Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Waiting Is the Hardest Part

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Waiting Is the Hardest Part · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: There's a feeling of being stuck in life, absolutely stuck,
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  Speaker 1: like not just sad for a day, but trapped chest
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  Speaker 1: deep in a muddy pit, like quicksand holding you down.
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  Speaker 1: And you wait and you wait, and you send up
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  Speaker 1: your crdit to God for help, but no answer comms,
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  Speaker 1: not immediately, and you find yourself wondering if God has
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  Speaker 1: simply forgotten you. Today we look at Psalm forty. We
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  Speaker 1: read it yesterday in the Navigator's Bibble Reading Plan, if
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  Speaker 1: you're reading that plan with us this year, looking at
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  Speaker 1: this difficult waiting period which David calls being in the pit,
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  Speaker 1: and it's on the mind of James and Waltham, Massachusetts,
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  Speaker 1: who does not tell us what his pit is right now,
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  Speaker 1: but he's clearly in one. Dear Pastor John, thank you
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  Speaker 1: for taking my question. As I read Psalm forty again,
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  Speaker 1: I noticed the psawmist describes himself being lifted up out
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  Speaker 1: of the pit and set on a rock with a
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  Speaker 1: new song put in his mouth. Then verses two and three,
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  Speaker 1: how can I understand this image? Is God's deliberate action
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  Speaker 1: in my own life? Is something I would perceive when
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  Speaker 1: it happens? In what ways might my current struggles and
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  Speaker 1: waiting be shaped by my trust in God? As the
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  Speaker 1: Psalm begins with a patient waiting in God's attentive response
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  Speaker 1: Verse one, Could my difficulties be preparing me for a
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  Speaker 1: future testimony that encourages others to trust Him, like David's
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  Speaker 1: resolved to proclaim God's faithfulness in verses nine to ten
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  Speaker 1: of the Psalm. How should I interpret the Psalm's repeated
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  Speaker 1: calls for mercy and acknowledgment of God's care amidst ongoing
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  Speaker 1: troubles and verses eleven to seventeen. How can I find purpose, hope,
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  Speaker 1: or a new song in the tension between waiting, suffering,
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  Speaker 1: and trusting God? How do I see purpose in what
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  Speaker 1: feels pointless?
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  Speaker 2: Well, almost forty six years ago now, this Psalms I forty,
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  Speaker 2: especially the first three verses, had a huge impact on
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  Speaker 2: the way I understood and managed my own seasons of discouragement,
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  Speaker 2: and there were many in those early days being a
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  Speaker 2: young pastor. I believe this Psalm is in the Bible
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  Speaker 2: precisely to show us how to navigate the troubled waters
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  Speaker 2: of discouragement, especially those first three verses. So let me
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  Speaker 2: read them, because not everybody has the men in his head.
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  Speaker 2: I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me
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  Speaker 2: and heard my cry. He drew me up from the
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  Speaker 2: pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set
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  Speaker 2: my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. He
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  Speaker 2: put a new song in my mouth, a song of
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  Speaker 2: praise to our God. Many will see and fear and
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  Speaker 2: put their trust in the Lord Lord. That's just amazing,
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  Speaker 2: that sequence of thoughts. So there's a pattern of life here,
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  Speaker 2: a pattern of dealing with discouragement. It's very realistic, it's
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  Speaker 2: very sober minded, and it's very hopeful. And I see
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  Speaker 2: six stages that are here in this pattern. First, David
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  Speaker 2: is in a muddy pit, and that's where our friend
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  Speaker 2: seems to be and where all of us are from
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  Speaker 2: time to time. Second, he cries to God for help. Third,
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  Speaker 2: he waits for the Lord, and it doesn't say how long.
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  Speaker 2: I'm glad it doesn't say how long he waited. Fourth,
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  Speaker 2: God draws him out of the pit to security. Fifth,
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  Speaker 2: God gives David a new song. And six many others
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  Speaker 2: come to trust God when they see how David has
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  Speaker 2: come through this. I think it would be fair to
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  Speaker 2: infer from what James says in sending us this question,
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  Speaker 2: and that he is in some kind of pit with
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  Speaker 2: King David. That's what I like to call this psalm
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  Speaker 2: in the pits with the King. He doesn't tell us
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  Speaker 2: what it is, neither did David. But that's okay. If
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  Speaker 2: that's right, If David, I mean, if James is in
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  Speaker 2: the pit with David, then I can say with assurance
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  Speaker 2: that these verses are designed by God. Indeed, this experience
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  Speaker 2: that James is walking through is designed by God in
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  Speaker 2: order to bring about these new things in his life,
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  Speaker 2: at least three new things. God is always doing ten
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  Speaker 2: thousand things when he's doing anything, and ninety nine percent
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  Speaker 2: of them we don't know. We don't know the purposes
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  Speaker 2: of the individual thing he's doing. He may grant us
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  Speaker 2: to see two or three. And that's what we see here.
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  Speaker 2: That's what David is offering us. Of the thousand things
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  Speaker 2: that God is doing through this experience of the pit,
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  Speaker 2: David is going to show us and show James three
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  Speaker 2: purposes of God in it. So, looking back, David interprets
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  Speaker 2: what God was doing in that season of his discouragement,
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  Speaker 2: and he says that he was bringing David into these
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  Speaker 2: three new experiences, and these are three new things that
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  Speaker 2: God intends to bring about in James's life. That's my
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  Speaker 2: prayer anyway, I believe that's what God intends to do
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  Speaker 2: in this APG session. Right here, David says that God
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  Speaker 2: gave him a new security, second a new song, and
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  Speaker 2: third a new significance. That's what God was doing with
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  Speaker 2: David's discouragement. Now, since God is sovereign, there's nothing random
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  Speaker 2: in the Christian life. James four fifteen says if the
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  Speaker 2: Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
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  Speaker 2: The phrase this or that is intended to cover all
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  Speaker 2: the details of the Christian life. If the Lord wills,
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  Speaker 2: we will do this or that. So when I say
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  Speaker 2: that God has a good design and a loving purpose
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  Speaker 2: in the discouragements that come to his children, I'm not
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  Speaker 2: making that up. And I feel strongly about this because
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  Speaker 2: I just I just saw something online where somebody just
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  Speaker 2: flat out denied that God has any hand in the
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  Speaker 2: discouraging things of our lives, which I think is absolutely unbiblical.
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  Speaker 2: So when David says that God brought him through the
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  Speaker 2: pit of destruction and the Myrie bog for these three
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  Speaker 2: new experiences, we can learn something of what God's purpose
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  Speaker 2: is for our seasons of discouragement. So, James, while you
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  Speaker 2: can't know everything that God is doing in your suffering
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  Speaker 2: that you're going through right now, evidently you can know this.
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  Speaker 2: He intends to bring you through and give you a
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  Speaker 2: new sense of security in his care. He intends for
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  Speaker 2: you to sing a song of praise with new intensity.
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  Speaker 2: And he intends for other people to see what you've
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  Speaker 2: been through or are going through, such that they fear
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  Speaker 2: their own unbelief and realize they're in a bad situation,
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  Speaker 2: and that they then put their trust in the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: And I encourage you, by prayer and faith to join
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  Speaker 2: God in the expectation that that's what He's doing here
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  Speaker 2: in this psalm for you and in this moment right
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  Speaker 2: now as we do this apj together. So let's read
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  Speaker 2: it again. He put my feet upon a rock, making
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  Speaker 2: my steps secure. That's your new security. He put a
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  Speaker 2: new song in my mouth, a song of praise to
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  Speaker 2: our God. That's your new song. Many will see in
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  Speaker 2: fear and put their trust in the Lord. That's your
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  Speaker 2: new significance. Now here's the key. David said that while
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  Speaker 2: he was in the pit of discouragement, he waited for
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  Speaker 2: the Lord. He waited intently or patiently, humbly, hopefully. He
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  Speaker 2: wanted God to show up with manifestations of his security
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  Speaker 2: and his song and his significance. And God was delaying.
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  Speaker 2: That's why David was waiting. God was delaying. The cry
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  Speaker 2: that he had sent up to God was not answered immediately,
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  Speaker 2: otherwise he wouldn't We've had to wait. This is the
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  Speaker 2: great challenge of the Christian life. God's delays, God's timing.
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  Speaker 2: God's timing is almost never our timing. It's just better
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  Speaker 2: deal with it. Therein lies the great test of our faith,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it all of us? How long, Oh Lord? How long?
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  Speaker 2: Fifteen times in the Psalms we hear the cry, how long,
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  Speaker 2: O Lord? Because God is God and we're not. God's
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  Speaker 2: ways and God's timing are not our ways and not
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  Speaker 2: our timing. A thousand years in your sight are but
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  Speaker 2: as yesterday when it has passed Psalm ninety verse four.
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  Speaker 2: So David says, I waited, I waited patiently for the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: It's the waiting in the pit of discouragement, when God
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  Speaker 2: is hid his smiling face, that prepares us for the
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  Speaker 2: new security and the new song. And the new significance.
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  Speaker 2: One of the many paradoxical things we read in Ecclesiastes
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  Speaker 2: is Chapter seven, verse three, where it says sorrow is
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  Speaker 2: better than laughter, for by sadness of face, the heart
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  Speaker 2: is made glad. Now what on earth does that mean?
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  Speaker 2: By sadness of faith, the heart is made glad? And
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  Speaker 2: I think it means at least that there are seasons
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  Speaker 2: of loss and discouragement, and grief and suffering, without which
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  Speaker 2: we could never have known certain depths of gladness. And
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  Speaker 2: is it not also true that while we wait in
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  Speaker 2: the pit of destruction and the myrie bog, that God
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  Speaker 2: is preparing a new sense of security for us, a
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  Speaker 2: new intensity of song for us, and a new christ
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  Speaker 2: exalting significance.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. Yes, God's timing is almost never our timing, and
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  Speaker 1: therein lives the great test of our faith, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: Waiting is the hardest part. Thank you bestor John for
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  Speaker 1: speaking into James's season of discouragement. If this is you,
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  Speaker 1: If you feel like you are in the pit and
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  Speaker 1: you feel zero motivation to get out of bed in
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  Speaker 1: the morning, what do you do? Scripture text for when
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  Speaker 1: your heart feels dead, including Psalm forty. If you want
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  Speaker 1: more on this and other text to help you through
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  Speaker 1: this kind of a season. I made a digestive episodes
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  Speaker 1: in the podcast where we talked about those promises that
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John has drawn from, and you can see that
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  Speaker 1: in the Aspestor John Book on pages three ninety five
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  Speaker 1: to four oh nine in that section on deadness, depression,
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  Speaker 1: end Desertion. It's a section where I just cover all
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  Speaker 1: of the episodes that we've addressed in those topics on
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  Speaker 1: the podcast to show you kind of where you can
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  Speaker 1: find more specific answers. Again, that's a Naspastor John Book,
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  Speaker 1: pages three ninety five four oh nine. Thanks Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: and thanks for joining us today. If you have a
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  Speaker 1: question to ask Pastor John, find a link to email
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  Speaker 1: us and find our complete episode archive at the same
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  Speaker 1: place ask Pastor John dot com The Marks of a
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  Speaker 1: Godly Boss? What does holy leadership look like? That's next.
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  Speaker 1: A'm Tony Rank. You will see you on Monday.