Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. – Psalm 37:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 23, 2013): Psalm 37

I admit that I want to characterize myself as an impatient person. I mean, I know I hate waiting for things. I am the guy that gets a little annoyed because he has to wait in the special orders parking spot at McDonalds because they have run out of French Fries. (Since when is an order of French Fries a special order item.) And then I get to watch all of the cars behind me drive past me and my question is – you mean, none of these people ordered French Fries?

I want to characterize myself as impatient, but I am also the guy who feels incredible pleasure in the wait for Christmas or Birthdays. I think the reason is that I have, over the course of my life, realized that the anticipation of the special moments in my life, and the lives of the ones that I love, is incredibly more pleasurable then the letdown after the event is over. And the event itself is nothing more than a brief blip on the days of my life. And so armed with that information, all in a sudden I realize that I have the potential of being a very patient man – even though I think it is against the nature of my being.

I think David was, by nature, an impatient man. All the way through his life he wanted things now and sometimes the impatience of his nature meant that he rushed into things without really thinking about how things should be done. It was the problem with the census that he had ordered, but that God had forbidden. It was impatience that was the problem when he first wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem. It was even impatience (and lust) that was at the heart of his sin with Bathsheba. What David wanted he wanted now! And for someone that was characterized by that kind of impatience, watching others do evil and succeed was a very hard thing to put up with. So David writes here what is against his nature. His message is this– I get that it is hard to watch the evil succeed, but recognize that the evil is only temporary, but what God does will be forever, and we are to live in incredible anticipation of that moment of incredible good.

I think maybe this whole principle is characterized by David’s waiting for the building of the Temple of God. It was something that David wanted more than anything else, but it was also something that David knew he would never see. And so all David could do was wait and anticipate a building he would never see except in his mind. So while he waited, he made plans for the Temple. I can imagine David spending time dreaming late into the night about the Temple. And then going and waking Solomon and saying – when you build the temple you have to do this (and Solomon probably replied – but Dad, I am only eight). But in that moment David truly understood what it meant to live in the anticipation of the good that God was going to do.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 38