| “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14). |
| In today’s verse we have another happy expression in the Bible — “Be of good courage.” This expression occurs six times in the Bible; see if you can find the other five. One is in 2nd Samuel, one in 1st Chronicles, one in Ezra, one more in Psalms, and one in Isaiah. It is interesting that while all the verses that say, “Be of good cheer” are in the New Testament, all those that say, “Be of good courage” are in the Old Testament. |
| We all admire people who have courage, and we all would like to have courage ourselves. However, it is important to have courage to do what is right. Many times in this world people have courage, and use their strength to do something, but they do not always do the right thing. It is possible to use our strength and courage to do the wrong thing, if we are not guided by the Lord. |
| Here in our verse, we are to have courage, not to do something, but to “wait on the Lord.” Does it take courage just to wait, instead of doing something? Yes, it does, and often it takes more courage than if we do something. We all like action, and when we see a problem, we like to do something about it. But sometimes it is more important to wait on the Lord and let Him solve the problem for us. King David, who wrote this psalm, had to learn this, and then he saw how the Lord could deliver him from the difficulty. |
| At other times, however, when the Lord has clearly shown us what to do, it is important to go ahead and do something. Joshua had to learn this when Israel was defeated at a city called Ai. You can read about it in Joshua 7. When this happened, Joshua “fell to the earth upon his face” (Joshua 7:6). But then the Lord said to him, “Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?” (Joshua 7:10). There was something that needed to be done, and Joshua needed to do it. |
| It is encouraging when the Lord says to us, “Be of good courage,” for He will give us the wisdom to know what to do, even if it is only to wait on Him. |
