing, reminding us no matter where we find ourselves now, he has not left us behind, but is presently restoring our hearts back to communion with Him.

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The Father Makes Himself Known

John 1 tells us, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

When we see the story of Jesus’s birth as part of the unified redemption story God has been writing since the beginning of time, we can’t help but lean in with wide-eyed wonder. It’s soul-catching, the way He loves us, pursues us and desires so deeply to be with us. The Son of God – Son of Abraham, Son of David (Matt 1:1) – who came to us through a humble birth, nestled gently in a cradle in the dirt, is God’s answer to all of our questions.

As our prayers sound like the Psalms in honest, yet hopeful longing, may our praises be no different. May we gather up our affections and bring them before this Worthy God, trusting He is faithful to finish what He has started.

In Christ, the Father has made himself known. In our waiting and our longing and our heart’s most jubilant praise, this is good news.

As we wait with expectation, may we remember the One for whom we’re waiting. In the spaces between, may His heart’s desires take root in our own – shifting our longings and priorities to make room to receive the Savior who has come to lead us home. When He comes, let us be ready to receive him.

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God is faithful in His coming. May He find us faithful in our waiting.