All Hope Is in Thee!
By Rodney Nulph, Associate Editor
The
Sweet Psalmist of Israel confidently penned, “And
now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee”
(Psalm 39:7 emp. added).
Although the background of this Psalm is unknown, “[t]he
writer looks back on a
time when he was troubled by three issues: the fleeting nature of life,
the
prosperity of the wicked, and the seeming purposelessness of human
life. Perhaps
he was languishing in poor health and believed that he was nearing the
end of
his earthly journey. He faced these tough mental struggles with his
faith in
God. By experiencing the discipline of God, he came to see the true
meaning of
life” (Cloer 539-40). The fundamental message found in this
Psalm is surely, “[t]he
God of the Bible is our hope” (Deaver 130). However, without
God in our lives,
all hope is lost and life is surely empty and useless (cf.
Our hope is
in Thee because in Thee, we have a Friend.
It has been
said that a man throughout his entire lifetime can count the number of
true
friends on one hand. While I am not sure that number is exact, it
surely is
close. True friends are difficult to come by! However, in Jesus we have
the
truest of all friends! This true friend said
Himself, “Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends” (John 15:13),
which is exactly what He did for us! As the beloved hymn suggests,
“I have
found a friend in Jesus, He’s everything to me,
He’s the fairest of ten
thousand to my soul.” This friend gives us real hope because
He makes the way
for salvation (cf.
Our hope is in Thee because in Thee, we have a Focus. It is often said by athletic coaches to the teams that they lead, “We must not loose focus.” You see, when a team looses focus, it forgets its purpose, it forgets its goal and sadly, all hope of winning is lost to blurred vision. Spiritually speaking, if we lose focus we can easily forget our purpose, our goal, and eventually lose all hope of winning due to blurred vision as well. However, because our hope is in Thee, we have a clear focus. “…[L]et us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1b-2 emp. added). What a Focus we Have in Jesus!
Our hope is
in Thee because in Thee, we have a Future.
Even a brief
acquaintance with life clearly proves that “all flesh is as
grass, and all the
glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower
thereof falleth away” (1 Peter 1:24; cf.
When life is boiled down
to its real core, the only
hope one has is found in a Higher Source! With a Friend with whom to
walk, a
Focus on which to center, and a Future to which we can look forward,
surely all
can concur with the Psalmist of old: “And now, Lord, what
wait I for? my
hope is in thee” (Psalm 39:7 emp. added)! Amen and
Amen!
Works Cited
Cloer, Eddie. Truth for
Today Commentary
Deaver, Roy C. Commentary
on the Book of Psalms. Vol.
I.