A Devo From Scot - Psalm 123 & 124

Dear Church,

Hope. I think hope is a concept we both intuitively understand and constantly misunderstand. We instinctively know that we “hope” for something that we do not yet have or hold or realize in full. Thus biblically we hope for the fullness of salvation, or glory, or the realization of our calling, or the fulfillment of promises/covenants, or the return/appearing of Jesus Christ. Yet what we may miss is the real effect of hope on our current state.

Today I invite you to read and reread Psalms 123 and 124. They are tiny, only twelve verses combined. Our Jewish friends have historically read these psalms together as part of the “psalms of ascent,” traditionally sung as they ascended the Judean mountains into Jerusalem for Passover. They fit well together as sister psalms. With a careful reading, at least in the New American Standard version, you will notice not a single usage of the word “hope.” But yet the whole of the twelve verses is filled with the subject.

In the language of the Old Testament, the expectation of a negative future is always understood as fear, whereas the expectation of a positive future is always seen as hope. The New Testament understanding of hope builds on this foundation, where hope is an insightful combination of three things: a good expectation for the future, trust, and patient waiting.

“To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens!” Psalm 123 opens. Upward, to God, is the stance of hope. We ask and pray. We ask according to God’s character. We trust His character. We wait in the assurance of His promise. “So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He is gracious to us.”

Dear Christian, hope is an active word, not a passive one. Hope is the expectation of good. It is also trust and active, patient waiting. And I would submit that there are two glaring truths about hope in our current time. First, there is no other place or person or system or product in which we can securely and safely place our hope than in Jesus. Second, there has not been a time in perhaps many decades where our culture and world needs the clarion call and witness of a Living Church that walks and loves and prays in hope.

One day we will look back and say with the psalmist, “Had it not been the LORD who was on our side…” That is our confident expectation. Our trust and patience now is that “Our help is in the name of the LORD who made heaven and earth.”

I love you church,

Scot