GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 27:13-14
13 If I had not believed
that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living…
14 Wait for the LORD; be strong,
be stout of heart, and wait for the LORD!
David approaches the end of his psalm and decides to take a little poetic hop that reminds us of the way some poets decide to use old-fashioned words like “canst” or “thee” today. It’s not so much the word as the spelling of “If I had…” (or “Unless…”) that throws the reader for a loop. It’s so unusual that the Hebrew scribes surrounded the word with little dots, the way a snooty (or cautious) writer would write [ sic! ] in the margin today (“sic” is Latin for “thus,” pointing out that the original writer was making a mistake). Many of the ancient versions (translations) ignore this word.
David’s “If I had not” sentence has no ending, but it’s no grammatical mistake. It’s more along the lines of what Jesus did when he healed the paralyzed man who was lowered down through the roof, saying to the Scribes: “So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” (Matthew 9:6). He didn’t need to finish the statement with words. He just finished with his action, because being permitted by God to heal the man finished his thought. Here David begins an oath with “If I had not…” but breaks off because he doesn’t need to say the logical conclusion. The truth is that he never stopped believing in God, trusting in him, relying on his protection, love, and forgiveness. He just turns to himself, as he does in Psalm 62 when he says, “O my soul…” (Psalm 62:5). “Be strong, my soul. Be stout of heart, my soul. Wait for the Lord, my soul.”
It’s not as if the one praying has no more to go on than the assurance that God is worth waiting for. That’s what the pagans imagined about their gods. That’s what modern pagans– Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, shamans, spiritists, and others– have to hope for, which is an empty hope, a fool’s game. The Lord our God shows himself everywhere and all the time. If someone is looking for miracles, he should remember that the physical miracles of healing and feeding multitudes were not signs for believers, but for sceptics. David had seen his share of those, at any rate. He had only to think of the dead bear, the dead lion, and the dead Philistine to remind himself that God cares for his people and loves them. Or he could think of the many times he had escaped from Saul’s spears and Saul’s soldiers. Or he could think of the way God raised him from being a shepherd boy hated by his own brothers to a great captain in Saul’s army and anointed to be king of Israel by the prophet Samuel. Or he could think of his great-grandmother Ruth and the way God brought her from poverty and widowhood to become a wife and a mother, praised by family, friends, and kinsman-redeemer alike, in Bethlehem. But David also had the sign of the Lord’s spiritual miracles– not least of which was the working of the gospel that brought David to faith under the covenant of Moses, and the word of God that sustained his faith and made it grow into a mature and unshakable trust in the God Almighty. Are these things nothing more than a vague assurance that God is worth waiting for? The servant of God does not really wait for God at all, for God is there all the time, always speaking to us in his holy word.
There is an example of this truth that runs all through the book of Job. Early in the conversation, the Patriarch mentions how dry it’s been: “Caravans of Tema look for water; the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope, but they are distressed because they had been confident. But they arrived there only to be disappointed” (Job 6:19-20). A single cloud shows up in the sky, but it quickly vanishes (Job 7:9). A hot wind blows, bringing destruction but no rain (9:17). The water channels and gulches are dry (12:15). A dry leaf and some dusty chaff blow past (13:25). Days when torrents of water would crash through and wear away the stones are but a memory (14:18-19). Then, a new wind comes, blowing straw and other things (21:18). Thick clouds have appeared on the horizon (22:13-14), and Job and his companions see rain in the distance that reminds them of the storm in Noah’s day (22:16). As the companions continue their seemingly endless discussion about Job’s sins, they notice that the moon is obscured by dark, heavy clouds (26:8-9), and they begin to hear the roar of thunder (26:14). A storm begins to dominate their comments, “clapping” its thunder and “hissing” with its rush of rain, a tempest that carries things away in the strong winds (27:20-23). An interlude in the conversation describes ancient mining practices– have they taken refuge from the rain in an old mine or cave (Job 28:1-11)? In 28:25-28, Job talks about the force of the winds, the measure of the waters, God’s decree about rain, and the path of the thunderstorm. No longer is there any talk about dryness or drought, but rain and storm is their comparison (29:23; 30:22; 31:38), and from 36:27 until the end of chapter 37 hardly a verse goes by that does not mention the storm that is obviously raging furiously overhead: showers, thunder, lightning, lightning so bright it reveals the depths of the sea, and a cold wind and driving precipitation that they call the ice coming down “the broad waters that are frozen;” probably hail. Finally, God (who has always been there) speaks out of the whirlwind (38:1). Job and his friends spent the whole book wondering where God was as they watched this storm approach from the horizon, but God was always there.
There are times when we don’t know what God has in mind for us or for our families. That doesn’t mean that he has abandoned us. God will not leave us or forsake us (Joshua 1:5). He has good things in store for you. Some of those will not come until we arrive in Paradise rejoicing forever with the people we love. But other things, good blessings, are in our lives both now and in the future, from God who loves us and who cares for us. Wait for the LORD; be strong, be stout of heart, and wait for the LORD.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Psalm 27:13-14 If I had not believed…