Waiting’s Role

“May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.” Psalm 25:21 (ESV)

I am struck that relying on integrity and uprightness should preserve me.  It really seems quite novel. Everyone knows it is rarely the good guys who get ahead.  This knowledge doesn’t just belong to our postmodern era; 3000 years ago, David regularly bemoaned the fact that ‘the wicked’ apparently flourished while the weak continued downtrodden.

But the other thing that makes me uncomfortable with this verse is my Evangelical Orthodoxy.  If I am saved by grace alone, how can I rely on my own integrity and uprightness to do me any good?

So on at least two counts, being preserved by my own character seems quite novel.  There is however a curious qualifier which helps shed some light on this idea: “…for I wait for you.”

This waiting can go two ways.  Either a) waiting is what activates integrity and uprightness to a potency powerful enough to preserve me.  Or b) integrity and uprightness can preserve me on their own, but I get these character traits only by waiting.

I think this hair splitting is important because Biblical waiting is a very active posture.  And it is hard to actively wait when I haven’t really thought through waiting’s role.

Very likely, this is a ‘both / and’ situation here.  I get integrity and uprightness through waiting for God.  And my integrity and uprightness are of any help only if I wait for God.  Wow, that’s a lot of waiting.  Quite humbling.  Can’t I do anything on my own?

Oh yeah, earlier in the same Psalm it says, “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way.  He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.”

Uprightness starts in God.  But it is the humble, waiting posture that will surely transfer God’s own character to us.  It sure is hard to learn anything without a humble outlook.  It might be yet harder to learn something when you’re in a rush.

Lord, thank you that your character, your ways are available for me to embrace.  I want to own uprightness and integrity.  Not just any uprightness and integrity, but yours.  Grant me the patience to wait on you, to learn from you.  And then, I’ll keep waiting, trusting that the transformation you bring about in me is full of power to preserve me and bring you great glory.  In Christ, Amen.

Preserve from What?

Psalm 25:21 “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

I thought I had thought this verse to death.  But in a moment of intense awareness of my own short-comings, I cried out the verse that has been floating on my heart’s surface: “May integrity anduprightness preserveme, for I wait for you.”

Whoah, that drew me up short.  Until now, I had assumed that in praying this Psalm, I was asking for preservation against outside forces:  bad people out to get me;  the world’s corruption out to tempt me.  But if I see myself as potentially my own worst enemy, well then it certainly makes sense that I would pray that integrity and uprightness would preserve me from myself.

These are interesting layers of depth: praying to be preserved from both internal and external forces.  Looking through both layers at once,  both internal and external forces become indiscernable.  Maybe my propensity to give in to temptation isn’t so different from viruses floating out there waiting to infect me.  Maybe my inclination to be self-centered isn’t so different from the materialism out there messing with people’s motivations.

They’re all the result of fallen humanity; all part of the kingdom of darkness.

It is a scary thought to know the enemy has infiltrated so close.  It is also a simplifying thought.  Crucifying my sinful nature with Christ suddenly no longer seems such a personal loss.

I’ve only got one battle to win: that of waiting on God.  Then He’ll provide that integrity and uprightness I am so desperate for.  Then, everything will be okay – both internally and externally.

Preservation Ingredients

Psalm 25:21  —  “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

Integrity and uprightness are always good.  But it seems they are not enough for self-preservation.  The world is rough and will take shots at even the most upright people.  “I can’t believe such a bad thing would happen to such a good person!”

Here, the added ingredient of waiting for the Lord activates integrity and uprightness as a force for being preserved.

As the second to last verse in the Psalm, the theme of waiting on the Lord has appeared already several times throughout this prayer/song.  So it appears here as a closing, summary statement.  Throughout the Psalm, we are on the brink several times of deseperation, of being overwhelmed by either outward forces or by personal sin.  But somehow after all tumult of the prayer, the matter seems settled here with this statement/request: “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

Though there are many repeating themes throughout the Psalm, this is the first direct mention of integrity.  The only other mention of uprightness is in reference to God:  “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way.”

It seems almost obnoxious that we should finish this prayer, declaring our integrity and uprightness, especially when uprightness is only attributed to God.  Not only so, but we also confess several times in this Psalm how great is our need of forgiveness.

David gives us clues to the possibility of such a claim throughout the Psalm by examining God’s character.  In this prayer, most statements of God’s character describe how He is faithful to direct people; people who are sinners, who are humble, who fear him; basically, people who wait for him.

So it is with confidence that we can declare our integrity and uprightness before the Perfect God because we know that He loves share His character with His people.  The confidence comes from a certaintity of God’s ability and willingness to instill His very own traits within our souls.

So, perhaps it isn’t correct to understand self-preservation as requiring the three ingredients of integrity, uprightness and waiting on God.  Rather, there are only two ingredients: integrity and uprightness.  But these two ingredients are only reaped when harvested through waiting on God.