“Waiting in the Pit”

Excerpted from Sifted: Diary of a Grieving Mother by Karen Harmening

JULY 26, 2017

“I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD.”

Psalm 40:1-3

Last night I finally washed Sarah’s sheets and blankets and made her bed, neatly placing her favorite blankets and stuffed animals back in their places. It shattered my already broken heart a little further.

So this morning I find myself still in this pit I’ve been stuck in for several days now. I see the light of His new mercy in the morning as I spend time in His Word, but in the depth of the pit, I don’t feel it fully washing over me as I do when I am on solid ground. For now, the shadow of death seems to block its warmth. I have no energy to claw or climb my way out, and even if I did have the energy to somehow get out it would never be sufficient to keep me from eventually sliding back in. So as I sit here in the mire of this pit this morning I once again look to His Word longing for encouragement.

David “waited patiently for the LORD” in the pit. That alone is an encouragement to me this morning. Not only did he, the man after God’s own heart, fall into the pit just like me, but he also realized he was incapable of getting out by his own strength. So he waited—he sat in the pit and waited. He waited, but he did not wait silently.

He says God “inclined to me and heard my cry.” He was crying out to God from the depths of the miry pit, and God heard and inclined Himself to David. Not only was David crying out, but as he was waiting, it says specifically that he was waiting “patiently.” Some think the word for patiently here is better understood as intently. Either way, the implication is the same, as David was waiting in the mire he was expecting his God to answer. The man after God’s own heart knew the character and nature of God just as we can through His Word, and he knew that his God prides Himself on His faithfulness and lovingkindness to His children.

Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments (Deut. 7:9)

My prayer through tears this morning before opening His Word was that He would remind me of His faithfulness and that He would give me the confidence to wait on Him. I’m so thankful His Word is living and active, that through the power of the Holy Spirit, He faithfully speaks exactly what our aching hearts need to hear.

So once again in the midst of this suffering, I will entrust my soul to my faithful Creator and I will choose to wait patiently and intently for Him in this pit (1 Pet. 4:19). Like David, I will cry out knowing He will hear and eventually answer me. “My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud; My voice rises to God, and He will hear me” (Ps. 77:1).

I find courage in knowing He will lift me out, providing my way of escape, in His time. In the meantime, I know He is faithful and will supply my every need to endure however long He chooses to leave me here.