Psalm 70 Common English Bible

Hurry, God, to deliver me; hurry, Lord, to help me!

Let those who seek my life be ashamed and humiliated! Let them fall back and be disgraced— those people who delight in my downfall! Let those who say, “Aha! Aha!” stop because of their shameful behavior.

But let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you, and let those who love your saving help say again and again: “God is great!”

But me? I’m poor and needy. Hurry to me, God! You are my helper and my deliverer. Oh, Lord, don’t delay!

___

A week or so ago, I ordered the book, “The Mr. Rogers Effect,” through a popular on-line store. I thought a good dose of Mister Rogers’ sensibilities might come in handy right about now.

I ordered the book on a Friday evening and it arrived at my house Monday morning. 2 1/2 days later.

That is the norm these days. Almost anything I order, books, supplies, our all-in-one communion cups complete with juice and wafer, usually come within 3 days of my order.

This speed of delivery is actually a fairly recent phenomenon. There was a time when you ordered something, you knew you would be waiting weeks, if not months, to receive it in the mail.

My primary source for ordering stuff when I was a kid were comic books. Quite often, the back page of my comic book was an advertising page.

Everything a kid could possibly want was listed for sale on the back page of the comic book- whoopee cushions, pepper flavored gum, sea monkeys, clacking teeth, x-ray glasses, skateboards, cap guns, rockets, even gas masks.

I saw an advertisement for a 6 foot tall Frankenstein monster with glowing red eyes on the back of a comic book. I imagined Frank standing in the corner of my room, scaring my friends as they entered, and I knew I had to have it. And what a bargain. 6 foot tall Frankenstein for only .99.

I clipped out the order form from the back of the comic book and ordered Frank.

And I waited. The order form said “allow 6 - 8 weeks for delivery” but I started looking for it the second week.

I would run home from Grant Wood Elementary School every day to check the mail. And every day, I was disappointed.

I waited. I imagined how big the box would have to be to hold a 6 foot tall Frankenstein. I hoped the box would fit through the front door.

Every day I ran hoping, anticipating, waiting, being disappointed, but then turning my attention to tomorrow- it might come tomorrow.

Finally, after eight weeks of eternity, my package arrived. I was surprised that in came in a cardboard tube that wasn’t a foot long. How did they fit Frank in there?

I discovered that what I had ordered was not a stand up 6 foot tall Frankenstein mannequin that would stand in the corner of my room, but was a 6 foot tall, 10 inch wide, paper thin, poorly silk screened poster of Frankenstein, with red, but certainly not glowing eyes. For this I waited 8 weeks.

Waiting. And waiting some more. For what?

Waiting is indeed a way of life.

We can’t wait to grow up.

We can’t wait to go off to college.

We can’t wait to get a job.

We can’t wait for the baby to arrive.

We can’t wait to buy a new car.

We can’t wait for shut-downs to be lifted.

We can’t wait for election results to be finalized.

We can’t wait for the traffic light at the intersection of Watson and Laclede Station Road to turn green.

We can’t wait until we can retire.

We wait. And wait. And wait.

If you think about it, the Bible is a book about waiting.

The first bible book written, Job, is about a guy who is waiting for God to heal him or kill him, he is not sure which. The last book in the Bible, Revelation, is written while the church is anxiously awaiting the return of Christ.

The story of biblical Israel is a story of waiting,

Waiting 400 years while enslaved in Egypt,

Waiting 40 years in the desert to cross into the promised land.

Waiting 70 years in exile to return to Judah,

Waiting, without ceasing, for liberation as one army after another occupied the Holy Land,

Waiting with anticipation that the Messiah would come and set things right.

Several Psalms focus on waiting. One is Psalm 70 which begins, “Hurry, God, to deliver me; hurry, Lord, to help me!” And ends with “Hurry to me, God! You are my helper and my deliverer. Oh, Lord, don’t delay!"

While the Psalmist is waiting, the Psalmist appears to be impatient, "Hurry, up God. Deliver me."

In our waiting, especially in tough times, in struggles, in disruptive periods, we tend to frame our prayers around "hurry up, God. I’m waiting"

But if there is something to be learned from the Scripture about waiting, it is that deliverance will come when it comes.

And so an important question for us as we wait, and as we pray for God to show up, is what might we learn as we wait.

What do we learn while we wait for healing to come?

What do we learn while we wait for troubles to pass?

What do we learn while we wait for change, for justice, for deliverance?

Dr. King famously quoted the abolitionist,

Theodore Parker when he said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” - a vital reminder that

change does come,

justice is realized,

deliverance does arrive,

troubles do pass,

healing does take place,

but the trajectory of our waiting is long and often hard.

So, as we wait for God to intervene, for justice to roll down, for every valley to be lifted up, what can we learn?

As we wait, we learn to adjust our priorities.

There is an old preacher joke. It’s not very funny, but Jerry, and Hari, and Larry, and Fred, and Carey and Mirian and Kara will appreciate the sentiment. A Pastor, looking back at his career at retirement says, “When I was young I wanted to save the world. And when I a was bit more seasoned, I wanted to save some. As I got older, I just wanted to save a few. And now I just hope I didn’t lose too many.”

During struggles, as our priorities shift, a good day is celebrated as a blessing, a moment of joy is seen as a gift, a kind interaction is irreplaceable. We learn to look for the good stuff while we wait!

The Apostle Paul says it like this, “you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly.”

As we wait in the midst of the struggles, we learn to be real. It is a great lesson to learn that just because I have faith, I don’t have to act like everything is great all the time. I really don’t have to say “Praise Jesus” when I hit my thumb with a hammer!

The Bible story of Job is fascinating. Job is struggling. Life has gone completely wrong. He has lost almost everything. He sits, covered in sores on the ash heap of his life.

Job is frustrated. And he learns to be real with God. A little fist shaking- “Why? How? What did I do to deserve this?”

Job has friends who show up to tell him he shouldn’t think that way or talk to God like that. But Job is just being real, and is vindicated for it.

Imagine Job’s friends coming to him, sitting on the ash heap with him, validating his feelings in the midst of his terrible struggle.

Mr. Rogers once said, “People have said “don’t cry” to other people for years and years, and all it has ever meant is “I’m too uncomfortable when you show your feelings, so don’t cry.” I’d rather say to them, “go ahead and cry I’m here to be with you.”

We learn to pray, really pray, as we wait.

And we just might learn

that prayer isn’t just talking,

But singing is also prayer

and writing is prayer

and walking is prayer

and silence is prayer

and eating together is prayer

and serving is prayer.

Prayer becomes any activity that connects us to God and to each other while we are waiting.

While we wait, we learn that what matters is what we can do for others. They say that one of the best ways to move through times of struggle, personal or societal, is to focus on bringing justice, joy, comfort and peace to other people.

As we focus on serving others, our time of waiting is not lessened, but it sure may feel like it as we invest ourselves in others.

I am betting that in this very moment, there is something on which you are waiting. And you are saying in your prayers, “hurry up God, deliver me.”

Isaiah declares that

“Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength;

they will fly with wings like eagles;

they will run and not be tired;

they will walk and not be weary.”

Note that there is no flying without the waiting. May God bless you as your learn the lessons of waiting.

Amen.

___

Pastoral Prayer/ Lectio Divina

Matthew 11 & Isaiah 40

“Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

“Haven’t you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn’t grow tired or weary. His understanding is beyond human reach, giving power to the tired and reviving the exhausted.

“Youths will become tired and weary, young men will certainly stumble; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary.”

In the name of the One who never tires in lifting us up,

Amen.