...To wait on God is to live a
life of desire towards Him, delight in Him, dependence on Him, and devotedness
to Him.
A. It is to live a life of desire
towards God; to wait on Him, as the beggar waits on his benefactor, with
earnest desire to receive supplies from him; as the sick and sore in Bethesda’s
pool, waited for the stirring of the water, and attended in the porches with
desire to be helped in and healed. When the prophet had said, Lord, in the way
of Thy judgments we have waited for Thee, he explained himself thus in the next
words, the desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee;
and with my soul have I desired Thee, Isa. 26:8, 9. Our desire must be not only
towards the good things that God gives, but towards God Himself, His favour and
love, the manifestation of His name to us, an the influences of His grace upon
us. Then we wait on God, when our souls pant after Him, and His favour, when we
thirst for God, for the living God: O that I may behold the beauty of the Lord!
O that I may taste His goodness! O that I may bear His image, and be entirely
conformed to His will! For there is none in heaven or earth, that I can desire
in comparison of Him. O that I may know Him more, and love Him better, and be
brought nearer to Him, and made fitter for Him. Thus upon the wings of holy
desire should our souls be still soaring upwards towards God, still pressing
forwards, forwards towards heaven.
We must not only pray solemnly in
the morning, but that desire which is the life and soul of prayer, like the
fire upon the altar, must be kept continually burning, ready for the sacrifices
that are to be offered upon it. The bent and bias of the soul in all its
motions must be towards God, the serving of Him in all we do, and the enjoying
of Him in all we have. And this is principally intended in the commands given
to us to pray always, to pray without ceasing, to continue in prayer. Even when
we are not making actual addresses to God, yet we must have habitual
inclinations towards Him; as a man in health, though He is not always eating,
yet has always a disposition in him towards the nourishments and delights of
the body. Thus we must be always waiting on God, as our chief good, and moving
towards Him.
B. It is to live a life of
delight in God, as the lover waits on his beloved. Desire is love in motion, as
a bird upon the wing; delight is love at rest, as a bird upon the nest; now
though our desire must still be towards God, as that we must be wishing for
more of God, yet our delight must be so in God, as that we must never wish for
more than God. Believing Him to be a God all-sufficient, in Him we must be
entirely satisfied; let Him be mine, and I have enough. Do we love to love God?
It is a pleasure to us to think that there is a God, that He is such a one as
He has revealed Himself to be, that He is our God by creation to dispose of us
as He pleaseth, our God in covenant to dispose of all for the best to us; this
is waiting on our God, always looking up to Him with pleasure.
Something or other the soul has
that it values itself by, something or other it reposes itself in, and what is
it? God of the world? What is it that we pride ourselves in? Which we make the
matter of our boasting? It is the character of worldly people, that they boast
themselves in the multitude of their riches, Psa. 49:6 and of their own might,
and the power of their own hands, which they think has gotten them this wealth;
it is the character of godly people, that in God they boast all the day long,
Psa. 44:8. That is waiting on God; having our eye always upon Him with a secret
complacency, as men have upon that which is their glory, and which they glory
in.
What is it that we please
ourselves with, which we embrace with the greatest satisfaction, in the bosom
of which we lay our heads, and in having which we hug ourselves, as having all
we would have: the worldly man when his barns are full of corn, saith, soul,
take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry; the godly man can never say so till
he finds his heart full of God, and Christ; and grace; and then, return unto
thy rest, O my soul, here repose thyself; the gracious soul dwells in God, is
at home in Him, and there dwells at ease, is in Him perpetually pleased; and
whatever he meets with in the world to make him uneasy, he finds enough in God
to balance.
C. It is to live a life of
dependence on God, as the child waits on his father, whom he ha confidence in,
and on whom he casts all his care. To wait on God is to expect all good to come
to us from Him, as the worker of all good for us, and in us, the giver of all
good to us, and the protector of us from all evil. Thus David explains himself,
Psa. 62:5 My soul wait thou only upon God, and continue still to do so, for my
expectation is from Him, I look not to any other for the good I need; for I
know that every creature is that to me, and no more than He makes it to be, and
from Him every man’s judgment proceeds. Shall we lift up our eyes to the hills?
Doth our help come from thence? Doth the dew that waters the valleys come no
further, than from the tops of the hills? Shall we go higher, and lift up our
eyes to the heavens, to the clouds? Can they of themselves give rain? No, if
God hear not the heavens, they hear not the earth; we must therefore look above
the hills, above the heavens, for all our help cometh from the Lord; it was the
acknowledgment of a king, and no good one neither, if the Lord do no help thee,
whence shall I help thee out of the the barn-floor, or out of the wine-press?
And our expectations from God as
far as they are guided by, and grounded upon the word which He hath spoken,
ought to be humbly confident and with a full assurance of faith. We must know
and be sure, that no word of God shall fall to the ground, that the expectation
of the poor shall not perish. Worldly people say to their gold, thou are my
hope; and to the fine gold, thou art my confidence, and the rich man’s wealth
is his strong city; but God is the only refuge and portion of the godly man
here in the land of the living; it is to him only that he saith, and he saith
it with a holy boldness, thou art my hope, and my confidence. The eyes of all things
wait on Him; for He is good to all; but the eyes of His saints especially, for
He is in a peculiar manner good to Israel, good to them. They know His name and
therefore will trust, and triumph in Him, as those that know they shall not be
made ashamed of their hope.
D. It is to live a life of
devotedness to God, as the servant waits on his master, ready to observe His
will, and to do His work, and in everything to consult His honour and interest.To wait on God, is entirely and unreservedly to refer ourselves to His wise and holy directions, and disposals, and cheerfully to acquiesce in them, and comply with them. The servant that waits on his master, chooseth not his own way, but follows his master step by step: thus we must wait on God, as those that have no will of our own, but what is wholly reserved into his; and must therefore study to accommodate ourselves to His. It is the character of the redeemed of the Lord, that they follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes, with an implicit faith and obedience. As the eyes of a servant are to the hand of his master, and the eyes of a maiden to the and of her mistress, so must our eyes wait on the Lord, to do what He appoints us, to take what He allots us; Father, Thy will be done; Master, Thy will be done.
The servant waits on his master, not only to do him service, but to do him honour; and thus must we wait on God that we may be to Him for a name, and for a praise. His glory must be our ultimate end, to which we, and all we are, have, and can do, must be dedicated; we must wear His livery, attend in His courts, and follow His motions as His servant, for this end, that He may in all things be glorified.
Matthew Henry
A Method for Prayer, pp. 201-203
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