Wait for the Lord

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

July 20, 2025

Psalm 27:1-14

 “Summer in the Psalms: Wait for the Lord”

Does anyone enjoy waiting? Probably not, and yet life is filled with waiting. We do a lot of waiting in traffic. The average commuter in northern Virginia experiences 103 hours annually sitting in traffic (Heads up, commuters: New data shows the worst days to drive in the DMV). When we’re young, we wait to be grown-ups. When we’re in school, we wait to be out of school and on our own. When we are going through an illness, we wait for the needed test. Then we wait for the results to come back from that test. Then we wait for the treatment to begin. Lots of waiting, and if we’re honest with ourselves, most of us don’t do so well with waiting. But this is what the psalmist calls us to do at the close of Psalm 27 that we spoke responsively: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14). Our “Summer in the Psalms” preaching series continues today as we look at the second half of Psalm 27 under the theme, “Wait for the Lord.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Psalm 27, written by David, is a bit of a headscratcher. The first half and the second half are very different in tone from each other. Verses 1-6, the first half of Psalm 27, are a beautiful song of praise that expresses deep trust in God’s power. The opening verse is one we all should commit to memory: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1). These verses are whole and complete in themselves. Verses 7-14, the second half of Psalm 27, are likewise self-contained, but these words are a cry of lamentation. And that is one of the main categories of the Psalter, along with many others. A psalm of lament is a cry to God for help, and that is what we see here in these verses from Psalm 27. It almost seems as though two separate and distinct hymns – verses 1-6 and verses 7-14 – were joined together into one psalm. Whatever the origins of Psalm 27 may be, in the midst of his lament, David reminds himself, as well as anyone who may be lamenting, to do this: Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14).

We see examples of waiting in today’s Scripture readings. In the Old Testament lesson (Genesis 18:1-14), Abraham and Sarah entertained three guests, extending the gift of hospitality to their visitors. In the course of their visit, we see that these are not just any old visitors, but the Lord himself, together with two angels, who came to Abraham and Sarah. And now, this old couple who had waited for a child of their own for so many years, were given a promise from the Lord who appeared in human form before them: “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son” (Genesis 18:10a). From a human, biological perspective, this seemed impossible, and so Sarah laughed to herself. Maybe that would be our response, too, after waiting so long. But Sarah was reminded, and so are we: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14a). In our own lives, when we’ve waited and waited for the Lord to answer our prayers and to act in our behalf; when we have all but given up hope; when we even laughed when the Lord finally brings it about in a way that we could not possibly have imagined, let us remember that nothing is too hard for the Lord.

In the Gospel lesson (Luke 10:38-42), we see another kind of waiting – one that is sort of a simmering cauldron of resentment. Martha and Mary also entertained an honored guest: their friend, Jesus, extending the gift of hospitality to him. We can be sure that if Jesus was there, so were his twelve disciples, which means that there was a lot of meal prep needing to be done. Martha is waiting for her sister to come and help get things ready, but Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to his teaching. Have you ever been in Martha’s position where the people who should be helping out didn’t help at all? You can sense the gathering storm that’s about to break loose here. Martha’s waiting was fraught with a lot of anxiety, distractedness, and impatience. I can relate to Martha and maybe you can, too. Martha triangulates here, which is almost never a good idea. Instead of going to the person she’s upset with, she goes to someone else to air her grievance. Martha complains to Jesus: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me” (Luke 10:40b). Jesus, who loves both Martha and Mary, and who loves us also, gives Martha an answer she probably didn’t want to hear, but which she needed to hear: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42). In our waiting, we can get pretty anxious and troubled about many things just like Martha. We fret and fume when things don’t go the way we thought they should. We get upset when people don’t do what we think they’re supposed to do. We can start to spiral out of control. Jesus breaks into all of this to call us back to that one necessary thing; that one thing needful. Jesus himself is that one thing. He came into our world that we may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). He came to bring us the fullness of life through his own suffering and death upon the cross as payment for all our sins, as Paul the apostle writes in today’s Epistle lesson (Colossians 1:21-29): “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (Colossians 1:21-22).

In the midst of all the waiting that we do in this life, the psalmist reminds us: “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek’” (Psalm 27:8). “Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path” (Psalm 27:11). “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” (Psalm 27:13). To strengthen and sustain us in our waiting, the Lord Jesus doesn’t wait for us to come to him. He comes to us today. Unlike Abraham and Sarah, Martha and Mary, who served as hosts and waited on the Lord, the Lord is Host and waits on us, feeding us in his holy Supper with his very Body and Blood. And so we receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14). Amen.