History and Translation: Waiting On The Lord

Waiting on the Lord gets significant emphasis from the Old Testament. There are countless blessings promised to those who wait on the Lord. There are at least 34 passages on waiting on the Lord with corresponding blessings in the Psalms and Isaiah alone.

Take a look at the following passages:

Psalm 37:34  "Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off."

Isaiah 40:31 "but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

We all want to please the Lord and be a beneficiary of his blessings. It is therefore quite important for us to learn what waiting on the Lord is and how it looks like.

There are two Hebrew words translated as "wait", chakah and qavah, both of them imply patience, eagerness, longing and both of them are word pictures of "lying in wait" or "waiting to ambush".

The Hebrew word pictures are quite helpful in making us understand the concepts that, in their culture and context, are really simple. Let us examine the mindset and heart of "lying in wait" and "waiting to ambush".

When a person waits to ambush, the following are true:

1. He knows his prey. He knows what he is waiting for
2. He has a plan for ambush making him sure that his prey will arrive where he is waiting
3. He refuses to be distracted and just focuses on the arrival of his prey
4. He is determined to get what he wants
5. He patiently waits because he has a goal and a passionate motive 
6. He experiences both anxiety AND excitement at the arrival of his prey
7. He experiences satisfaction when he has killed his prey

That is the way to wait on the Lord

1. We should know what we want and what we are waiting for - the presence of God and FRESH revelations from Him through his word, the Bible
2. We plan to wait for God. We deliberately set the time or times to meet him, just me and him.
3. We make sure we have no distractions and if there are any we find a different venue to meet with God.
4. Like Jacob in Genesis 32:22ff, we do not let go of God until He blesses us with a fresh revelation of himself
5. The fresh revelation or presence of God may not come right away but we wait patiently for it because God is love and God is faithful to his promise in Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. "
6. We experience a slew of emotions poured by the Holy Spirit when the fresh revelation finally arrives.
7. We experience our "Aha" moment as God once more reveals of himself in a mighty way. Our mind is renewed and our soul is refreshed and the Spirit continues his work of transformation

Life is abundant as Christ promised but like as a deer pants for water from the brooks, so our soul pants for God daily. If we have such a heart, God is faithful and renews us daily. We get so much closer and closer to God and his righteousness that we get farther and farther away from the inclinations of our sin nature giving us true real peace with God, victory over sin, a clear conscience and a life of holy love. Of such is the abundant life!