Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, just as we hope in You. Psalm 33: 20-22, NKJV.
Merciful God, we thank You for Your love and kindness toward Your children. By Your grace, we will trust in Your love as long as we live. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Today we return to Psalm 33. This is our fifth day, meditating on the second half of this psalm. We will spend a few minutes feasting on the last three verses.
“Our soul waits for the LORD[.]” There is always some positive result attached to the idea of waiting on the LORD, in Scripture. I will share a couple of these verses with you:
“Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27: 14)! For those who have found that we can do nothing on our own, waiting on the LORD is not just an option; it is a well thought out choice. We have received strength from this practice. Speaking from experience, I have found that life can become very tiring, when I try to do things in my time, if it is not in agreement with God’s time. I receive both mental and physical strength from waiting on the LORD. He is never in a hurry, and He is always on time!
“Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for You, Since You have made all these” (Jeremiah 14: 22). Is it not wonderful to personally know the One who is in charge? There is no rain if our God should decide that there is going to be a drought! It is not Baal, nor Ashtoreth, nor Chemosh, or Milcom, but YHWH, who decides whether or not the heavens will “give showers.” Does it not make sense to wait on the One, who made everything?
“He is our help and our shield.” What do we ask for in the day of trouble? Help. What has served as a very flexible, and effective, form of protection in the day of war, from time immemorial until the present? A shield. Our God is both help and shield. And He is only a prayer away. Faster than a shield can cover any vulnerable part of our bodies, is God in coming to the rescue of any of His children!
“For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.” Calling upon the name of the LORD brings salvation! How wonderful is that! “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4: 12). Therefore, our hearts rejoice in His salvation!
“Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, just as we hope in You.” We spent several days meditating on the mercy of the LORD, under the title, His Mercy Outlasts His Wrath. No wonder the psalmist, as he contemplated the works of the LORD in history, prayed for that same mercy to be upon them, as they hoped in Him. For great is His mercy toward the children of humankind.
Having this knowledge, what could be better than to wait on the LORD?