Now for the Lord I'm waiting
My soul waits for His word
My hope in waiting for Him still
Is only in the Lord
More than the guard who's watching
For dawn the sky to light
My wait is all my hoping
My Lord is my delight.
Hope in the Lord, O Israel
His love for you is sure
His rescue He has promised
Complete and still much more.
Israel, trust His great mercy
He gives Himself to You
His offer of forgiveness
From all the evil that you do.
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16th
August, 2004
BRUCE
WEARNE
From deep within, my yearning
call
Lord, I cry out to Thee
O Lord please hear my crying
Tune in your ears to me
Has not my ceaseless pleading
Reached up to where you'd be?
I'm in the depths of grieving
Have you not heard from me?
Lord you are full of mercy
So I can call on Thee
If Thou should number all my wrong
Lord, you'd still be counting me.
Since none stands clean before You
We all have gone astray
But you extend forgiveness
And with that fear I'll pray.
This
psalm is one of a collection (120-134) composed to be sung by visitors
to God's holy hill as they trekked up the mountain to His House,
the temple, the Place of Prayer.
It is probably one of the psalms Jesus and his disciples sang as
they walked from Bethany to Jerusalem, in the week before his trial
and crucifixion.
I know it is a psalm I have learned to sing and compose poems from
during times (yes, also at Point Lonsdale) when I have been really
down.
But this psalm, like psalms 42 and 43, is no happy-clappy stuff:
this is singing about emotions, with emotion, with highs and lows
placed side by side almost as if the singer is to sing along with
a mood swing.
Well, maybe that is what we can say about God - He is the one who
is not surprised by our mood swings and, in fact, though we hit
lower than rock bottom, and though we rejoice in God telling us
our record of failure is completely taken care of - yet He is there
- for us! - at both ends of the swing and all along the way.
So we sing asking Him to help us to wait - wait for Him - not so
much even waiting for the up-swing, or in dread of the down-beat,
but it is for Him we wait and from His constancy we learn to play
the music of our lives, also of our emotions.
Sometimes we learn just how good it is to wait and watch and hope
and yearn that God will clear away the dark and bring a bright morning.
And when morning comes we realise that it is good to yearn for it.
It may not be good to be in the dark, but it is good to yearn for
the dark to be over so another day can begin.
He made us. Our problems He has made his own. He is interested in
them and wants them resolved. He likes seeing us work through them
and overcome them. The redemption is full. All, not just some, sin
is taken away.
Bruce Wearne, a former university lecturer, lives in Point Lonsdale,
Victoria, where he spends his time in study, writing and walking.
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POETRY: PSALM 130 - AN ASCENDING SONG