walking and waiting

In the path of your judgments,

O LORD, we wait for you;

your name and remembrance

are the desire of our soul.

Isaiah 26:8

Waiting on the Lord… waiting in the Lord… waiting for the Lord… all are focused on God’s greatness and power to be known in His work as we wait. We wait though in “paths of His judgments”, which means that His past work, which we remember by knowing His Word, informs our hope for what He will do as we wait.

To understand the “path of judgments” in Isaiah 26:8, we should look back one verse at the path described in Isaiah 26:7. There the “path of the righteous is level”. God makes the path that way for those who will obey and follow His will as revealed in His Word. His previous judgments (another description of God’s Word or His Law) straighten and level the way we are currently traveling. It is in that level path that we wait, trusting God for where it leads as we walk it.

As we walk the path God has set before us, we wait for Him. We don’t stand still. There isn’t a bench to rest on. We are IN THE PATH. We are ON THE PATH. We are moving forward, we just may not see the end destination. We hike along as we wait. Waiting then isn’t as passive as we may think. God lays a way before us as we wait and in that level path we begin to grow in our faith and our trust in Him. We focus on God as we look ahead along the path we are traveling.

The straight and level path of His judgments is before us. And also, we worship as we focus upon waiting for what comes. We remember past joys. His name is indeed great! We know it. We know it because of the gospel’s work in us. We know it because of Who Jesus is to us. We praise the God Who saves! And we remember. All believers in Jesus know what we are delivered from: a past life dominated by sin and destined for judgment in the Second Death. But in Christ we are delivered from sin, death, and hell. We have hope… always. And in that hope we wait as we walk forward on the path that God has made for us that leads from the cross and the empty tomb, on to the glory God will reveal in us! Walking and waiting we press on to this high calling.