1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.
6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O Lord.
10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
11 As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
She always had a smile for me when I came to visit. Her body was twisted by her disease, she could not really walk any more. Her once expansive world was shrinking to the window from which she gazed, letters and emails received, and the phone calls of those who remembered her. But her world was growing at an amazing rate as well as she read her Bible, perhaps for the first time with this intensity. These words had taken on new meaning for her.
I think of her when I read these words. David speaks of waiting patiently for God to lift him up and set his feet on solid ground once more, to make his steps secure once more. She was looking forward to that blessing from God. He would not disappoint her. She would sing His praises in the assembly and her voice would quaver no more. She would speak of His faithfulness and salvation, standing on legs which were strong and steady. She would not proclaim His blessings to the congregation of all humanity who are raised on that great day. She would have a song to sing, and she anticipated it.
David says that God does not delight in sacrifice and offering; rather, he gives to David and us his open ear. He loves our prayers. He loved hearing her prayers as she sat in that room with her Bible open on her lap, yearning for God’s healing and health. She waited patiently and then God answered them all. Praise the Lord.