And thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.
—Isaiah 49:23
Blessed are all they that wait for Him.
—Isaiah 30:18
What promises! How God seeks to draw us to waiting on Him by the most positive assurance that it never can be in vain; “they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.” How strange that, though we so often have experienced it, we are yet so slow to learn that this blessed waiting must and can be the very breath of our life. Let us once again listen and meditate, until our heart says with new conviction, “Blessed are all they that wait for Him.”
We found in the prayer of Psalm 25: “Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed” (verse 3). The very prayer shows how we fear that it might be true. Let us listen to God’s answer, until every fear is banished, and we send back to heaven the words God speaks, “All they who wait for Me will not be ashamed.” “Blessed are all they that wait for Him.”
The context of each of these two passages points us to times when God’s church was in great straits, and to human eyes there were no possibilities of deliverance. But, God interposes with His word of promise, and pledges His almighty power for the deliverance of His people. And it is as the God who has undertaken the work of their redemption that He invites them to wait on Him, and assures them that disappointment is impossible.
We, too, are living in days in which there is much in the state of the church. Amid all we praise God for, there is, alas, much to mourn over! Were it not for God’s promises, we might well despair. But, in His promises the living God calls us to wait on Him. He assures us we will not be put to shame. Oh, that our hearts might learn to wait before Him, until He Himself reveals to us what His promises mean. In the promises, He reveals Himself in His hidden glory! We will be irresistibly drawn to wait on Him alone. May God increase the company of those who say: “Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield” (Psalm 33:20).