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In the year 1830, on the night preceding the first of August, the day the slaves in our West Indian colonies were to come into possession of the freedom promised them, many of them, we are told, never went to bed at all. Thousands and tens of thousands of them assembled in their places of worship, engaging in devotional duties and singing praises to God, waiting for the first streak of the light of the morning of that day on which they were to be made free. Some of their number were sent w the hills, from which they might obtain the first view of the coming day, and by a signal intimate to their brethren down in the valley the very first moment of breaking dawn. They "watched for the morning." The kind of watching that comes home to us is the anxious watching by the sick-beds of loved friends. Night-work is especially trying. Sentinel-watching may be also in mind.

I. A WAITING THAT IS A WEARY COMPULSION. We do not want to wait. We are made to wait. And the watching for the end of the waiting-time is simply a prolonged agony. Man often deals with his fellow-man thus; and God sometimes finds it needful to put his people into this hard discipline. Whether we like it or not, we must wait. Active man who would do something - must do nothing. Illust.: waiting for openings in life.

II. A WAITING THAT IS A HOPELESS ENDURANCE. The kind of waiting that belongs to times of uncertainty. We watch vainly, at last almost hopelessly, for the daily post. Tennyson pictures this condition in his 'Mariana' -

"She only said, 'My life is dreary:
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I'm aweary, aweary;
I would that I were dead!'" Even at such times the hopelessness would pass, though the enduring had to remain, if only the watching had its uplook as well as its onlook. Its calm resting in the infinite wisdom and love that permits, as well as its peering away into the distant east for the first glimpse of morning.

III. A WAITING THAT IS A LOVING EXPECTANCY. And that our waiting may always be if we see it to be our Father-God's call to wait. There is his thought in it, his purpose in it. We may be sure of the "end of the Lord." It is well altogether to dismiss from our minds all such ideas of Divine sovereignty as even suggest that he ever "afflicts willingly." We seem to be waiting for some change in our earthly circumstances, but we are really waiting for God to change our circumstances; and we may wait with the calm, and even joyous, expectancy that he will. - R.T.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

WEB: I wait for Yahweh. My soul waits. I hope in his word.