What happens when success comes before humility? When power comes before character? What happens when abundance comes before dependence? We tend to think God's promises will solve our problems. It sure can feel like the hardest part of receiving God's promises is waiting for them. But what if the harder task is becoming the kind of person who can receive them well? What happens when a promise arrives before we're prepared for it? Here’s another question. Is God being cruel when He delays His promises? Or punishing us when He keeps us waiting? Some of God's greatest acts of mercy come in the form of delays. God never gives His children His promises too soon. He prepares us first. Not because He expects us to “earn” His promises. We never would, and we never could. No, He loves us enough to prepare us beforehand for those promises. In this passage, David is finally standing at the edge of everything God promised him. Saul is dead. The throne is within reach. The years of waiting are almost over. The promise is now arriving. And in this song, we discover something surprising. The greatest evidence of God's grace in David's life is not that he eventually received the kingdom. It's the kind of man God made him while he was waiting for it.
