Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.

1) Why does the Lord wait to be gracious?
To understand the fullness of this word and meaning behind “wait”, we need to refer to the context prior to this verse as well as the original Hebrew. The preceding verses are God pouring out His heart over the rebellion of His beloved nation, Israel. They resist His love, pull away in every regard, exchanging worship of the One True God for bowing down to idols instead.
God is waiting for their hearts to turn back to Him.
The Hebrew for “wait” is transliterated as “châkâh” (pronounced, khaw-kaw’) and not only means “to wait”, but also carries the idea of “great longing” as well as a very specific and determined amount of time. All of this together gives us insight into God’s heart. He isn’t “just waiting”, He is longing and aching for hearts to return to Him. Also, He will not wait forever; He is not ambling in His waiting. The period of waiting is specific and designed for our best purposes.
2) How does God exalt Himself in order to show us mercy?
The wording of this in English can make understanding of it a little tricky. By the very act of exalting Himself, He is showing mercy. The mercy he gives us is itself a display of His glory (or exultation). We see “exalt Himself” and immediately think of an arrogant braggart, but that isn’t the case at all. Try reading the phrase like this, “and therefore, because He waits and longs so patiently for our hearts to return to Him, the Lord is displaying His magnificent glory to us by waiting to drape us with His mercy.” His mercy is waiting, His restoration is waiting, oh how He longs to redeem our brokenness!

3) Is God just in the way that we would consider just?
God’s justice is the highest definition of justice. Justice itself belongs to Him. What we see as injustices happening all around us are even greater injustices to the Creator of all. We must not mistake our idea of “nothing being righted” as a character flaw on God’s part. We must remember that, while He is just, He also holds time in His hands, and is indeed waiting and longing for that fullness of time to arrive so that all injustices may be righted with the second coming of Christ, with judgement of humanity, and a new heaven and new earth where all things will be restored to be as they were originally intended and designed. Yet, in the meantime, God uses human agents in the present-day-now, to uphold justice that we might put His character on display as we are His ambassadors. He did not need to choose to use His children as agents of justice, but he chose to.

1) Why does the Lord wait to be gracious?
We look at suffering and we wonder why God is waiting. Why allow the evil to continue? Why the wildfires, the hurricanes, the countless injustices, and the devastating floods? Why not rescue Your people, God? Why wait?! In our passage, Israel is suffering, but they are looking for reprieve in things they can control and are looking for salvation from other powerful nations (namely Egypt, where they were once enslaved) rather than the God who loves to redeem them. How often this is us! Times of trial and anguish are allowed by God’s mercy to wake us from our self-focus; He is longing for our full worship and attention. It is when we fix our gaze solemnly and fully upon Him and His full satisfaction, that we find both relief and purpose as we are drawn into His redeeming love!

2) How does God exalt Himself in order to show us mercy?
Depending on your view of God’s character, you might struggle to see God as waiting to lavish you with mercy and show you His glory simply because He longs for a restored relationship with you. Especially when things feel broken or lonely or anguished in our lives, we tend to see God as being distant and un-caring, waiting for us to “get our act together”. Remember that this is not the God of the Bible! He is drawing us towards Himself, waiting with un-ending waves of mercy and love! (Read this for a beautiful perspective on the Father who WAITS!)

3) Is God just in the way that we would consider just?
God is waiting for the fullness of time that the world may know Him, that every tongue, every nation, and every language would hear of His rich grace and mercy. He is waiting for hearts to turn to Him! Mine, yours, our neighbors, the homeless man, the mama who aborted her baby, and the child who drinks dirty water. Injustice breaks His heart, but He is allowing the ugliness of sin to continue in order that more may come to Him. He’s longing for the redemption of the world! What will you do to further those purposes? Will you share? Will you stand up to right the wrongs and be His ambassador for Justice and so proclaim the gospel of the God who love to redeem?!

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Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

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