Psalm 119:49-56 – Section Seven – Hebrew – ZAYIN
‘Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O LORD. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law.
Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning. I remember your name in the night, O LORD, and keep your law. This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts.’
Today I am going to take the seven words found in verse 49, ‘In which you have made me hope’. The Word of God is a Word that is full of hope, and on this occasion the LORD God had spoken to his servant, the one who had written this psalm, and what the LORD had spoken to him, had given him hope. In the same way that God spoke to him, he has also spoken to us, for what God has spoken through his written Word to mankind also gives us hope. We can look all around us and see the state of society, we can see the way that our nation and the nations of the world seem to be going in a downward spiral, all is hopeless, or so it seems, but we thank God that during it all, his Word still speaks hope, his Word still brings hope, and his Word still gives hope. The sad state of affairs is that millions, even billions of men and women who know that they need to find an answer, who know that they are in a desperate state and that this world is in a desperate state, choose to look for help and look for hope in all the wrong places, they refuse to turn to the Word of God, they choose to reject the old fashioned tried and tested way, they want something new, they want something different, but in the end they fail to find what it is they so desperately need.
We need to return to the only source, the only lasting source of hope in this sin riddled world, and it is to the Lord God himself, and the hope that he gives has been revealed to us in the Word that he has given, firstly in the written Word, and secondly in the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In an earlier psalm, the author writes concerning the testimony, the Word of God that it should be taught to each succeeding generation so that they ‘should set their hope in God’, (Psalm 78:6-7) as we read his Word, we find that there is hope, there is lasting joy, there is real purpose and potential for each one of us, and likewise as we come to receive the Word who became flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ we receive a hope that becomes an anchor for our soul. It is a hope that is steadfast and sure, it is the only hope that can keep us in this life and will take us into that which is to come, to that which is available to all who put their hope in God, a place prepared, a place where God himself dwells, the place where we will spend eternity with him.
Where are you placing your hope, or we could use another word, where are you placing your trust today. If it is in things such as silver and gold, possessions and riches, they will one day fail and let you down, even friends can fail you, but there is one who will never fail you, one who will never let you down, his name is Jesus, place your hope, place your trust in him, and in God’s Word and know what it is to be standing on a solid foundation.