Ver.5,6.] WHEREIN WAITING ON GOD CONSISTS. 615
life of it, tliat whicTi is principally intended in it. The prophet calls it his " standing upon his watch tower, and watching to see what God would speak unto him," Hab. ii. 8, — namely, in answer unto that prayer which he put up in his trouble. He is now waiting in expec- tation of an answer from God. And this is that which poor, weak, trembling sinners are so encouraged unto, Isa. xxxv. 3, 4, " Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come." Weakness and discouragements are the effects of un- belief. These he would have removed, with an expectation of the coming of God unto the soul, according to the promise. And this, I say, belongs unto the waiting of the soul in the condition de- scribed. Such a one doth exjiect and hope that God will in his season manifest himself and his love unto him, and give him an ex- perimental sense of a blessed interest in forgiveness. And the accom- plishment of this purpose and promise of God, it looks out after con- tinually. It will not despond and be heartless, but stir up and strengthen itself unto a full expectation to have the desires of his soul satisfied in due time : as we find David doing in places almost innumerable.
This is the duty that, in the first place, is recommended unto the soul who is persuaded that there is forgiveness with God, but sees not his own interest therein: — Wait on, or for, the Lord. And it hath two properties when it is performed in a due manner, — namely, patience and perseverance. By the one men are kept to the length of God's time ; by the other they are preserved in a due length of their own duty.
And this is that which was laid down in the first proposition drawn from the words, — namely, that continuance in watching, until God appears vmto the soul, is necessary, as that without which we cannot attain what we look after; and prevailing, as that wherein we shall never fail.
God is not to be limited, nor his times prescribed unto him. We know our way and the end of our journey; but our stations of espe- cial rest we must wait for at his mouth, as the people did in the wilderness. When David comes to deal with God in his gn^eat dis- tress, he says unto him, " O Lord, thou art my God ; my times are in thy hand," Ps. xxxi. 14, 15. His times of trouble and of peace, of darkness and of light, he acknowledged to be in the hand and at the disposal of God, so that it was his duty to wait his time and season for his share and portion in them.
During this state the soul meets with many oppositions, difficul- ties, and perplexities, especially if its darkness be of long continuance ; as with some it abides many years, with some all the days of their
616 AN EXPOSITIOX UPON PSALM cxxx. [Ver.5,6.
lives. Their hope being hereby deferred makes their heart sick, and their spirit oftentimes to faint; and this fainting is a defect in waiting, for want of perseverance and continuance, which frustrates the end of it. So David, Ps. xxvii. 13, " I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord;" — " Had I not received supportment by faith, I had fainted." And wherein doth that con- sist? what was the fainting which he had been overtaken withal, without the supportment mentioned? It was a relinquishment of waiting on God, as he manifests by the exhortation which he gives to himself and others, verse 14-^ " Wait on the LoRD; be of good cour- age, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LoRD;" — "Wait with courage and resolution, that thou faint not." And the apostle puts the blessed event of faith and obedience upon the avoid- ance of this evil : Gal. vi. 9, " We shall reap, if we faint not." Hence we have both encouragements given against it, and promises that in the way of God we shall not be overtaken with it. " Consider the Lord Christ," saith the apostle^ " the captain of your salvation, ' lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds,' " Heb. xii. 3. Nothing else can cause you to come short of the mark aimed at. " They," saith the prophet, " that wait uj)on the LoRD," — that is, in the use of the means by him appointed, — " shall not faint," Isa. xl. SL
This continuance, then, in waiting is to accompany this duty, upon the account of both the things mentioned in the proposition, — that it is indisjDensably necessary on our own account, and it is assuredly prevailing in the end; it will not fail.
1. It is necessary. They that watch for the morning, to whose frame and actings the waiting of the soul for God is compared, give not over until the light doth appear; or if they do, if they are wearied and faint, and so cease watching, all their former pains Avill be lost, and they will lie down in disappointments. So will it be with the soul that deserts its watch, and faints in its waiting. If upon the eruption of new lusts or corruptions, — if upon the return of old temp- tations, or the assaults of new ones, — if upon a revived perplexing sense of guilt, or on the tediousness^ of working and labouring so much and so long in the dark, — the soul begin to say in itself, "I have looked for light and behold darkness, for peace and yet trouble cometh ; the summer is past, the harvest is ended, and I am not re- lieved; such and such blessed means have been enjoyed, and yet I have not attained rest;" and so give over its waiting in the way and course before prescribed ; — it will at length utterly fail, and come short of the grace aimed at, " Thou hast laboured, and hast not fainted," brings in the reward, Rev. ii. 3.