Waiting in Silence

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. -Psalm 62:5

Whether you do so out loud or do so in silence, you talk to yourself. Here the Psalmist is speaking to his soul, which is very much the same thing.

It is not weird. It is not a matter that needs to be taken up by psychology or psychaiatry. You are a creature of God, made in His image, and He is one God in three Persons.

Here the Holy Spirit while inhabiting the human flesh of the Psalmist, which Psalmist is incorporated into Christ by faith already, cries out to wait in silence, which is somewhat ironic, because in crying out the silence is broken.

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. -Isaiah 62:1

So which is it? Silence or sound? It is both, and it can be both without contradiction.

The soul experiencing distance from God can do nothing but wait for Him in silence. The soul in close communion to God can do nothing but speak. It is the condition of sinful man that he is both apart from, and joined to, the Creator in and through Christ Jesus.

At any rate, here the urging is from the innermost being: be quiet. There is nothing from inside that will help. The hope that satisfies must be delivered from the outside.

That Hope is Christ crucified and risen, of Whom the soul speaks and sings, yet for Whom the soul waits.

Life in this world is like that. The Psalmist knows. Jesus knows. Jesus is the Psalmist Who carries your soul from one day to the next until you are made complete.

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