Light up My Eyes
“What’s the hold up?” It’s the question we ask impatiently at the check-out counter, in the deep snarl of Chicago traffic, or waiting to hear news of a new job offer. No one likes to wait. We like to know “how long?”
And it doesn’t depend on age.
Before dinner, children ask: “How long ‘til we eat?” On the long family drive across country: “How long until we get there?” We ask the doctor: “How long until I get the biopsy results back?” “How long does she have to live?” Isolated we ask, “How long must I be alone?”
We want to know the span of our suffering. Measuring misery gives a sliver of hope.
The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter is an in-between time. Christ has died, yes, but we mark time until we celebrate the resurrection. The mourning of the darkness still lingers. The songs of rejoicing are not yet here.
Waiting. We wait. What are you waiting for? How long have you been waiting for it? When will the waiting end?
Four times in the first two verses of Psalm 13, David asks, “How long?” It is a cry of lament. David’s life was full of waiting. He was anointed as King but waited to be crowned. He waited in the wilderness when Saul pursued him. He waited for forgiveness after he had sinned with Bathsheba. He waited while his son hovered in death.
But God always showed up for David.
Psalm 13 is a psalm of lament. Specifically, it is a lament of waiting. In verses 1–2 of Psalm 13, David laments the seeming inactivity of God. In verses 3–4 he cries out and asks God to act—to answer him. Specifically, he asks him to “light up his eyes lest he ‘sleep the sleep of death’ and his ‘enemy rejoice’” over him. Is God going to win? Or is death going to win? Then in verses 5–6, he expresses his complete confidence that God will win. He resolves to rejoice in the Lord’s salvation. Why? Because he has experienced the Lord’s “bounty” and has trusted in his steadfast love.
Today, between the darkness of Good Friday and the light of Easter, we linger. We lie low. We hope. But we wait. We trust and hope and long in this interval that our lament and sadness will turn to rejoicing and singing. Easter turns the lament and longing of death into the rejoicing and singing of resurrection. Waiting turns into rejoicing.
What’s the hold up? God is just waiting. The trap of death will be sprung. The bonds of the evil one will be unloosed. Severed. The dead will rise. The waiting of the dark hopelessness of Good Friday turns into the rejoicing and bright hope of Easter.
How long? Just a little longer and we will rejoice!
