“But as for me, I will be on the watch for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.
Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine.
Though I fall, I will rise;
Though I sit in darkness, the Lord is a light for me”
~~Micah 7:7-8 ~~
We all have those moments, and for some, seasons, when we feel that life has knocked us down and pinned us to the mat. I’ve been experiencing a season like that. This passage in Micah 7 really helped me process things in a way that I know would please God.
I see in these two verses, “What I do” and “What I know”, when life knocks us down.
WHAT I “DO”
I will be on the WATCH for the Lord. The word “watch” (sapa) means to watch closely; and grammatically, it is a participle, which makes it what I like to call an “-ing” word – it’s not a one-and-done thing, but rather an ongoing action. With that in mind, this phrase could read, “I will keep on watching for the Lord”.
Notice it said “I will be on the watch for the Lord”. When going through a hard time, if what we are looking for is an merely an end to our discomfort, we will wind up missing the PERSON who meet us in our “pinned to the mat” situation and bring comfort, whether our situation changes or not.
Now consider watching something closely. When doing this, I don’t take my eyes off of it for fear I will miss something. I think of the father of the prodigal son, he “watched closely” for the return of his son. How do I know that? Because if he hadn’t been doing that, he wouldn’t have noticed his son “afar off” as he was heading home (Luke 15:20). So with that in mind, I choose to not take my eyes off the Lord lest I miss being witness to His provision and goodness in and around me.
I will WAIT for the God of my salvation. The word “wait” <yahal> means to wait patiently in hope. What was an eye-opener to me was that this verb was used causatively – to make one do something. Think about that! If I have to make myself do something, that indicates that it doesn’t come naturally. By the power of the Spirit within me, I must choose to make my mind turn to the God of my salvation.
I think it’s so common for us here on earth to look horizontally for solutions to our problems, but that’s not exercising faith at all. Just as our physical eyesight is the sense that gives us evidence of the material world, faith is the “sense” that gives us evidence of the invisible, spiritual world.
Waiting patiently in hope is an exercise of faith, and like anything, the more you do an exercise, the stronger you become and the more smoothly-occurring it is.
Before we move on, let’s consider “waiting in hope”. What comes to mind is Romans 8:28 where it says that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The phrase “work together” (synergeō) means to assist, help (be serviceable to) one for a thing.
What does God cause to work together? All things (pas) which, when used individually, indicates each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything, and when used collectively, indicates some of all types.
Knowing that God can take any, every, and all situations and assist in making that situation “serviceable” to me, that gives me the motivation to make myself wait for the God of my salvation. God is able to make even the “pinned to the mat” life events become things that serve to grow me to become more like Jesus.
WHAT I “KNOW”
My Lord will HEAR me. The word “hear” <sama> means to hear intelligently, often with the implication of attention; to hear favorably. Think about that. To hear something intelligently indicates that a person has a high degree of ability to understand how to deal with new or trying situations and thus reveal their good judgment or sound thought. That’s how God hears us when we pray! He has told us that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, so God’s thoughts can trump even our best attempts at solving our problems.
Another thing that comes to mind as I consider hearing intelligently is the ability of God to hear what is said and what is not said. When God hears, He not only hears what’s on our lips, but what is in our hearts, and then He answers intelligently according to what He knows is best for us. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope”, (Jeremiah 29:11).
When I fall, I WILL RISE. The first thing that I noted was the word “when”. This verse didn’t say “if” I fall, like it might happen. Nope, “when” I fall – falling is a given. Fall (nāp̄al) was used figuratively here to mean to experience calamity. Unsure if I comprehended the meaning of calamity, I looked it up and found it to mean, a disastrous event marked by great loss and lasting distress and suffering, or a state of deep distress or misery caused by major misfortune or loss. That sounds like “pin you to the mat” circumstances to me.
Despite the pinning to the mat, God tells me in this verse that I will rise. The word used for the phrase “I will rise” <qum> means both will arise (you’ll get up off the mat), and it is also used to convey that when I rise, I will be stable on my feet (will stand, be established, or be fixed).
God not only helps us up when we’re knocked down by circumstances, He offers us a stability that can only come from Him, when we choose to keep on watching and waiting for Him.
When I sit in darkness, the Lord is a LIGHT for me. The word “sit” (yasal) means to sit down, to remain or stay, or to have one’s abode. There’s a big expanse between merely sitting down and having one’s abode in a place. The word “darkness” <hosek> means distress. When I think of darkness in the physical sense, I certainly don’t want to sit or abide in the darkness, unless I am going to sleep. But when I think of darkness in the realm of distress, I picture a type of emotional “fog”, generated by a hard time, that obscures my sight.
This verse says that, regardless how short or long my stint of distress may be, the Lord is a light for me. Things are much less foreboding and scary in the light than they are in the dark. God brings the light into our distressing situations.
Think about fog one more time. When we get a fog alert on our phone, what is it that burns the fog off? The sun. Now apply that spiritually. God is the light that burns off the emotional fog caused by our times of distress.
Wrapping it up.
What is hitting me hard is that in order for what I know to become my real experience with God, I need to do the watching and waiting for Him. My focus has to be intentionally focused on Him, not allowing my eyes to shift to the right or the left, at what’s going on around me.
God is always and forever who He is, but how I experience the reality of who He is, is up to me. I must be purposeful in what I “do” so I can experience personally what I “know”.