The Other Six Podcast Episode 170: The Art of Biblical Waiting

Jun 01, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Alienation and the Covenant Door

When humanity chose rebellion in Eden, God stationed flaming swords to guard the tree of life—not to punish, but to protect. Our brokenness makes us outsiders, yet God opens a way back through covenant. A covenant isn’t a negotiation; it’s God’s unshakable promise to bind himself to us despite our failures. Like a parent setting boundaries for a wandering child, God’s terms are rooted in love, not control. To walk with him means surrendering our demands for autonomy and trusting his roadmap home. [10:26]

The Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22–24, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you resisted God’s “boundaries” lately, mistaking his covenant terms for restriction rather than rescue? How might saying “yes” to his roadmap deepen your trust today?

Day 2: Held by the God Who Holds On

David clung to a truth deeper than his failures: God’s grip on him mattered more than his grip on God. Covenant loyalty—hesed—is God’s stubborn refusal to abandon us, even when our hands grow weak. Like a parent carrying a tired child, God’s strength covers our faltering steps. This isn’t about perfect performance but leaning into the One whose promises outlast our doubts. When shame whispers, “Let go,” covenant love whispers louder: “I never will.” [13:57]

The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14, ESV)

Reflection: What failure or doubt makes you question God’s hold on you? How would living as the “carried child” instead of the “weary climber” change your posture today?

Day 3: Active Waiting in the Ready Position

Biblical waiting isn’t passive resignation—it’s the ready stance of a shortstop anticipating the play. David prayed, sought, and obeyed while Absalom’s rebellion raged, trusting God’s timing over quick fixes. Waiting cultivates endurance like roots deepening in drought; it’s where God forges character that shortcuts would bypass. Every delay is a workshop, not a waste. What feels like God’s silence is often his invitation to lean closer. [19:48]

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! (Psalm 27:14, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you tempted to “swing at wild pitches” instead of staying in ready posture? What one step of active waiting (prayer, obedience, surrender) could you take today?

Day 4: Mercy Outweighs the Sins of Youth

David didn’t downplay his failures—he drowned them in the ocean of God’s mercy. Like a parent refusing to define a child by their worst moment, God’s covenant love weighs our sins against the cross and finds grace heavier. Fixating on failure distorts our view; fixing eyes on mercy reshapes confession from groveling to gratitude. We repent not to earn favor but because favor has already been poured out. [26:41]

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4–5, ESV)

Reflection: Which “sin of your youth” still haunts you? How would embracing mercy’s weight over shame’s shadow free you to run toward God today?

Day 5: Never Alone in a Broken World

Loneliness lies. David wrote Psalm 25 while fleeing enemies, yet declared, “The friendship of the Lord is mine.” Covenant means God exchanges isolation for presence—not by fixing every problem, but by filling every shadow with himself. Like a child gripping a parent’s hand in a storm, we’re safe not because the wind stops, but because we’re held. Circumstances may not change, but encountering the Friend who sticks closer than a brother changes everything. [43:00]

Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. (Psalm 25:16–18, ESV)

Reflection: Where does loneliness shout loudest in your life? How might whispering “You’re here” to God reshape that space today?

Sermon Summary

The covenant sets the terms for relating to God. Genesis 3 shows humanity driven east of Eden, cut off from the tree of life, guarded by cherubim, which means access must now be given on God’s terms, not assumed on human rights. God binds himself to a people by covenant and offers, I will be your God and you will be my people, and Jesus brings the new covenant where he does the heavy lifting and his righteousness becomes theirs. Psalm 25 speaks in this covenant register, naming Yahweh and leaning hard into his hesed, his steadfast love, which binds his loyalty to a people who fail and yet are kept.

David’s prayer in Psalm 25 sounds like a king who knows he must submit to the King. Likely older and on the run from Absalom, he could marshal power, but instead he waits. To you I lift up my soul. In you I trust. For you I wait. That posture is not passive. Biblical waiting is the ready position. It looks like prayer, trust, obedience, and strength received. God makes people strong by making them wait. Hupomone, the staying under that trials demand, produces character. None who wait for you will be put to shame, meaning there is no final defeat in waiting, only in grabbing control.

Mercy outweighs the gravity of sin. David does not ask God to remember his record; he pleads, remember not the sins of my youth, but remember me according to your steadfast love. Scripture stacks it this way too: dead in sin, but God, rich in mercy; not saved by works, but according to his mercy; where sin abounds, grace abounds more. Righteousness is not earned, it is received in Christ. Jesus was made sin with human sinfulness so humans might be made righteous with his righteousness, and his kindness leads to repentance.

The fear of the Lord and the friendship of the Lord walk together. To fear and not be afraid is the paradox of faith. The creature stands before the Creator, the person stands before the Judge, the child stands before the Father. That fear reorganizes love and loyalty and pushes out the fear of man. Then friendship with God means a person is never alone in a broken world. Circumstances may not change, but the experience changes. God does not always give a solution; he gives himself. Obedience in the dark still obeys. Resurrection life always travels through death first.

Baptism then fits as covenant marker. It is not the root of salvation but the fruit of it, a public identification with Jesus in the new covenant. It says forever, always, no matter what, I belong to him.

Key Takeaways

1. God relates by covenant alone God decides how he will be known and loved, and he binds himself to a people on his terms. Exile from Eden means access back to life must be granted, not presumed, and Jesus brings the final covenant where his obedience stands for his people. Faith entrusts the self to God’s faithfulness in Christ, not to human performance. [11:27]
2. Faith waits in active readiness Waiting is not zoning out. It is the ready position that prays, trusts, obeys, and looks up until God acts. God grows strength by stretching time, and character forms when a person stays under pressure instead of scrambling for control. None who wait for him will finally lose. [19:48]
3. Mercy outweighs the gravity of sin David asks God to forget his youthful sins and to remember covenant love, and the gospel places that same weight: but God, rich in mercy. Righteousness is not an achievement but a gift in Christ, which frees confession from shame and steers repentance by kindness rather than terror. Grace really does abound more. [28:42]
4. Fear of the Lord makes room for friendship Holy fear is not panic; it is right posture as creature, accountable person, and beloved child before God. That fear replaces the fear of man, reorders loyalties, and clears the ground where the Lord’s friendship rests. The result is courage with reverence, intimacy with awe. [33:48]
5. God changes experience before circumstances David’s world did not instantly improve, but his loneliness met the Lord’s friendship. The incarnate God gives himself when solutions delay, and obedience in the dark still obeys. That is how faith speaks even when sight fails. [48:52]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[10:26] - Exile and the guarded tree
[11:27] - God sets the covenant terms
[12:31] - Psalm 25 as covenant prayer
[15:54] - David on the run from Absalom
[18:17] - To you, in you, for you
[19:48] - Ready-position waiting
[23:00] - Hupomone: staying under pressure
[24:29] - None who wait will lose
[26:41] - Mercy outweighs the sins of youth
[33:48] - Fear and not afraid
[39:16] - Fear of God or fear of man
[43:00] - Friendship with God in loneliness
[48:52] - Presence over solutions
[54:16] - Baptism as new-covenant marker

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Psalm 25:1-2, 7, 14 (ESV)
1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!
14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

Observation Questions

What three actions does David take in Psalm 25:1-2 (lifting, trusting, waiting) and what does he ask God to prevent?
According to Psalm 25:7, what does David ask God to not remember, and what does he ask God to remember instead?
What specific circumstance in David’s life (hinted at in the sermon) shapes his prayer in this psalm? [15:54]
What outcome does Psalm 25:3 promise for those who wait on God?

Interpretation Questions

Why might David emphasize God’s “steadfast love” (Psalm 25:7) rather than his own merits when asking for forgiveness? How does this connect to the idea of covenant?
The sermon describes biblical waiting as a “ready position” involving prayer, trust, and obedience. How does this differ from passive inaction? [19:48]
Psalm 25:14 links “friendship” with God to “fear” of Him. How can these two ideas—reverent awe and intimate relationship—coexist?
The sermon states, “Mercy outweighs the gravity of sin.” How does Ephesians 2:4-5 (referenced in the transcript) support this claim?

Application Questions

In what current situation do you need to practice “active waiting” (praying, trusting, obeying) instead of taking control? What would this look like practically? [19:48]
David asks God to forget his past sins and remember His mercy. How can focusing on God’s character, rather than your failures, change the way you confess struggles or mistakes?
The sermon says, “Fear of the Lord pushes out fear of man.” When have you felt pressured to prioritize others’ approval over faithfulness to God? What step could you take to reorder your loyalties? [39:16]
Baptism is described as a “covenant marker” of belonging to Jesus. How does this truth encourage you when facing doubt or hardship?
The sermon notes that God often changes our experience of circumstances before changing the circumstances themselves. When have you felt God’s presence or friendship in a difficult situation even when the problem remained? [48:52]
What is one area where you need to trust that “mercy outweighs sin” in your life or relationships? How might this shift your prayers or actions?

Sermon Clips

42s

#TrustThroughTrials

“``Knowing God doesn't mean that things are gonna be good. Knowing God means that things will turn out good. Mhmm. Knowing God doesn't mean that things are gonna be easy, but knowing God does mean that that you will never be alone in it. That's that's the deal. And if and if what your relationship with God entails is circumstances must change or it's not acceptable to you, then you're not walking with God, you're walking with yourself. The God who knows all and sees all and loves you more than anyone loves you, his ways are better, his plan is better, his grace is greater than anything and the reality is it is the voice of faith, yet though he slay me, I will trust in him because if he slays you, you will rise again.”

27s

#ActiveWaitingReady

“When you're in baseball and you're taught to play defense, the first thing you're taught is the ready position. You don't just stand there with your hands just hanging at your side. You get in the ready position. Prep. Meaning, when the ball is pitched, you're ready, it could come your way. Right. You're waiting, how are you waiting? You're waiting ready. So it's an active waiting, you're not just standing there looking around, if you hear the crack of the ball, look and see and make sure. You don't do that, you posture yourself.”

33s

#ChesedCovenantLove

“The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant. It's this idea of close friendship with God, bound together by commitment, covenant loyalty, and it flows from God to us and we return it, albeit imperfectly, but yet we benefit from the God who never lets us go. That's what we've been saying is this covenant love is referred to as Chesed in the Hebrew or loving kindness or steadfast love. So what does God bind to us? He binds his love to us.”

31s

#AdoptedInChrist

“Jesus brings to us the new covenant, the ultimate covenant, the final covenant whereby he does all the work and heavy lifting and we are attached to him so we benefit from his righteous standing before the father. We become adopted children into the family of God by way of covenant. So we don't talk about covenant, but yet the Psalms drive the old covenant language so strongly that if you don't catch it, you just kinda read over names like Lord. You wouldn't see that that is Yahweh, it's the covenant keeping name of God.”

38s

#WaitOnGodTrust

“You don't get out of verse one without getting most of what you need from the Psalm. Mhmm. To you, oh Lord, I lift up my soul. You go, okay, that's cool. And you read on and go, wow, that's a lot of crap. Yeah. In the middle of all that crap, lift up your soul to God. You're gonna lift up your soul to something. Often, we'll lift up our soul to whatever makes the problem go away or we lift up our soul to whatever makes the pain go away or we lift up our soul to pretty much anything that solves it. And Dave is like, no, I'm gonna wait on God. No, I'm gonna trust in God. He's committed himself to his covenant. I'm gonna sit right here in the posture of a of a person trusting God. I mean, friendship with God means that you're never alone in a broken world and that's what David learned.”

28s

#ReverentFearOfGod

“The fear of the Lord so I think it's the proper posture of the creature before the creator. Mhmm. When you recognize I'm not God, I didn't make all this, this is what Job encountered at the end of Job. God's like, where are you? When I made all that was the fear of the Lord. You were a creature before the Creator going, wow, yes, you made it all, I'm not God, you're God and I recognize, I love what Job says, he's like, I heard of you before, now I see you with my eyes, I cover my mouth and I'm in dust. Right.”

38s

#NeverAloneInBrokenness

“in the midst of a lot of what David mentioned. You know, you've got loneliness or maybe maybe even guilt. Maybe you've got sins of your youth and you feel like they're too big. You can't undo them, you can't fix it. What was done is done. Or maybe just a lot of uncertainty, you're tired of uncertainty, wish you had more certainty. Right. Or maybe you have literal enemies, you know, people who are just trolling you or against you or throwing bombs at you or whatever's going on. All of that is the fodder. All of that is the context for friendship with God. Mhmm. And that's the beauty part is God wants you know, I I said it earlier, friendship with God means you're never alone in this broken world. Mhmm.”

28s

#ThroughDeathToResurrection

“Everybody wants a resurrection life but nobody wants death. Mhmm. And you gotta go through death to get the resurrection. Mhmm. And so our God is the God who walks us through a broken world and we would rather not have the valley of the shadow of death but this is the world in which we live. Right. And God is faithful to his covenant and we can hang on it. We can hang on to the God who's always hanging on to us. That's what Dave is doing. Mhmm. Love it. So good. And you we talk about covenants and, you know, one of the”

35s

#NoDefeatInWaiting

“isn't like the sense of shame. Mhmm. It's the shame of being defeated. Right. Of ultimately losing. And it's like, none who wait will lose. You don't lose by waiting. Right. There is no defeat in waiting. Right. But there is defeat in taking matters into your own hands and trying to manipulate and cause things to happen. So so here's David, he's going he's got enemies abounding, he's got internal and external strife all about and he's gonna wait. He's gonna wait. That's what faith looks like. Faith waits, faith waits. So we talked about what does trusting God look like? It looks like trusting God's timing. And if you can't trust God's timing,”

43s

#FallInLoveWithJesus

“that we might be made righteous with his righteousness. I mean, you gotta let that sink in and if you do, then you start doing what David does, you start realizing, wow, I don't have to obsess over the sins of my youth. Right. They're there in my head but not in God's. So I can shift over and just really honestly, just fall scandalously in love with Jesus. Just fall scandalously in love with the God who is a God of mercy, his kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. Mhmm. The turning away is not because he's smacking our hand, it's because he's inviting us to something greater and deeper with him. Yeah. You know, so so often that's that's beautiful what you said. But so often, think I our society”

50s

#FearGodNotMan

“The thing is we don't realize that those are mutually exclusive. Right. The fear of the Lord is an exclusive reality and the fear of man is an exclusive reality. It's choose one lose the other. Right. And if you're gonna say, I want the fear of the Lord, that has to apply in those scenarios where you are tempted to be swayed by fear of disappointing other people or fear of not being approved by other people or fear of not fitting in or I mean, you name it. And I don't know if it could seem more practical than that. It's choosing to fear the Lord in a reverent submissive way in the midst of situations where the sway to appease others or be approved by others is strong. Mhmm. Yeah. Mhmm. And I think probably too leading to our next question, David's circumstances”

61s

#BowBeforeGod

“God is God and I'm not. That's what fear of the Lord sounds like and it should reorganize your life. Fear of God should reorder the way you love things. It should reorder the way you do your loyalties in this world because you will give an account. Right. Because you're not God. So telling God what to do gets that kind of backwards, right? Yeah. So every time you see like I always love, we talk about this all the time. When you read through the bible, I like to draw symbols for things. This year, one of the things I'm tracing is every time a person falls down before God or an angel or in reverend, you know, respect in any way. Every time there's someone bowing down, I'll draw two like a opposite chevron, two arrows pointing down like just down. It's all over the place. Mhmm. And by the way, every time an angel shows up, it's in spades. Mhmm. Because there's this sense of the presence of the holy and you just go right to the ground. Mhmm. That's not necessarily like, you know, I'm a mouse and God's a cat and he's gonna destroy But”

31s

#GodSetsTheTerms

“we're like Americans go, I should have a right to have a relationship with God. God's like, no, I set the terms. I tell you what it means to be my children, you say yes and then we bind ourselves in a covenant, right? So covenant relationship, that's what God offers to us. And we don't think that way very often and so we kinda get lost in the mix on the idea of walking with God is not based on our commitment to God, it's based on God's commitment to us. Right. He's a covenant making God. I will be your God, you will be my people. And so”

30s

#SayYesToCovenant

“God doesn't just relate generally with people, to relate with God is to say yes to his his construct of how to relate with him. God relates with us by way of covenant. Mhmm. So a covenant is the idea of binding yourself to another person. It's kind of the root ideas to bind together. Right. So we are alienated from God. God wants to relate with us, so he does it via covenant. So he offers to be our God and we can be his people, but we have to say yes to the terms of the covenant. So basically,”

27s

#HangOnToGod

“performance doesn't keep him before God, he is kept by a God who so God's ability to keep his promises is greater than our ability to keep our own. Yeah. So so David hangs on that and he clings to that and he uses the covenant language all throughout to just constantly be the reminder, I'm hanging on to you hanging on to me. I'm not hanging on to you, you're hanging on to me. Right. I'm just hanging on to the Lord who's hanging on to me. That's what David's doing and so we see it all throughout the Psalm, particularly Psalm 25”

40s

#PrayWhileYouWait

“That's right. And that's what biblical waiting is, a posturing of the self for what what God's gonna do. And there's a whole bunch of things. The Psalm lists, I mean, my goodness, so many different things. What is active waiting? It's praying, that's what David's doing. Mhmm. He's seeking God, he's asking, he's making requests. I mean, that's one of them. He's looking to God, he lifts up his soul to God. In fact, he's trusting, he's not panicking. Right. He's getting strength from God, he says it right in the Psalm himself. And then he he in verse 10, he's like, I will obey what you've told me until you do something. So there's so much activity that happens in waiting that we don't typically imagine. We don't just stand there”

46s

#FocusOnGodsGoodness

“people who grow up in church world are taught to be more aware of their sin than God's goodness. Mhmm. That's a problem. Mhmm. Mhmm. That's a problem because this Psalm is is outweighing human sin by God's goodness. It's the mercy and the goodness of God that weighs more than our sin. But for some reason, I think it's a desire to to make much of the cross that we make much of our sin inadvertently, and we make our sin weigh so much more that the goodness of God is just outweighed by our sins, and that's problematic. That's highly problematic. I also wonder if that's a little bit of a artifact of like the medieval church and so so much of the culture from back in the day that that's where the focus was. Mhmm. You know, just”

37s

#SubmitToGodsKingship

“because he mentions the sins of his youth, so he's not a youth. Right. Most scholars would agree David is running on the run from Absalom. It's during Absalom's rebellion when he wrote this psalm. So he's away from everything, he's away from his palace, he's away from his throne, he's away from all these things but he still has his authority and so instead of David has the ability to command armies and instead of commanding armies to fix his problem, he decides a different route, he decides to wait on God. So basically what's happening is David as the king realizes that he has to submit to God as king. He”

74s

#FaithIsEntrustment

“He wrote a great book, a bunch of them, but one of them is called seven things I wish Christians knew about the bible. Yeah. Great book. And in the book, he summarizes he he he defines faith in covenantal terms. He says faith means entrusting ourselves to the faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ. That's covenant language. I love that. Faith isn't believing things about God, it's entrusting your own self to God to be faithful to what he claimed he was gonna do in Jesus. That's that's faith. So that is so much bigger than believing right information Right. About God. It's just way bigger than that. So the covenant language in all the Psalms is really rich but Psalm 25 is really Mhmm. Woven all”

30s

#BoundBySteadfastLove

“He binds his loyalty to us, not because of us, but because of him. So in his steadfast love, he binds a commitment to us that he will always perform his end of the covenant. And David's like, I can count on that. So in his uncertainty and all the issues and emotions he's going through in Psalm 25, he's counting on God to be God when he knows that on his end of it, he's not not doing great. So Yeah. It it reminds me a little bit of what we talked about in week one. You know, mercy and goodness will follow me all the days of my life. Yeah. I was actually at a funeral one time where”

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The Other Six Podcast Episode 170: The Art of Biblical Waiting

Devotional

Day 1: Alienation and the Covenant Door

Day 2: Held by the God Who Holds On

Day 3: Active Waiting in the Ready Position

Day 4: Mercy Outweighs the Sins of Youth

Day 5: Never Alone in a Broken World

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

The Other Six Podcast Episode 170: The Art of Biblical Waiting

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