Jehovah does all things in his own time, according to his own purpose and will. A glorious purpose: “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Ps. 130:7–8)! A promise of full and complete redemption in a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness shall dwell and when the tabernacle of God will be with men. Wait on Jehovah.

Was that not the lesson of all of Old Testament history? Cain killed righteous Abel because Abel’s deeds were righteous and Cain’s were wicked, and Abel’s blood cries from the ground. Wait on Jehovah. Sarah shall conceive and bare a son, but it appeared never to come. Wait on Jehovah. Israel, first sojourning in Egypt and then enslaved by the cruel Egyptians far from the promised land. Wait on Jehovah. Israel on the shore with the sea before them and the Egyptians behind them. Wait on Jehovah. David in his desperate flight from Saul, harried and hounded for years over the countryside of Israel. Wait on Jehovah. Hezekiah surrounded in Jerusalem by the murderous and blaspheming host of Asshur. Wait on Jehovah. And at the center of all of that history was the great promise of the coming of the seed of the woman, who was then surrounded by his enemies and crucified on the cross, while the powers of darkness rejoiced. This was their hour and the power of darkness. Wait on Jehovah.

And Christ arose the third day, and the kingdom of Satan trembled! Wait on Jehovah.

New Testament history is no different. Satan goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour because he knows that his time is short. Many times the word and cause of God appear to go down to defeat. Many times the wicked evildoers and enemies of God and his cause appear to triumph. This is all the more so because the night is far spent, and the day is at hand. So the scoffers say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4). Wait on Jehovah. “For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth” (Ps. 37:9).

Jehovah may suffer many griefs upon the just to fall; but he will bring them safely through, delivering them from all. By evil are the evil slain, and they that hate the just; but all his servants God redeems, and safe in him they trust.

Wait on Jehovah and hope in his word: the secret of spiritual strength. To run ahead of Jehovah, to grow impatient with Jehovah, to help Jehovah along, and to grow discontented with the ways of Jehovah are spiritually draining and futile tasks. But those who wait on him shall renew their strength. Waiting on Jehovah and trusting in him, they cast off all their own strength, their own wisdom, and their own ways. And supplied and refreshed by strength from the inexhaustible and overflowing source of all goodness and blessing, they fly; they run; they walk in their pilgrim’s journey, fighting the good fight of faith and warring against sin, Satan, and his whole dominion and overcoming those enemies until they appear without spot or wrinkle in the assembly of the elect in life eternal.

“Wait, I say, on the Lord” (Ps. 27:14).

“O Lord…let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause” (Ps. 25:1, 3).