“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” -Psalm 40:1–3
The Psalm opens with a description of being rescued, a description of salvation. Moving from anticipation to testimony, the Psalmist summarizes the experience in these first three verses, which make up the first pericope (like a stanza or paragraph).
Rather than unpacking the entire pericope, let’s focus first on the expression “waited patiently.” The Hebrew is literally, קַוֺּ֣ה קִוִּ֣יתִי יְהוָ֑ה (in waiting, I waited). The Hebrew word repeated has a sense of expectation, so perhaps a better way to render the English expression is “I waited earnestly;” or, “I waited hopefully.” If we are to maintain “waited patiently,” we must not think of patiently the way we think of it in our modern usage. Patience today often gives the sense of doing something without haste, anxiety, or apprehension.
To get the sense that David was just hanging around waiting for the Lord to deliver him in his own sweet time is not the meaning. David was enduring the wait but doing so cheerfully, hopefully, anticipating the Lord’s intervention would be right on time. And in the same sentence, he attests that the Lord inclined to him, bent his ear, so to speak, in order to hear his cry.
Such testimonies have been “… written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). In our waiting, let us wait hopefully, for in due time God will condescend to us and hear our cry. And what are the Scriptures in which we find comfort, but God condescending to us already to speak the truth we need to hear while we are waiting.