Real Good #6: "Christians Offer Hope"

In life we put our faith in many things and in many people. At times this is proven to be very rewarding yet at other times disastrous. Our level of faith is largely affected by our view of the past. We can apply faith to our current position in life if we look at our past and find reason to do so. Much of why people today struggle to put their faith in God is because they look at their past and find disappointment. In order for them to put their faith in God they will have to come to the conclusion that their difficulties of the past have been resolved by God to their own benefit or growth. In other words in order to put their faith in God they have to believe that God has been working for their good within their trouble.

Hope on the other hand has to do largely with our view of the future. We can live hopeful lives when we believe that our future will work out for our good. Hope by definition is trusting that what needs to be sorted out will be so in the future. With hope we can live joyfully in the midst of trouble. When hope is lost, joy is an impossibility.

What the Christian has to offer is hope in God that produces a hopeful soul. A hopeful soul rest in the fact that God will some day make all the wrongs right and heal all that has damaged the heart and soul of His people. Christians believe that this healing has begun in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. David speaks to this hope on Psalm 62 as he describes his application of his hope in God as the ability to wait silently.

Psalm 62 

1 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. 

2 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. 

3 How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? 

4 They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah 

5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. 

6 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. 

7 On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. 

8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah 

9 Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. 

10 Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. 

11 Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

12 and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.

This Psalm can be broken down into the following three parts:

1. David describes his hope as waiting on God as he is attacked by his enemies. V. 1-4

2. David's call for others to place their hope in God. V.5-8

3. Hope is not to be placed in the "estate" of man. V. 9-12

The intent of this Psalm is to help the reader put their trust in God, without hoping in wealth, strength or the promises of men. Without God we are left to put our hope in ourselves and the power structure of our society. Christians offer a better answer to the question of where we are to put our hope. Everyone puts their hope in something for it is impossible to believe that isolation and self-sufficiency is a suitable way to heal the hurts and disappointments in this world. What David displayed in Psalm 62 can be applied in such a way that we live with a hopeful soul.

In verses 1-4 David teaches that a hopeful soul can wait on God in silence. When we are tired of the rants that we call prayer, ssilence in the presence of God becomes the most eloquent and peaceful form of prayer. This silence is a quietness in your spirit that allows us to experience the presence of God as He searches through our hearts, revealing to us that which we would never otherwise understand about ourselves.  

In verses 5-8 we come to understand that a hopeful soul provides an example by which we can call others to hope in God as well. We like David become examples of expectation. As we wait on Him, we are to expect from God only that which would be good for God to give. In this way we live in this as examples of transparency concerning our own inabilities and the necessity to trust.  

           

Lastly David addresses the truth that power to make things right belongs to God not popular opinion nor the opinion of the wealthy and powerful. The two groups that are contrasted here are the common citizens and the wealthy leaders of a society. Many reject on group or the another with the hope of finding fulfillment. If we refuse to hope in God, all that is left is to hope that the common people of our society will vote the right people into places of authority. It amazes me how so much blame is placed on government leaders when we are the ones that voted them into their positions. If the common people keep voting in the wrong leaders and the leaders can't make a difference it seems to be that neither can be trusted. Perhaps if both would put their hope in God and follow the wisdom of His word this may just get better after all. 

With all this in mind, may you form the discipline of waiting silently on God. Bare your heart and mind to Him then rest in silence allowing Him to speak and work in and through your life. As you do consider the following quotes. 

“The heart is ever prone to divide its confidence between God and the creature.”

Charles Mackintosh, in "Things New and Old, "1858

“Grace makes the heart move leisurely to all things except God.”  

Alexander Carmichael, in "The Believer's Mortification of Sin," 1677.