Take time to stop and read Psalm 130. Read it slowly. Let the psalmist’s words settle into your heart and become your words. Allow yourself to wait with the psalmist, to wait expectantly, to wait trustingly for the Lord to reveal Godself to you in whatever way you may need. Try it; just wait . . . and see what God, “unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,” has prepared for you. God meets us where we are, as we are. How God uses the psalm to speak to you will be different from how your neighbor experiences it.

When I sat with the psalm, letting the words swirl around in my mind, verse 4 caught my attention: “I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; in his word is my hope.“ “In his word is my hope”—certainly God’s word in scripture encourages my heart in my quiet time day by day, but when I read that phrase through Easter eyes, when I recognize “his word” as Christ Jesus, God Incarnate, our Savior and Redeemer, I know my hope is justified. Just look at the examples of hope in our gospel lesson for today. There’s the woman “who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.” She was desperate, willing to try anything that might give her relief, hoping against hope that just touching Jesus’ clothes would make her well. When it did, she heard his confirming word, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.” And there’s Jairus, who started out with hope that Jesus could save his critically ill daughter, but he must have been wild at the delay the woman caused, and then surely he must have despaired when he heard the news that his daughter was dead. But Jesus’ encouraging words (“Do not be afraid, only believe,” and “the child is not dead but sleeping”) stirred hope in his heart, hope that burst into amazement and joy as Jesus’ life-giving word restored his daughter to life. Hearing those stories, who could not be filled with hope at the power of God’s love manifest in our lives?

Can you wait for the Lord? Do you wait for the Lord? If not, there’s no time like the present to give it a try. The sage of Lamentations tells us : “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him, “ (3:21), and the prophet Isaiah says, “…those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (40:31)