Reading: Your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them. 2 Samuel 2:7

Though the Lord had promised David the kingdom, though he had already been anointed by Samuel to be king, and though Saul was now dead, David was not hasty to take matters into his own hands, but desired to submit himself unto God’s directions and act only according to His revealed will.

David trusted that God would give him the kingdom and therefore there was no need for haste. Instead, he refused to take a single step until Jehovah signified His will in the matter. We will never lose anything by believing and patiently waiting on God: but we are always made to suffer when we take things into our own hands and rush blindly ahead.

Naomi’s advice to her daughter-in-law is intended to reveal the wisdom and blessing of waiting until the mind of God was discernable on the particular issue: “Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall” (Ruth 3:18).

We read in Proverbs 3:5–6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” To acknowledge the Lord in all our ways means that instead of acting in self-sufficiency and self-will, we seek wisdom from above in every undertaking of our earthly affairs and beg God to grant us light from His Word on our path and seek His honor and glory in all that we attempt.

If we would possess temporal things with a blessing, we must not eagerly seize upon them, nor be determined by favorable events or carnal counsel; but we must observe the rules of God’s Word, and pray for direction; using those means, and those only, which he has appointed or allowed, and avoid all evil, or appearance of evil, in our pursuit of them; and then whatever else we fail in, we shall be directed in the way to the kingdom of heaven.” —Thomas Scott