Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Psalm 130
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  November 20, 2022

This summer, I had a bad experience with waiting. I was with my wife and three children in an airport. Now, in their defense, it seemed that they were understaffed and one of the big X-ray machine things was down. But the line began as you entered the door of the airport. After the first hour we hadn’t even gotten to the rope lines. After the second hour the kids were desperate for a drink of water, but of course we had emptied our drinks before the security check. And by the third hour I pondered the words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” 

Waiting: we all know what it’s like, right? Waiting is that space between reality (where we’re at) and desire (where we’d love to be). Waiting is the space between addiction and recovery. The space between joblessness and employment. The space between singleness and a relationship. The space between hurt and health. The space between desperation and joy. In all of our lives we are on some level and in some way waiting, aren’t we? That’s even more true of life on a grander scale. In the Bible our entire life is a period of waiting. That’s what Jesus’ talks about in the Gospel today. We are to be waiting for him every day of our earthly lives! 

Which is interesting because, unlike waiting for things on earth, God tells us to wait for him intentionally. He wants us to focus on waiting! And even more, he promises that waiting on him isn’t just wasted time or a meaningless delay. Psalm 130 is all about waiting on the LORD. Here’s a glance at its structure. Verses 1-2 is an address to God but a chiasm is embedded in verses 3-8:

A: GOD & GUILT- If you, LORD, kept a record of guilt (v. 3) 

B: GRACE- But with you is pardon, (v. 4) 

C: WAITING- I wait for the LORD…(vv. 5 and 6) 

C: WAITING- Israel, wait confidently for the LORD (v. 7) 

B: GRACE-With the LORD there is mercy…abundant redemption (v. 7) 

A: GOD & GUILT- So he himself shall redeem Israel from all its guilt (v. 8) 

The A and B parts point to God’s grace in forgiving guilt, and the center highlights waiting for the LORD. This is such a beautiful Psalm and I could preach ten sermons on each verse, but today just the “waiting” of verses 5-7 will be our focus. 

As I was saying before, waiting is not something we usually do intentionally. I read a report that said the average American will spend 2-4 years of their life on ads and commercials. We didn’t ask for them, and yet we have to wait for them! Whenever we have to wait, it’s not something we want to focus on!  However, when we wait for the LORD, it’s completely different. The word for “wait” (qavah) here in Psalm 130 comes from the root meaning a “cord” or “strand of rope”. (Use a bungee cord.) When you pull a cord tight, when you stretch it, you produce a state of tension. That is the sense of the word “wait” here. This state of stretching, in-tension-al waiting is the posture of healthy faith. There is supposed to be a spiritual tension in us as we wait for the Lord. We are living in a sinful world but our hopes and our heart are set on Christ. And so we are stretched, we are filled with tension until he comes. As the Psalmist says, “I wait (qavah) for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” 

The anticipation and longing of the psalmist are compared with guards who keep watch over city walls at night. Their hope is that they might pass the night successfully without threat or incident. Therefore, they long for the coming of the morning, when they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It’s the same tension Jesus’ talked about in our Gospel reading, “Don’t fall asleep, keep your lamps burning!” Wait in-tension-ally! Scripture is littered with this encouragement. Many of the books are written while God’s people are in exile, the tension of longing to return to the place we truly belong: i.e. in-tension-al waiting. Or like the Apostle Paul who said, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary that I remain in the body.” Martin Luther talked about this tension in his treatise on the Freedom of a Christan, saying that we are pulled up toward God in heaven and yet pulled down toward earth out of love for our neighbor, suspended by our in-tension-al waiting. Augustine wrote that “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” In other words, although tension never feels comfortable, it is a good thing. It’s not a defect of faith, it’s a result of your faith! The truth is, it’s really slackness that you need to watch out for. 

Spiritual Slackness #1: Being in the world and OF the world. It is tempting to set our hopes and dreams in the here and now, to set our strongest longing on such trivial things like looking a certain way, or being good at a sport or music, or finding a boyfriend or girlfriend. My friends, the devil wants you to let go of heaven, to release the tension, he wants you to tire of being stretched toward God and he invites you to relax. It would be easier, we could be accepting of whatever people want to do or be regardless of how destructive it may be to themselves or others. We could agree with whatever is trendy and not care about what is true. We could stop praying, stop worshiping. Times are tight, we could just stop giving our money to the Lord’s work, we could relax. But the devil only wishes that you would stop watching and waiting so that he can storm the city at night. He wants the watchmen to fall asleep so he can steal into your heart and destroy your faith. My friends, don’t go slack towards earth. Wait in-tension-ally. Be in the world, but not of it. 

Spiritual Slack #2: Being not in the world and NOT of the world. Let me explain with the account of four lepers in 2 Kings 7. In the prophet Elisha’s day, the Lord scattered the Aramean army which was besieging Jerusalem. But the people in Jerusalem, who were starving to death, didn’t know that the camp was deserted. Well, four Israelite lepers decide to go and surrender to the Arameans, but when they arrive they find the camp deserted. So these four lepers raid the camp joyfully eating the food and wine, taking gold and silver, until they remember all the people dying back in the city…they say, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.” (2 Kings 7:9) The world is starving for the gospel and we get to feast on it every day! Share it! Don’t slack from earth! Love people and put yourself in positions to befriend unbelievers and share what they so desperately need, and may not even know is available: Forgiveness, joy, and eternal life in Jesus Christ.

I’d like to close with three applications for our in-tension-al waiting: #1. Remember that tension is a good thing! The view is beautiful on top of the mountain, but fruit is grown in the valley. Cry out from the depths, struggle and strain to maintain the tension of faith. This is a good thing! Do you feel tension because the Word of God which gives you such comfort is often ridiculed or rejected? Do you feel tension in your family because you are serious about following Christ but others you love are not so excited? Do you feel the tension in repentance and contrition over your sin and the Christian life you wish to lead? That tension is so difficult, but it is good! Don’t let it slip! This is part of in-tension-al waiting! Be encouraged. This is the Spirit’s work in you. I don’t know what you’re going through today. I don’t know what depth you cry out from. But remember that God does some of his best work while we are waiting. The tension of faith is a good and holy thing! The prophet Isaiah said it like this: They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength…(Isa. 40:31)  In the space between, there’s a strength that’s built. There’s a fortitude that develops through in-tension-al waiting.

#2. Tension is easier to bear together. Psalm 130 is a psalm of ascents, which means it was a specific psalm that was sung as pilgrims went to Jerusalem for the annual festivals. They sang about waiting together, about crying out from the depths, about the forgiveness and love of God. They helped each other bear the burdens of the journey. So too, lean on your Christian friends, or be a friend, make a Christian friend who you can talk to about the tension of waiting. Let them carry your burden too. Let them encourage you in God’s Word and in fellowship. Come walk up the literal ascent into Eastside together. Tension is easier to bear together!

#3. Wait in confidence. The psalmist says, “Israel, wait confidently for the Lord, because with the Lord there is mercy. With him there is abundant redemption.”  God knew that, left to our own, we would let the tension go. And so he came down to be with us. He came down and was stretched out upon a cross. He felt the tension of his body weight pulling against the spikes driven through his hands and feet, because he loved you. And he endured the Father’s just punishment for our slack hearts. He bought our souls back from sin, death, and the devil. And he rose from the dead so that we could wait in-tension for the heavenly home he has won for us. You know who your God is. You know how the Lord loves you and gave himself for you. Wait in-tension-ally with confidence because you know that with the Lord is mercy and abundant redemption! He is worth the wait. 

Amen.