"With Bated Breath"

"Why Standest Thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalms 10:1) Maybe a good question might be, Who is waiting for who? I can remember a fight that I had when I was in grade school, which was prior to the days when I actually would fight back, and understood what being tough was all about; I think that I was in about the third grade, and somebody wanted to put me in my place; or maybe it was over a girl; I really can't remember. What I do remember, was that as I was taken down to the ground, I noticed that one of the teachers was nearby and was just standing there watching; and I wondered, Why won't he help me? Was he waiting for me to get beat up, or was he waiting to see what would happen, or if I would actually fight back? Either way, I was hoping that he would intervene and pull this fat kid off of me! I also remember that every second seemed like minutes, and that I felt like the teacher was on the side of the kid that was one top of me. This is a little taste of what David is saying here within this verse; not that God was on the side of his enemy, but that God was standing back, almost as if He was waiting to see what the his response would be. We could almost relate this to the moment when Jesus hung on the cross, and cried out, "My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" One thing that we sometimes fail to realize, is that God knows the outcome to our situation! He knows what will happen, and what will be the outcome of that which we are being pressed by; unfortunately, or fortunately, however the case may be, we do not! So; who is waiting for who? Are we waiting for Him to intervene, or is He waiting for us to respond to what is happening around us? As I think about times when things seemed to be at there worst, I can remember searching for God in the midst of whatever was going on; not finding Him in the midst of the turmoil, I cried out for help; not getting the response to my cry, I stopped to listen. It was not until I actually subdued my breathing that I was still enough to hear Him answer; which is what 'Bated Breath' means: Breathing that is subdued because of some emotion or difficulty. Bated is said to be a shortened form of 'abated', meaning to bring down, lower or depress; so, abated breath would actually make more sense; however, over the years, people have changed this expression to "Baited Breath" and given the phrase a whole new meaning. This new meaning would be that of waiting for something to happen that you are expecting; like when you watching a horror movie, and you know that something is going to happen at any moment; which, in such a case, you could actually use both of those meanings at the same time...