The Book of Psalms in the Old Testament served as the songbook or hymnal of God’s people Israel. The Psalms represent the heart cries of God’s covenant people then as well as today. They are cries to Him of praise and thanksgiving, cries of exultation in His law, cries for help in time of trouble, cries for mercy and forgiveness, cries of repentance and lament, and cries of rejoicing in His faithfulness, mercy and lovingkindness. The most significant cry was the cry of hope (Psalm 39:7) (Psalm 71:5), of confident expectation of and desire for God (Psalm 42), for deliverance from that which separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2) (Micah 3:4) and for a deeper and more intimate relationship with God (Psalm 63:1-8).
The word hope is defined in one dictionary as a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future. In another it is defined as the cherishing of a desire with anticipation; and in another it is defined as a desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment. Thus, in each definition we see the motivation behind all hope is desire, and in the case of Biblical hope it is a desire for God.
God is to be our hope, the desire of our hearts and the delight of our soul, the object of our deepest love and the source of our greatest joy. And He is to be so for no other reason than who He is as God, the creator and sovereign ruler of the universe; who in the infinite perfections of His being is the most glorious, most excellent, most essential, most awesome, most valuable being in all the universe (Psalm 45). Our heart’s desire, our greatest passion in life should be to know Him intimately (John 17:3), to love Him supremely (Luke 10:25-28) and to enjoy His infinite love as His beloved sons and daughters (1 John 3:1-3). In creating us for His glory (Isaiah 43:7), His gracious intention was that He would reveal in us, to us and through us His glory, for our everlasting joy, pleasure, satisfaction, significance and security in Him.
We see a wonderful heartfelt expression of this desire in Psalm 73, which was written by a man named Asaph who was the worship leader of Israel during King David’s reign. Asaph begins by acknowledging God’s goodness to Israel, to those whose hearts are right toward God. However, the Psalm quickly becomes one of confession and lament by Asaph regarding his jealousy of the prosperity of the wicked, who regularly mocked God and yet still enjoyed extraordinarily good lives in this world. He advises that he almost lost his faith because of this until he went into the presence of the Lord in the Sanctuary where he was reminded of the ultimate and terrifying fate of the ungodly, and was then ashamed and repented of his ungodly attitude. He then exuberantly proclaims God as his ultimate hope and desire when he cries out in verses 25-26:
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the ]strength of my heart and my portion forever.
This is the hope, the desire, the heart cry of those whose hearts are right with God, whose hope is God, whose affections and desires and longings are set upon Him as He has revealed Himself in His word. However, the Bible reveals that our heart, our inner man, is not right with God (Jeremiah 17:9), having been corrupted by sin. We are told thus in Mark 4:19 that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and our desires for other things overshadow God as our hope, as the desire of our heart and the delight of our soul. Our affections instead remain set on this world and the things of this world as the chief objects of our sinful desires (1 John 2:15-17).
The Bible, however, makes it very clear that the only way we can endure the trials and tribulations of this world, the only way we can be lifted out of the rubble of our foolishness and failures, the only way we can find peace and rest for our souls in this world, and more importantly fulness of joy and pleasures forevermore in the world to come, is to have God, as He is revealed in the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ, as our hope (1 Timothy 1:1), (Romans 5:1-2).
Grace and Truth ×
Verses 25 and 26 of Psalm 73 were included often in the public prayers of Pastor
Cummings in the months when he knew his time on this earth was coming to an end.
What comfort it was knowing that our pastor’s hope was a LIVING HOPE, through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that we, too, can look forward to
being in God’s presence enjoying Him FOREVER.
So we DO NOT lose heart, knowing that the things which are seen are transient, but those things which are unseen are ETERNAL! 2 Corinthians 4:18
Thank you, Jim for keeping our hearts and minds focused on that which is MOST
satisfying!
I am very much looking forward to that day Karen. We need each other’s encouragement as we wait patiently for it.