Everyone needs hope. As a matter of fact, hope is essential for the human condition. It is as much needed for the soul as air is for the body.
There’s hope, though, and then there is expectant hope. You may be asking, “What’s the difference? Isn’t hope, hope?” When you have a sense of hope, you’re holding out that something could happen, but it may not. It reminds of the scene from “Dumb and Dumber,” where Lloyd asks Mary, “What are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me… ending up together?” Mary’s answer is “one in a million.” To which Lloyd responds, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!” That’s hope.
But for those who truly put their faith in God, there is expectant hope which means that it is without a doubt, one-hundred percent, absolutely certain to be fulfilled. We can expect that the hope we have in God will never disappoint.
Read what King David said in Psalm 40:1-3: “I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.” There is a sense of expectant hope from David and an unwavering trust in the One in whom his hope rests. David waited patiently for the Lord, which implies that he knew that God would show up and rescue him from his place of deep need.
He is the God who bends His knee to listen with understanding the cries of His children. These aren’t selfish cries of “why me!?!,” but cries of humble dependence upon the only One who can save us from that which surrounds us on all sides. For David, it was the pit of destruction and miry bog.
While in this circumstance of life that felt like a deep pit that offered no hope of life; a place where David felt as though he was stuck with no hope of getting out; he cried and he waited because he was certain of two things: God hears and God rescues. So David cried, and God listened. David waited, and God rescued.
I’ve found that my tendency is to cry out to things that cannot hear, and wait for a rescuer who never comes. It’s as though the deep cries of my heart echo off the walls of the pit I’ve often dug, resonating with hopelessness. I become exhausted at the futile attempts to free myself from the miry bog that holds me captive. Instead of crying out to God and waiting patiently for Him to bend His knee, I just cry. Or complain. Or call out to those who have good intentions but are not God. Or I just try to figure it out myself and end up exhausted and deeper in a miry pit … Stuck. Maybe you can relate.
What this Psalm speaks is the truth that our hope in God never disappoints. When David puts pen to papyrus he is often unfiltered and raw. But as he process his pain through the unwavering truth of who God is, he always comes to the hopeful resolve that God is a good God who hears, rescues, and if that weren’t enough, He restores.
“(God) set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:2b-3
Here is the deep grace of God that we may never fully understand this side of heaven, but with great joy can receive in humility: the God who upholds the universe by the word of His power; who has shaped us in His image and breathed His life into us; who has loved us so much that He would hear our cry and rescue us from the pit; He displays His grace by giving us security. He puts a song worth singing in our hearts that resounds His glory, and He gives us a captivating story that makes His Son, our rescuer, the focus.
This is the expectant hope for all who place their hope in Christ.
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