Will You Wait For God?

July 24th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Psalm 13:1, 3, 6 How long O Lord? Will You forget me forever… Consider, answer me, or I will sleep the sleep of death. But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness… I will sing to the Lord.

When we address Yahweh in prayer we are addressing the One and Only, the Eternal God, the Creator of time and everything that ever has or will happen in time. Yahweh is thus sovereign over all things. As to time, He is outside of it, so He is patient in waiting for His plan to unfold both within and outside of time in eternity. With this is mind, it sounds odd for a finite man living in time to cry out to the eternal God, saying, “How long?” O timeless One? What is even more ironic is how this man, having suffered only for a finite amount of time, is complaining to the eternal God about being forgotten forever by the same God who cannot forget and who Himself is the only One who has existed for eternity! In truth, the psalmist was known from before his own birth, even before the foundation of the world (1 Sam. 13:14; cf. Eph. 1:4; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). It is thus impossible for the eternal God to forget what has been in His mind for eternity. God does not forget anything, for all things are part of His creation and unfolding plan.

But the psalmist is not addressing Yahweh primarily to affirm His eternality; rather, he is addressing Him because of his own mortality. Feeling as if he had been forgotten “forever” is simply a hyperbole that humans use when we suffer over prolonged periods of time. If we are accustomed to a cushy life devoid of trials, when they come, a month seems like forever (as if we know what forever actually feels like). But that is the point! Prolonged sufferings are what draw God’s saints to prayer, to praise, to worship, and ultimately to relief for our tormented souls. It is our weaknesses that God attempts to strengthen through our sufferings. When the Apostle Paul asked on three occasions for relief from whatever it was that tormented him, God’s reply was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

There are times, however, because we have come to the end of our proverbial rope waiting for God to deliver us from our trials, that we attempt to handle things on our own. King Saul is a good example of this. In 1 Samuel 10:8 the prophet Samuel explicitly told Saul to go down to Gilgal and wait for him seven days. At that time Samuel, being a priest, would come and offer the sacrifice to God before Saul went to war against the Philistines. As Saul waited late on the seventh day, however, his men began to depart, and Saul became very fearful. So instead of waiting till the end when Samuel was to arrive, Saul, being of the tribe of Benjamin, decided to offer the sacrifice himself—a heinous sin in Israel if you were not a descendant of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi. Then as soon as Saul offered the forbidden sacrifice, Samuel arrived on the scene and rebuked him sharply. Had Saul simply waited patiently and not taken matters into his own hands, the kingdom of Israel would have been secure in his hands. But now it would be torn from him. Why? Simply because he would not wait for God and acted on his own authority.

David’s example in Psalm 13 shows what lengths the eternal God will go through to stoop and cater to the suffering and pain of His children. Only those who know Yahweh by name—who know God as their Lord and Savior—will endeavor to seek Him face to face as David did. God hears the cries and pains of His children, condescends to comfort us when we seek Him, and He transforms our anguish into joy with His presence. There is no greater example of this than when God became flesh (John 1:1, 14) in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The eternal God took the form of a man, entered into time and space, and suffered as all men do. Then He died the death of a common criminal, taking the pain and source of pain—sin—upon Himself to deliver man from it through faith. Jesus is thus “God with us” (Matt. 1:23) and is always with us even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). He will never leave nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5; cf. Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5). Now that is something to rejoice in; that is something to sing about!