I'm grateful for David, the shepherd-king, for many reasons. Like many Christians I have been grateful for his example of trust in the Lord, of passionate worship, of constant prayer, of broken confession. I'm also grateful for something that he has taught me again and again from the last few verses of Psalm 27. "Wait on the Lord."
What does it mean to wait on the Lord? My heart prefers self-important busyness or self-indulgent laziness. But waiting on the Lord indicates a readiness to move when the Lord speaks, combined with an admission of dependance on the Lord's strength and guidance. Waiting on the Lord means that I do not issue my own orders, but follow his. It means I have no strength of my own but must glory in his. It means that I cannot live without prayer. It means that I live in constant need of the Lord's sustaining grace and guiding Word. It means that the Lord is my rock and my salvation--that I am neither rock-like nor a champion, but rather a weary pilgrim in need of heavenly rest.
Lord, teach me to wait on you. Teach me to be always ready to move at your command, but equally content to stay in my current circumstance at your order. Let my "heart take courage" as I "wait on the Lord."
