Verses: Psalm 130Sample

Psalm 130:5-6
[5] I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word, I hope;
[6] my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

We all hate waiting, don’t we? If for some reason Prime delivery can’t get that thing to us in 24 hours, we’re frustrated. And yet as humans, we can’t escape it. As kids, we wait for the school bell to ring or for Christmas morning; as we grow older we wait to hear back about a promotion or diagnosis. Eventually, each of us waits for the deterioration of our bodies and death itself. We can’t escape waiting, no matter how hard we try. Take a moment to consider this question: what are you waiting for in this season? Maybe another way of wording it: what are you longing for? What are you wishing for?

The psalmist tells us they’re waiting, not for a particular outcome, but for a Person. In this case, it’s the LORD, who as we learned earlier is the God who’s bound Himself to us in covenant! Waiting typically corresponds with your trust in the character of the person you’re waiting for… If you’re not sure someone’s going to show up, your confidence and hope might be low. However, if the person you’re waiting for has promised and covenanted themselves with you, it’s far easier to wait. It’s still hard. Life events make it hard to trust and believe He’ll come through in the end, but today try to direct the gaze of your waiting not on an outcome but a Person.

What is a soul, and what does a soul in waiting look like? In Hebrew the word for soul is “nephesh,” and generally refers to one’s entire being; your soul is your whole self. It’s the same word found in the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 where we’re commanded to love God with all our heart, all our soul (nephesh), and all our might. We were created to love Him with our whole selves, undivided and undistracted… Perhaps one of the ways we love God with all our souls is precisely by our souls waiting for Him and not moving on in rejecting Him when He doesn’t seem to be operating on our timeline! Like Israel waiting for Moses to return from Mount Sinai, do we wait patiently or do we grow frustrated and fashion our own gods attempting to make our own way? The soul in waiting never takes this route! It remains and stays and waits and trusts… What are some ways you might be divided in your waiting? Have you grown impatient or have you cut that waiting short in any way, running elsewhere for hope or relief? If so, confess those things and ask God to teach your soul to wait for Him!

Did you know there’s a watchman in each of us? On a dark night, every soul is on the lookout… For hope, for deliverance, for rescue. There’s an attentiveness and longing for the end of a dark and long night. Where have you set your hope? Sometimes we set our gaze on the wrong places and in the wrong things. The psalmist tells us that the horizon they’ve set their gaze on is on God Himself. Our prayer is that God awakens in us a deeper hope in God’s Word and a greater watchfulness in our lives. It’s so easy to live life half-asleep and unaware. Psalm 130 invites us to climb the steps and gaze from that watch tower, on the lookout for God’s return, but also asking Him to move through us until He does.

Meditate

• Read - Read verses 5-6 a few times out loud.
• Pray - In your journal, write out verses 5-6. The intention here is to slow down with the passage and linger in it. What words or phrases jump out at you? Turn those observations into a prayer for your day. Try writing these verses in your own words.
• Sing - Listen to and/or sing Psalm 130:5-6 by Joel Limpic below. As you’re able to throughout your day, try to listen to the song a few times on our Verses app or your digital streaming platform of choice. Listen through all 3 songs throughout the day! As we said yesterday, try to allow these verses to be the first and last things on your tongue and mind as you wake up and as you go to sleep, and the anchor for your meditation during the day.