Relent, O Lord! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants ...
May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.
—Psalm 90:13, 17
The answer to David’s question, “How long will it be?” came one thousand years later with the collision of the supernatural and natural worlds. The answer came to a young woman in Nazareth who was engaged to be married to a man who was a descendant of David. She was visited by an angel who told her that she was highly favored by the Lord, that though she was a virgin, she would give birth to a child through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that she would give her baby child the name Jesus.
The angel Gabriel tells her, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32–33). When Mary asks, “How will this be . . . since I am a virgin?” the angel answers: “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).
Just as Mary submitted to the impossible, so we are called to believe, saying with her, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant” (Luke 1:46–48).
—from Signposts