Wings Like Eagles
Isaiah 40:31"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)
Isaiah 40 begins with "comfort, comfort my people", and it keeps going for 31 verses before it lands here. That is not an accident. Before you can receive the promise of renewed strength, you have to hear the case for YHWH's power and character. Who He is. What He has done. The scope of His creation. The smallness of nations before Him. The foolishness of idols.
By verse 31 you are ready to receive the promise because you have been shown who is making it.
"Those who hope in the Lord", the Hebrew is qavah, which means to wait, to look with expectation, to bind oneself to. It is not passive resignation. It is active orientation toward YHWH as the source. You are not waiting because you have nothing else to do. You are waiting because you have decided He is where the supply comes from.
I come back to this verse often because building Dave is long work. There are months of progress and months of what looks like regression. There are breakthroughs and there are nights where nothing works. The temptation is to white-knuckle through on willpower, to run harder on personal reserves until you collapse.
The verse offers something different. Not faster running. Not more fuel for the same engine. But a different kind of flight, one that operates on a source that does not deplete. Soaring rather than sprinting. The kind of endurance that is actually possible for human beings who were not made to carry everything alone.