Psalms 27:14
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD. (NIV)

The context of today’s passage is waiting through the night with confidence that the Lord will appear. He has not yet. The moment remains dark, but with confidence, we wait. Another passage says as surely as the sun rises, the Lord will appear. But we must wait through the night. Clearly, these are teaching us what Jesus plainly said, “In this world, you will have trouble.” And in these dark moments, the call upon our hearts from the Lord is to wait. How well do you wait?

The word ‘wait’ in our passage today comes from a word that means ‘twist together.’ When we wait upon the Lord, it is more them merely counting the days. In the dead nights of life, we must wait in a way that twists us together with the Lord. We become intimately connected to Him. It is this twisting-together waiting that precedes the appearance of the Lord.

Psalm 106 reminds us of how the Israelites did not wait upon the Lord in the wilderness. Instead, they sought comfort and help from other gods. Without this twisting-together waiting, we will do all we can to get help or find comfort in the dark nights but without God, in ways that dishonor and displease Him. Then, we will be like the Israelites who could not wait for the Lord so their time in the wilderness was increased to 40 years allowing an entire generation who could not wait for the Lord to die.

When the Lord delays His deliverance, our response must be intimacy with Him. We draw near to Him in prayer. I don’t mean a prayer of desperation where we continually beg the Lord to do something for us. I mean a prayer that bonds our spirit to His. We draw near to Him in meditation. Meditating on the problem pries us away from the Lord. Meditating on His goodness twists us together with Him.

When we wait in this way, we are filled with His glory. Our faith increases. We become stronger. We find the courage to keep following Him. We grow spiritually. And this is the purpose of the nights we face, but when we twist ourselves with the Holy Spirit, we can be confident that God will soon enough, move on our behalf.

Prayer: Lord, teach me to pursue intimacy with You when your deliverance is delayed so that I might renew my strength. Amen.