Series:
Psalms
Title: Why the LORD Waited
Text: Psalm 40: 1-17
Date: November 4, 2018
Place: SGBC, NJ
Is there a sinner present who truly has a
heart to cry unto the LORD? I can assure
you from God’s word in Psalm 40 that God will hear and save you. Whether you are a sinner calling on the LORD
for the first time or whether you are sinner born of God calling on the LORD to
strengthen you in trial, I assure you that if you cry unto him with a true
heart, the LORD will hear. The reason we
know the LORD will hear is because the LORD heard Christ when he cried.
Psalm 40 are the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We recognize verses 6-8 as being those of our Lord Jesus
Christ, “Sacrifice and offering thou
didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do
thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is
within my heart” (Heb 10: 5-10). The
Hebrew writer tells us these are the words of Christ. Now, listen to what our Lord Jesus declares that
he experienced when he served God in this earth as our Substitute.
Psalm
40: 1: I waited patiently for
the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry
clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3: And he hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and
shall trust in the LORD.
Proposition: If the LORD has made
you truly call upon him, as you patiently wait on the LORD, the LORD will hear
and do all these things for you because the Lord Jesus patiently waited and was
heard.
Subject: Why the Lord Waited
Divisions: 1) Why Christ was patiently
waiting 2) What Christ manifested by patiently waiting 3) What our Substitute endured
as he patiently waited 4) What he accomplished by patiently waiting 5) His word
to you who believe
WHY CHRIST PATIENTLY WAITED
Psalm
40: 1: I waited patiently for the LORD….6: Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast
thou not required. 7: Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is
written of me, 8: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my
heart.
The Son of God was sent forth by God his
Father as the Head of his sinful people.
Christ came forth to do the will of God.
He came forth to be God’s obedient servant as he represented his people.
Therefore, “patiently waiting” upon the LORD was necessary for Christ to do
the will of God.
Due to our fall into sin, not one of God’s
elect has ever done the will of God from a holy heart, without sin. If we wait, which we never do without sin, then
we wait impatiently. One of the chief
sins of our heart is not being content with God’s timing. In our hearts, we do not wait. We are full of discontent. It is our sinful nature to want things to
come in our timing rather than God’s. If
God has made us honest we will admit this is true.
Therefore, it was necessary that the Son of
God take flesh like unto his brethren and do the will of God on our behalf. “Patiently
waiting” upon God his Father was not only necessary, it was the very character
of our Lord Jesus as he walked this earth. His “patient
waiting” on the LORD God his Father shows us that he fully obeyed the
Father, perfectly believing and trusting the Father to do what was just. And Christ trusted the Father to do it at the
right time, his time.
Christ “patiently
waited” in the sure hope and firm expectation of his Father’s help and
assistance. He never once murmured with
discontent in his heart, not even while he suffered on the cross! The perfect Lord Jesus was never impatient in
heart. He waited in faith, in hope, in
resignation, and in confidence that God would help him and deliver him in God’s
time.
Brethren, how amazing that the Son of God
loved his Father and loved his brethren so much that he took flesh like ours to
serve God on our behalf! Think on
this. He was willingly brought into such
severe trial that our Substitute had to cry out to God in faith then “patiently wait” to receive the Father’s
help the same as his helpless people cry and then wait on the LORD. He willingly put himself in that place of his
people. And it was necessary for Christ
to wait, without sin, that he might fulfill the will of God.
In order that he might be the perfect obedient
servant in whom his people are made perfectly obedient, Christ had to “patiently wait” on God his Father with
no sin of impatience or discontent. “By the which will”—by Christ’s will
fulfilling God the Father’s will—"we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
(Heb 10:10).
Brethren let us ask for more grace that we
might “patiently wait” upon the LORD. His time is the right time. May God give us grace to say from a pure
heart, “My times are in thy hand: deliver
me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.” And knowing our times are in his hand, let us
“patiently wait” upon the LORD to
save us in his time rather than our time.
WHAT CHRIST MANIFEST
BY PATIENTLY WAITING
Psalm
40: 9: I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not
refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. 10: I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not
concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
The Son of God manifest, in his body, the
invisible God. He came to manifest God’s
faithfulness and lovingkindness, as well as God’s righteousness and truth. In Christ is the fulness of the Godhead
bodily.
God’s faithfulness could never be manifest by
impatience. God’s lovingkindess could
not have been manifest had Christ been impatient with his disciples who, when
he was accused and suffering, ran away rather than stand with him. Mercy and truth could not have kissed in harmony,
declaring God just and Justifier, had Christ impatiently come down off the
cross one second before justice was satisfied.
Our sins could never have been expiated and God propitiated had not our
Substitute “patiently waited” upon
God until justice was satisfied. Only
perfect obedience could satisfy the Law of God. Only perfect “patient waiting” could put away our sins.
Therefore, our Savior never resisted the
Father’s will. He prayed “Not as I will but as thou wilt.” He never impatiently resisted the crown of
thorns or the lashings or the nails driven into his body—not even when he bore
being forsaken of God.
WHAT CHRIST ENDURED
AS HE PATIENTLY WAITED
Psalm
40: 11: Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy
lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12: For innumerable evils
have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am
not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my
heart faileth me.
Believer, have your iniquities ever
caused you to not be able to look
up? Christ was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, yet he never sinned.
He knows the conscious feeling of our iniquities as well as God’s
chastening hand. Yet, through both, he “patiently waited” without sin.
In the garden of Gethsemane, God’s obedient
servant experienced the weakness of our flesh.
He sweat great drops of blood as he faced being made sin for us. Yet, he “patiently
waited.” He endured soul agony in
the garden, resisting sin unto blood, crying, “Not my will but thine be done!”
At the hands of men “innumerable evils compassed him about.” He endured the trial of cruel mockings
before Herod and Pilate. Our Substitute
bore them spitting in his face, plucking out the hairs of his beard, and lashing
him with whips filled with bone as they scourged him. Yet he “patiently
waited.” The Spirit of God says “as a lamb before her shearers is dumb so he
opened not his mouth.”
Oh, then he manifest the greatest of all
patience in waiting when the LORD laid on him the iniquities of all his people so
that holy justice forsook him on the cross. Christ experienced the weakness of
our flesh in those three hours of darkness. Having become the one sin-bearer to whom
the law looked, the one Head representing all his sinful elect members, he said, "mine iniquities have taken hold upon
me, so that I am not able to look up; therefore my heart faileth me.” This was that “horrible pit and miry clay” our Savior was cast into and endured. Yet, through all these evils, Christ “patiently waited” without a trace of
the sin of discontent or impatience.
WHAT CHRIST
ACCOMPLISHED BY PATIENTLY WAITING
Psalm
40: 13: Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me. 14:
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy
it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. 15: Let
them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. 16: Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such
as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
Only in Christ crucified do we behold sinless
patience in the unparalleled obedience with which our Savior established the
law of God for his people.
Due to his perfect obedience unto death, God the
Father gave Christ Jesus his Son what he asked for. Since he honored the law and justified his
people, God was willing to give the GodMan everything he asked for when he
asked that his enemies (which are our enemies) be put down. The Father gave him his petition that his
people rejoice and be glad in the LORD. Christ
accomplished conquering all our enemies by “patiently
waiting” upon the LORD in perfect obedience, therefore God gives Christ his
petition to “let such as love thy
salvation say continually, the LORD be magnified.”
By “patiently waiting” until God’s law was magnified,
and his people justified, the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the salvation of
his people so that all his people shall receive that which Christ intercedes
for: all God’s elect shall be made to seek him, all shall be made to rejoice
and be glad in the LORD; all his people shall be brought to love his salvation;
and all his people shall be made to “say
continually, The LORD be magnified.”
This Christ accomplished for us by “patiently
waiting” upon the LORD.
HIS MESSAGE TO US
Psalm
40: 17: But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help
and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
Psalm
40: 1: I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my
cry. 2: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3: And he hath put a new
song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and
shall trust in the LORD.
Psalm
40: 4: Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not
the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5: Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done,
and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto
thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Christ’s state on the cross while forsaken of
God for bearing all the sins of all his people was that he was “poor and needy.” No one
has ever been so poor and needy as our forsaken Substitute as he hung between
his people and his God. As he hung there
representing his people, Christ gave the Father perfect confession as he said, “But I am poor and needy.” He gave the Father perfect faith and perfect
praise with this confidence, “Yet the
Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O
my God.”
Now, if we would hear Christ’s message to you
and I who believe, we must go back to the first verse of the Psalm. Beginning in verse 1, we hear Christ declare
what he did and what God the Father did for him as he hung poor and needy on
the cross.
What did Christ do? He said, “I
waited patiently for the LORD.” He
honored and glorified God his Father with perfect resignation to the LORD’s
will. As he did so, Christ prayed and
supplicated God with the words of this Psalm.
And what did God the Father do for Christ? “And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” We have the new testament commentary on
this verse in Hebrews 5:7-9:
Hebrews 5: 7: Who in
the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was
heard in that he feared; 8: Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by
the things which he suffered; 9 And
being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them
that obey him;
Christ was heard by the Father. Though a Son, Christ learned—experienced and
perfected—obedience by that which he suffered.
Now Christ is the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. He obeyed the Father by patiently waiting on
his Father in faith. Now, he teaches you
and I to obey him by patiently waiting on him by faith, casting all our care
upon him who cares for all his people.
Our perfection in righteousness before God is by and in Christ who is
the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Christ declares what God the Father did for
him when the Father heard his cry, “He
brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my
feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” We see it when in Gethsemane,
the LORD sent an angel strengthening him. Then we see it on the third day when the
LORD raised Christ from the dead to newness of life and he walked out of the
tomb.
But above all, we see it in how God has raised the glorified GodMan to
sit at God’s right hand, and his people in him.
All of this was given our Savior because he “patiently waited” in perfect faith and fidelity to God until
justice was satisfied!
Christ said the Father also did something
else, “And he hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praise unto our God.” Right
now, through the gospel, Christ is in the midst of the great congregation, teaching
us to sing this new song, even praise unto our God. As it is written, “I will
declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing
praise unto thee” (Heb 2: 12). Christ puts this new song in the mouth of
all his redeemed through the Holy Spirit in the new birth when he brings us to
faith in Christ. He puts this new song
in our mouth each time we hear the gospel preached and Christ makes is
effectual in our hearts.
Christ declares “many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” He shall make all his people see; he
shall give all his redeemed a new heart of reverence; and each one shall trust
in the LORD by his gift of faith. All of
this is due to our Savior “patiently
waiting” upon the LORD.
So here is our Master’s message to his people—"Blessed is that
man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as
turn aside to lies.”
Brethren, our
Redeemer’s work is done. He is seated at
God’s right hand on the firm ground of his accomplished redemption. He can never suffer again. He forever reigns in glory. And all who he brings to rest in him are
seated there in him, never again to suffer, forever reigning with him. If you would be happy then put all your trust
in Christ Jesus and pay no mind to those who trust in man. Christ’s message to you and I who believe by
his grace is patiently wait upon the
LORD.
Hebrews 11: 1: Wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us, 2: Looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God. 3: For consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4: Ye have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” (Heb 11: 1-4)
Since the works God has worked for us in Christ
are wonderful to the eye of faith and we behold that all God’s thoughts toward
us are thoughts of peace, all who wait on the LORD glorify God, crying with joy,
“Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful
works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot
be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they
are more than can be numbered.”
Amen!