"My soul, wait thou only upon God." Ps. 62:5
Did it ever occur to you that if you do not hear God's answer
to prayer, it may be not because He is dumb, but because you are deaf; not because He has no answer to give, but because you
have not been listening for it? We are so busy with our service, so busy with our work, and sometimes so busy with our praying,
that it does not occur to us to stop our own talking and listen to hear if God has some answer to give us with "the still
small voice"; to be passive, to be quiet, to do nothing, say nothing, in some true sense think nothing; simply to be
receptive and waiting for the voice. Selected
The selected Psalm is not the only one with this message of waiting
on the Lord. It seems to be somewhat of a recurring theme within the Psalms. Waiting really tests our ability to trust in
and rely on God which is to say, it tests our faith. There are examples in the Bible of the sin that can occur when we fail
to wait on God and go off according to our own way. Consider the children of Israel while they waited for Moses to come back
from receiving God's word (Ex 32:1ff). Consider King Saul's offering of a sacrifice rather than waiting on God and
specifically Samuel the Priest (1 Sam 13:5-14). In each case something bad happened because men acted on their own without
God rather than wait on Him and His plan, i.e. His word.
Sometimes it can be hard to hear God's voice especially
if we are not listening in the right place. Elijah the prophet, in his despair, could not find God's voice as he searched
in the midst of a strong wind, earthquake, and a fire, because God spoke in a whispering voice (1 Kings 19:9-12). Many today
have missed God's word because they are looking for major events while overlooking the simple means that God has chosen
to communicate through. God does not speak through the elements today although the creation does testify to His power (Romans
1:18-20). The Prophetic age is over as all that we need to know has been made known by God (1 Co 13:8-13;2 Pet 1:2-3). Where
does God do His talking now? He does not even speak in an audible voice now.
The Hebrew writer expressly said that
God speaks through His Son (Heb. 1:1-2). Well how does that work? Jesus prayed to God for those men that he trained and for
those "who would believe in me through their word" (John 17:20). He promised that the Holy Spirit would be there
to guide them (John 14:16-17; 15:26-16:15). The apostles and other inspired men wrote down God's word (The Bible) as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:19-21). The apostle Peter referenced the epistles of Paul and the rest of the scriptures
in his last letter (2 Pet 3:14-18) as he urged to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus. The Apostle Paul told the
Church at Ephesus that they would understand "the mystery" when they read (Eph 3:1-7). He went on to charge Timothy
about the power of continuing in the scriptures which were inspired (God- breathed) and able to equip him for every good work
(2 Tim 3:14-17)
To listen for God's voice today one must read the scriptures. I heard someone say that praying
is us talking to God and reading the Bible is His talking to us. Perhaps a case has been made here for that through this writing.
Are we too busy and our minds too cluttered to sit down and read God's Word so that we can really hear Him? God is not
dumb. He has spoken! If we can't "hear" it may be that we are deaf, distracted, or perhaps we are just looking
in the wrong place.
Bro. Eli
