Expect

Psalms 5:1-10 NLT

For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by the flute.

(Written after 1 Samuel 18 when Saul tries to kill David.)

O LORD, hear me as I pray;

pay attention to my groaning.

2 Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God,

for I will never pray to anyone but you.

3 Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD.

Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.

4 O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness;

you cannot tolerate the slightest sin.

5 Therefore, the proud will not be allowed to stand in your presence,

for you hate all who do evil.

6 You will destroy those who tell lies.

The LORD detests murderers and deceivers.

7 Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house;

with deepest awe I will worship at your Temple.

8 Lead me in the right path, O LORD,

or my enemies will conquer me.

Tell me clearly what to do,

and show me which way to turn.

9 My enemies cannot speak one truthful word.

Their deepest desire is to destroy others.

Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.

Their speech is filled with flattery.

10 O God, declare them guilty

Verse 3 ‘....I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.’

A time of expecting an event is so exciting. Although when we talk of expecting most times our minds go to babies, but that need not always be the case. It can just as easily be a holiday, a present, a new job, even that special phone call!

Babies of course are special, the birth of a baby heralds much more than whether the room should be painted blue of pink, there is the expectation in the eye of the parents of the potential of their beautiful child.

A Life of Expectation

Psalm 5 is very beautiful. It speaks of the life and existence of a child of God under the care and authority of the Lord. Here the role is reversed, it is the expectation of the child to the Father. Certainly expectation is a two way thing! (V3) ‘In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.’ It’s not that God only hears in the morning, He doesn’t have a morning and evening! That’s simply the expression of David, looking forward to God’s involvement in his life. It was David that was laying his agenda for that day before the Lord, It was David that woke and at that time saw not just a beautiful sunrise, but another day of potential problems from Saul. If you read 1 Samuel 18, this was the time when the Spirit of the Lord was withdrawn from Saul and as one commentator said, when there is a spiritual void, the devil loves to fill it.

But where was David coming from in all of this. He was the one who Samuel had chosen from all his brothers and had anointed him, yet all the anointing had achieved so far was the dispatch of Goliath, the adulation of the people and the anger of Saul. - There was much more to this anointing, more than one brief battle! Expectation is the exciting bit, waiting is the frustration.

Have you ever stood in a queue and found that it is always the queue next to you that moves the quickest? Then you change lanes!!!

Not waiting - just confidence.

We’re always in a hurry, always want the event instantly. Here in the Psalm the emphasis seems not to be so much on the waiting and impatience but it seems to emphasise David’s total dependence on God. ‘I .... wait in expectation,’ His emphasise is not so much on time as on the person he was waiting for. His God, the one he had total dependence upon! Sometime we can move with great agitation from queue to queue or lane to lane. Actually we have no control over the results, that’s in the hands of the teller or the traffic officer etc.

Throughout the scriptures the emphasis is not having all the answers and the timetable laid out before the person concerned. Timetable put to one side - faith rising to the surface of personal belief, in a God who is able. It would have been rather daunting if Noah realised he had 120 years of work ahead of him before the ark would be finished. ----! For us in this fast-lane world, we need to learn to wait on Him. There needs to be the same absolute certainty that he knows us, loves us, cares for us. Have the confidence in Him to know that our God is totally dependable! (Isaiah 64:4) ‘Since ancient times no-one has heard, no ear perceived, no eye has seen any God beside you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.’