208. The Kinks "Tired of Waiting For You"


Kinks lead singer Ray Davies wrote this song while he was a student at Hornsey School of Art in London. When the Kinks released their first album in 1964, they scored a huge hit with the Davies-penned "You Really Got Me," which was followed by the sound-alike "All Day And All Of The Night." When it came time to write songs for the next Kinks album, Ray was running out of ideas, so decided to record the song he had written in college. The group put down the backing track, but he couldn't remember the words, so he went home and wrote them the next day on the train ride into the studio. Released as the first single from the album, "Tired of Waiting for You" was a huge hit, going to #1 and charting at #6 in America, one position higher than "You Really Got Me." This was a more gentle song until it was decided that it needed the trademark Dave Davies loud guitar riffing. Davies recalled in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, "The recording went well but there was something missing and it was my raunchy guitar sound. Ray and I were worried that putting that heavy-sounding guitar on top of a ponderous song might ruin it. Luckily it enhanced the recording, giving it a more cutting, emotional edge. In my opinion 'Tired Of Waiting' was the perfect record." In this song, 


I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

I was a lonely soul
I had nobody till I met you
But you keep-a me waiting
All of the time
What can I do?

It's your life
And you can do what you want
Do what you like
But please don't keep-a me waiting
Please don't keep-a me waiting

'Cause I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

So tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

I was a lonely soul
I had nobody till I met you
But you keep-a me waiting
All of the time
What can I do?

It's your life
And you can do what you want
Do what you like
But please don't keep-a me waiting
Please don't keep-a me waiting

'Cause I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

So tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you
For you
For you


Ray Davies sings about a girl who has him under her spell. Problem is, she keeps stringing him along and it's wearing him out. The Devotional passage this morning is about prayer. Psalm 13 is a prayer of David in which he is waiting for God to act and answer . His enemies are triumphing over him and he cries out to god for deliverance.

There were some deep longings in David’s heart and he had prayed about them, and prayed about them many times, and there was no answer from heaven. There were concerns in David's heart and he slowly started to think that God had forgotten about him.


How vast is the world; how many people praying at the same time; how limitless the cosmos, immeasurably vast, 2.4 trillion stars for every person in the world. David got forgetful as he got older and sometimes called a son by the name of his brother, and forgot where some of his courtiers came from and what they did. Old age! With all that God had to do, David imagined that his own petty concerns for his children would be easily forgotten by God. The Lord had busy times with earthquake victims, and sunamis, and wars, and revivals. Then David thought, “What if God forgot about me for ever, forgot about me when I was dying and when I was dead? What if I slipped through his fingers?


Now is that possible? For God to forget anyone or anything? It’s possible for me and for you. They say that elephants never forget – I don’t know if that is true; I doubt it. God never forgets. It is impossible for God to forget. If he could forget then he would not be God. He remembers everything; everything possible, everything actual; all events, all creatures of the past, the present and the future. He remembers every details in the life of every being in heaven, in earth and in hell. Nothing slips by forgotten by him. Nothing escapes his notice, nothing can be hidden from him. We agree with the Psalmist, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain to it” (Ps. 139:6). All information is at his fingertips; it is never wiped out; no virus can destroy any of it. He never errs, never changes, never overlooks anything. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebs 4:13). This is the God with whom we have to do.


The psalmist says, “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD” (Psalm 139:1-4). How solemn it is to think that God has forgotten nothing about us at all. He may be invisible to us but we are not invisible to him. The trees of the garden could not hide our first parents. Though no human eye saw Cain murder his brother the scene was witnessed by God. The Lord’s comprehensive knowledge is the comfort of the Christian. Job said, “He knows the way that I take” (Job 23:10). Where we have come from and where we are going is all known to him. In our weariness, when we feel all alone we should say, “But God has not forgotten me! Lord thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” No. God has not forgotten about us at any time. 


David felt that God was hiding himself from David and wasn’t looking at him; he wasn’t casting a glance in his direction. God was going about all that the Deity does as though David didn’t exist, for so it seemed to the king, but that again cannot be. God has promised never to leave us. At better times David knew this. He had written, “He leadeth me beside the still waters . . . yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me” (Psalm 23). The shepherd always keeps an eye on his sheep. In all his dealings with us God is faithful. You can rely on him. No one ever trusted him in vain. There are seasons in our lives when it is not easy to believe that God’s great smiling face is watching us but never the less it is. David was tired of waiting.


God is faithful in all his dealings with us; every joy or trial comes from a loving Father. He is faithful in what he withholds no less than in what he gives. He is faithful in sending sorrow as well as in giving joy. He is faithful when he delays in answering our prayers no less than when he gives to us before we have even asked. There are days when we don’t feel his presence yet we know that he is there. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense but trust him for his grace. God is a god of gifts. He will answer even though we tire waiting.





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