HOPE

 

C. S. Lewis wrote, “Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

Hope enables us to live fully alive in the present.  When one loses hope, death is not far behind. So it is the Psalmist wrote of hope when he spoke of God saying things like, "There is forgiveness with You…In His word do I hope…With the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption" (Psalm 130).

The psalmist was in the place of pain and suffering, "the depths," he called it.  He knew he needed God, and he knew he didn't deserve God.  Still he prays, "Lord, hear my voice!"  From the depths he didn't run away from God but to God.  He didn't bail out on God, but opened his heart wide to God.  He didn't give up or give in; he simply embraced the God of his hope, and decided that the future rests with those who trust in God. 

Instead of throwing in the towel he turned to God with a dogged determination.  As a watchman late in the night waits for the morning light, the psalmist waited for God.  He may be in the depths tonight, but tonight is not Lord.  God is His Lord.  The last word hasn't yet been spoken.  "The depths," will not be the last chapter.  He will live tonight and tomorrow in the hopeful expectation that with God "is abundant redemption."  That is enough.  Rather, HE is enough.