Scripture often speaks to us in tension. As soon as a person has it all figured out, they read a passage that seems to flip everything upside-down and re-introduces the tension. One aspect of God's story which creates the tension is salvation. Is salvation now, or later, or a little bit of both? This psalm leads me to the bookhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif of Hebrews, where a list of faithful witnesses is given, all of whom died before knowing the salvation of Jesus Christ. Generation after generation went by waiting for the coming of the Messiah. And now generation after generation waits for the consummation of all things in Jesus Christ.
Here is the tension. For some, salvation has a very "here-and-now" kind of way. Click this link to see the story of one who found Jesus Christ while being delivered from slavery. Or perhaps ask a person freed from addiction by God what deliverance means. For final salvation, though, we wait.
We wait. The book of Revelation calls for patient endurance more than anything else. The psalm we look at today is littered with patient endurance. That's why the Bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength- it has little to do with your present circumstances. May you find your delight in God alone today, delight that will give you patient endurance in the challenges of everyday life.
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