Those who Wait for the Lord

“Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.”  Isaiah 40:31

This is one of the best-loved promises of the Bible, for it is easy to grow weary and faint in our mortal bodies, even when doing the work of the Lord. The answer, we are told, is to “wait for the Lord.”

But what does this mean? The Hebrew word (“gavah”) does not mean “serve,” but rather, to “wait for” or “look for.” It is translated “waited for” the second time it is used in the Bible, when the dying patriarch, Jacob, cried out: “For Your salvation I wait, O Lord.” (Gen. 49:18).

The first time it is used, surprisingly, is in connection with the third day of creation when God said: “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Gen. 1:9). That is, the all-pervasive waters of the original creation, divided on the second day of creation, now are told to wait patiently, as it were, while God formed the geosphere, the biosphere, and the astrophere, before dealing again with the waters.

Perhaps the clearest insight into its meaning is its use in the picture of Christ foreshadowed in the 40th Psalm. “I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1).

“The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired” (Isaiah 40:28). His gracious promise is that we can “gain new strength” (literally, exchange our strength - our weakness for His strength!) by waiting for Him. We wait patiently for Him, we gather together for Him, we look for Him, we cry to Him, we trust Him, and He renews our strength!