Sabbath: Wait on the Lord
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 23rd of March 2024
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study
Psalms 27:14, Romans 8:18-25, Psalms 131:1-3, Matthew 18:3, Psalms 126:1-6, Psalms 92:1-15, Mark 16:1-8, 2 Peter 1:19.
Memory Text:
“Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” (Psalms 27:14, NKJV).
We have reached the last week in this quarter’s study of the Psalms. The spiritual journey has taken us through the experience of awe before the majestic Creator, King, and Judge; through the joys of divine deliverance, forgiveness, and salvation; through moments of surrender in grief and lament; and through the glorious promises of God’s everlasting presence and the anticipation of the unending universal worship of God. The journey continues, though, as we live in the hope of the Lord’s coming when our longing for God will find its ultimate fulfillment. If there is a final word that we can draw from the Psalms, it should be “wait on the Lord.”
Waiting on the Lord is not an idle and desperate biding of one’s time. Instead, waiting on the Lord is an act full of trust and faith, a trust and faith revealed in action. Waiting on the Lord transforms our gloomy evenings with the expectancy of the bright morning (Psalms 30:5, Psalms 143:8). It strengthens our hearts with renewed hope and peace. It motivates us to work harder, bringing in the sheaves of plentiful harvest from the Lord’s mission fields (Psalms 126:6, Matthew 9:36-38). Waiting on the Lord will never put us to shame but will be richly rewarded because the Lord is faithful to all His promises (Psalms 37:7-11,18,34; Psalms 71:1; Psalms 119:137-138).
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, March 30.
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Luke 19 has a parable about how to wait on the Lord. The Key sentence is, "Occupy till I come!"
Computers often have to wait for something to happen and there are two methods of handling this situation, They can "idle wait". The CPU sits there doing nothing until it gets a signal that there is a task to do. Or they can "busy wait". They do something while they are waiting.
Just something to keep in the back of your mind while studying this week's lesson.
How do I know?
I'm afraid my Father,
Is my heart white washed like some of the headstones in the graveyards?
How do I know?
I'm afraid my Father,
I do not want to be presumptuous of my acceptance by You.
How do I know?
I'm afraid my Father,
I fear I'm a lamb which has wandered off and I can't find my way back.
How do I know?
I'm afraid my Father,
I've been crying out to You so You could find me.
Please I pray, don't give up on me.
How do I know?
I'm afraid my Father,
I am comforted to call you my Father.
I can feel Your presence with me now.
This is how I know!
I love you Lord, my God and my Father.
There you go Connie Sutherland writing your own Psalms.
Abraham waited 25 years between hearing God’s promise and holding his promised baby boy (Genesis 12:4; 21:5). That's 9,125 days and nights of praying for God to fulfill His promise. Did he and Sarah grow discouraged? We know they did and tried to rush God's plan....but over time Abraham “grew strong in his faith” as the childless years unfolded (Romans 4:20). He let God discipline and teach him. He became known as the "father of our faith" (Rom.4:16; Gal.3:6-9).
While waiting for God to fulfill His promise to finish the good work He has begun in us (Phil.1:6), we can look at our own relatively barren lives....compared to the powerful witness and works in the Spirit of the members of the early church for instance....and we can become discouraged. Or, like Abraham and Sarah, we can:
(1) dig deeper in our prayer lives alone and together...our God hears us (Micah 7:7),
(2) we can keep track of how God has led in our past and continues to lead (Ps.77:11),
(3) we can share with others how God is good to us (Ps.89:1),
(4) we can review God's promises in His Word and wait for them like a night watchman looking for the first light of the morning (Ps.130:5-6)....we see Abraham reviewing the promise (Rom. 4:20-21),
(5) and in waiting for God we can choose to trust that we will not be put to shame (Ps.25:3). God is with us...and for us.
2,000 years of waiting for Jesus to return is 730,500 days. In this wilderness of waiting, God is growing our faith in Him if we let Him. He is helping us to learn to lay down ourselves and submit to His will. Amen.
Is it ok then to substitute the word hope for 'wait'? My asking runs in line with the idea that the hope in comparison to the word wait has a more significant meaning one, and two, wait would only the closest word in the English translation?
Thanks Brother Ronald, that's an interesting question and helpful to think about "wait" in different ways. What words mean by the dictionary definition sometimes change over time by common use.
"Wait", for example, is frequently used by parents to their kids in a way that means "sit still"..."wait in the car for me"..."wait for the sermon to be over and then we'll have lunch". In these examples, the children may do quiet or seated activities, but their movement and expression is limited.
Your suggested word "hope" also has familiar usage that I think may be different than the Bible's usage. We say, "I hope the weather clears soon" to say "I have no control over the situation and it probably won't, but I wish it would." Whereas in the Bible, to "hope in the Lord" is to be certain in His character and promised action. Hope is far more than an idle wish.
I'll introduce another similar word..."watch"...I find it in Matt.26:36-41:
What stands out to me in all of these examples of similar words..."wait", "hope", "watch" is that God expects us to be not passive, but active. While we wait for fulfillment of His promises, we are to be alert and watching and communicating back to Him what we are experiencing and waiting and expecting the promises to come true ...so much so that we are participating with Him in kingdom living and kingdom building.
To wait on the LORD means TRUSTING on Him. Developing a relationship with God is very dynamic, and When I can't stay on Him, I complain. I want to have a balanced focus to solve whatever is within my power, and the rest? "Wait on the Lord." I have to remember that I'm limited.
Hi JC – I came to the same understanding as you – waiting on the Lord means ‘trusting Him’ and not ourselves to resolve faith's daily challenges. You say that you ‘complain’ when you cannot ‘stay on Him’. I also experience this emotional state of unsettledness as it requires patience and strong faith to remain 'still' whiles we wait on the Lord.
Lately, the most meaningful verse to help me deal with ‘waiting on the Lord’ has become Isaiah 30:15 - ”In repentance and rest is my salvation, in quietness and trust is my strength.” I often meditate on these inspired words!
Actually, the verse uses ‘your’ and not ‘I’, but I use it to remind myself, so I personalized it; it comforts me greatly during times when I wait upon my Lord to set things right in His time.
To wait is to looking forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial, often with a focus of anticipation in a future event (Ge 49:18; Job 3:9)
It appears from Sabbaths lesson that this week we are going to bring to light the new song 'Waiting and Watching'. A new song? Oh yes for many, and an old song for some. Some have sung it in the past, now the message stays vital in our hearts as a new song portraying our determination to sustain untill Christ calls us home.
We know not the time when He cometh.
At even, or midnight, or morn;
It may be at deepening twilight,
It may be at earliest dawn.
He bids us to watch and be ready,
Nor suffer our lights to grow dim;
That when He shall come, He may find us,
All waiting and watching for Him.
Chorus:
Waiting and watching,
Waiting and watching;
Waiting and watching,
Still waiting and watching for Thee.
While you are waiting and watching stay ready for the Lord's second coming.
Matthew 24:44 NIV
In the interm. Give to Christ what He gave. Service. We know, yes we know, though many times we need reminding, it is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.
Deuteronomy 10:12.
Luke 4:8.
Now there is someone in the crowd who will ask, how do I give? Through Christ all things are possible. Peter, James, and John outlined it for us.
1 Peter 3:15-18.
James 2:14-17.
1 John 4:11-12.
We are to wait and watch..very inspiring.
Sabbath is our mark as Seventh-day Adventist Church member... At the end of our spiritual journey the save man and woman must be faithful till the end ( keep the Sabbath) how about those who keep other day than Sabbath to be save eventhough the message been given to them?
While I think the Sabbath is important, keeping it does not save us. We are saved by grace.
We are not saved by keeping the Sabbath. We are saved by the grace of God which is a free gift for those who believe. However, keeping the Sabbath is a commitment to your faith showing that you’re saved. Similarly, if a robber accepts Jesus as his Lord and Saviour he stops robbing because he knows that Jesus was not a robber. Elohim has never changed any of the Ten Commandments or abolished any of them. If keeping 9/10 Commandments is like not keeping them all.
The question that I would like to ask is ‘did Jesus break the Sabbath? If yes, in what way?
Yes, but how much longer will it take for us (His children) to commit all to Him?
Lingering
Why do I linger, why do I wait
To enter through that Narrow Gate?
This world’s not my home. It is above
Am I just waiting for a gentle shove?
One day I run on through that Gate
Next day I stand there reviewing my fate.
If not forward, will I turn back
To that old familiar wayward track?
Help me Lord to move ahead
And not down the road of “the living dead”.
You hear my cry but I still hesitate
And keep my feet planted just near that Gate.
I don’t want the Broad Gate for it wounded me
But I still look back though forward I flee
Rapid at first but then I slow down
As weeds of sin still hang around.
Stops and starts! When will they end?
Tell me Jesus, my dearest Friend.
The Judgment’s been set and my life’s in review
Come Holy Spirit and my heart renew
No longer to stand so near the Gate
Jesus, pull me forward before it’s too late.
Steve Wilcox 2020
No Jesus did not break the fourth commandment. And He kept the other 9 also. What a immaculate example to us. Through His power we can keep all ten. Through His righteousness we are saved.
Genesis 15:6.
Philippians 2:13.
Revelation 12:10-11.