Waiting and Watching

Psalm 130 (The Message)

^1-2 Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!

Master, hear my cry for help!

Listen hard! Open your ears!

Listen to my cries for mercy.

^3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,

who would stand a chance?

As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,

and that's why you're worshiped.

^5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer—

and wait for what he'll say and do.

My life's on the line before God, my Lord,

waiting and watching till morning,

waiting and watching till morning.

^7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God—

with God's arrival comes love,

with God's arrival comes generous redemption.

No doubt about it—he'll redeem Israel,

buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

I remember one of the fancy words I got taught in seminary (well, I remember more than one, but I generally try not to use them).

My Pastoral Care teacher taught us about "liminal time." She said, "it's the hardest kind of time of them all."

The phrase actually comes from astronomy. It describes the turning of the earth, and the time that is neither quite day nor night. Dusk. The time of change and waiting. What will be is not quite yet.

It is the time of "waiting and watching." It's the hardest.

So, what are you waiting and watching for right now? Whatever it is, Psalm 130 reminds us that, "morning is on the way."

Grace & Peace,

Adam