psalm 40: waited waited - tuesday 3rd week

Today we continue our reflection on our responsorial psalm.  Today we reflect on psalm 40.  The first line in this psalm is a prayer of David telling God:  "I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me."  The Hebrew word used here is quite unusual for its repeats it twice – I have waited-waited for the Lord.  To have waited-waited can be likened to our Hiligaynon way of repeating words to make it into a superlative – daku, daku-daku;  laba, laba-laba.  Here the word used is also repeated twice -  waited, waited-waited.  What does this mean?

To wait-wait literally means to wait with exceeding patience – maid-id nga paghulat, and this kind of waiting implies something more deeply important – to wait-wait means I am relinquishing control, I am acknowledging, I am accepting that something is not within my power. Have you experienced waiting anxiously for something of which you have absolutely no power to control.  Mas maayo pa gani kon excited ka na to go home to your family after so many years tapos you have to wait for several hours in the airport.  I said maayo pa gani ina kay you can at least talk to the manager, or you can demand for another booking perhaps, or you can just simply vent your impatience on the poor ticket collector who is also powerless with the situation.  But in this kind of waiting in Psalm 40 you can do nothing except to wait it out.  To wait-wait implies therefore a deep trust and reliance on God, it implies an act of surrender – in his wisdom, in his power, and more importantly in God's timing.  

To wait-wait also means I am actively, I am anxiously awaiting, with every fiber of my being for the Lord. This is not just quiet resignation.  But instead when I wait-wait for the Lord I am fully confident that God will come to help me.  I am confident that God will rescue me.

So today we learn to wait.  Especially today in an age when we are so used to have things on demand – video on demand, food on demand and very fast at that.  And so as we wait today, as our impatience is roused, tell yourself, I am not in control, I don't have to be in control.  Then tell yourself, I am confident that God will help me, no need to panic, no need to be impatient, God is in control.

Psalm 40, I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me.