Waiting On

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, January 21st, 2024:
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Psalm 25
 
Lord, make me know your ways.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.

Lord, make me know your ways.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. According to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

Lord, make me know your ways.

Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 

Lord, make me know your ways.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

I am writing this reflection from bed. This is day 2 of the first cold I have had in nearly 4 years and, as some of you will agree, day 2 often seems to be the worst day. I am tucked away upstairs, so that others in the family are less likely to catch what I have. The bedside table is littered with all the usual cold paraphernalia: vapourizing rub, cough drops, throat spray, sinus medication, tissues. All of this is thanks to my husband, who is waiting on me.

“Waiting on” is one of those peculiar phrases that can mean a thing or its opposite, depending on the context. When I say, “I’m sick and my husband is waiting on me,” it’s clear to you that he is on the move — out to the pharmacy for cough drops, or up and down the stairs with tea and toast. He’s active, while I’m resting. But if I were to meet up with you and say, “Sorry, I have to run, my husband is waiting on me,” you would understand that he’s cooling his heels, and I’m the one who is supposed to be on the move. In this context, waiting on is very similar to waiting for.

The English language is full of such quirkiness, but it was the psalm for this Sunday that got me thinking about the “waiting on me” contradiction.

In the first verse of Psalm 25, King David says: “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.” In some translations, these words are followed by the phrase: “On you I wait all day long.” In other translations, the phrase is: “For you I wait all day long.” 

So, which is correct? While there’s been a lot of ink spilled on the topic, we don’t have to go down that road in order to appreciate that this “for” and “on” distinction plays out in our lives. In some ways, the Lord invites us to trust that His timing is always perfect and simply to wait patiently for Him to act. In other ways, we are called to wait on the Lord, to listen for what God is asking of us and then actively to fulfill it — in other words, to serve Him. 

We know that serving God doesn’t mean meeting God’s needs — God is everything and has everything. What Psalm 25 makes clear is that serving God means learning to emulate God’s ways of “mercy” and “steadfast love” under His instruction and then helping to heal the world by sharing that way with others.




Donna Davis

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