The Solid Rock – Rewind

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. Psalm 130:5 ESV

Hope – Psalm 130 is a cry to the Lord from the depths of despair. It’s not despair over the external circumstances of life. It’s despair over the chaos of disobedience, of sin at the center of who I am. It is agony over my true state of being – twisted and bent before the holy God. The psalmist tells us that there is hope. Forgiveness is possible. Restoration can come.

But not immediately.

If I want to know the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, I will have to deal with death – my death, the destruction of those things that I could not wait to consume, to possess, the destruction of my unbridled desire to have the world my way, the destruction of any residual belief that I can barter a solution with God. If I am going to experience recovery, I will first have to wait in the grave. That’s why waiting must be at the core of who I am. When I reach this place of surrender, there is no negotiating. I am done, finished, empty, exhausted. There is only one thing left. The promise of YHWH.

The Hebrew word yahal is connected to batah, the verb “to trust.” Over and over the Psalms assert that trust in God will bring praise for His faithfulness. Unlike men, God can be counted on always. His deliverance is guaranteed, even if it is not presently visible. Waiting in the dark only prepares me for the blessing of His light and His word assures me that this light is coming.

Plato has taught us to be suspicious of claims of hope. In the Greek world, hope is merely the projection of desired ends in order that I may survive the current trauma. Hope is not real. It is merely psychologically necessary, a convenient crutch to support my battered psyche until I can return to a more rational state of mind. So when the psalmist declares that I can hope in God’s word, my good Greek training whispers, “Well, if you need to believe this, go ahead, but you know that things don’t turn out that way in the end, do they? You don’t really think God’s goodness will show up, do you? After all, how could the world be in such a mess if what God says is really true?” Ah, the wonders of paradigmatic assumptions. If I listen to all that good training, I will stay in the dark, brooding over the lie of fate.

But God isn’t Greek – and neither are the ones who stand on His word. Throw Plato out with the bath water. To trust God is to remember what He has done in Israel and to wait for His handiwork to show itself again. Hope is not a dream of the future. It is an anchor firmly set in real past events. If I want to know where God is going, I must know where God has been. My hope is in the past, not the future. God did what He said He would do and He will do what He says He has yet to do. I can be confident of His promises because I know what He has already done. And that’s the end of it.

When Edward Mote penned the lyrics to a famous Christian hymn, he forgot that YHWH’s acts with Israel are the real basis of our faith. Without the Great I AM, the mission and accomplishment of Yeshua would be pointless.

My hope is built on nothing less
 than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.


I dare not trust the sweetest frame, 
but wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
 I rest on His unchanging grace.
 In every high and stormy gale,
 my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
 support me in the whelming flood.
 When all around my soul gives way,
 He then is all my Hope and Stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
 oh may I then in Him be found.
 Dressed in His righteousness alone,
 faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
 All other ground is sinking sand;
 All other ground is sinking sand.

Mote was right. I do stand on the righteousness of Yeshua, but not alone, not alone.

Topical Index: hope, yahal, trust, Psalm 130:5

 

Subscribe
Notify of
7 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Seeker

Maybe my English has lost me here…My apostolic teachings and views are shouting HALT!

“My hope is in the past, not the future.” Versus “In the Greek world, hope is merely the projection of desired ends in order that I may survive the current trauma.” (Six of the one and half a dozen of the other)

Both these for me say I must have a reason (FAITH/ TRUST IN/ FAITHFULNESS OF) for something to be established that is not yet established.

Sorry Skip, I find no “factual” difference between the Hebrew view and the Greek experience of the saving grace of Yeshua…

The Rock (of Ages) for me;
MOSES
– The promise that God will save by adhering to a specific principled lifestyle.
JOSHUA / CHRIST / MESSIAH
– And lead those into the Promise Land that apply the teachings of the anointed son and daughters from the Promised Land (John 1:1-14)
YESHUA
– The arrival in the Promised Land or Salvation is achieved when we start doing that which was done towards us to find the Promise Land/ Salvation. Be a saving neighbour unto others. In short we become the sent ones to help others… Feeding (Teaching), Clothing (Guiding), Visitation (Reminding) or Comforting (Reassuring). Never claiming we are the saved or the Yeshau but equipping others to manifest Salvation in their own lives.

AND THE WORD (WILL OF YHVH) TOOK ON FLESH…

laurita hayes

The good news about that “righteousness of Christ” that we have been promised, is that if we understand that the word “righteousness” (a word that Greek thought has wrangled into some sort of state of being, or, worse, a THING that can be transferred, like a lump sum of money or a title, or even a ‘get out of jail free’ card) could be better translated as “rightly-relating” we can clearly see what we get. With Yeshua we get everything He has. We don’t get it without getting Him, too, but when I let Him in, He comes with all His past dealings with everyone in the past, including Israel, as well as all His connections – including His connection with His Father (there’s that adoption thing Paul talks about) and His Spirit. We also get His connection with all of reality, and everyone in it. We get His heart for it all, too. We are PLUGGED IN. With His plug. I think I will take that any day over some conferred status or title or state of being. Who wants a state of being? I want connection!

You are right, Skip, it certainly is not alone! With Him I get the whole kahuna! Past and all! Grafted in. Lots more there if we re-translate that one word….

Craig Borden

Great,great reminder of the 3rd step in recovery….no more negotiating. No more bargaining. Thy will, not my will, be done….and the ONLY hope I have that His will can be trusted , and not mine, is an honest assessment of my past.

David R

Hi Seeker, Laurita, Craig and others,
Another of my favorite hymns, not cited here is Rock of Ages – cleft for me. Messiah is the Rock. Glad the “whole kahuna” also includes a new song to sing. I never quite heard salvation and or redemption described as you, Laurita put it, but like the descriptive! “Craig, “turn my will and life over to the care of God.” Honest self assessment often finds me doing that, and pray that any believer will retain that practice instead of become conversely, my will not thine be done.
-Seeker, all the opportunities to serve you listed are our ministry as believers, thanks! Since there now is much to do, my personal addiction has been cast aside for another day! Heart-felt thanks.
David

Brian

Hope is not a dream of the future. It is an anchor firmly set in real past events.

Love

Paula

I really do appreciate your writings. Thank you.

Ester

Hope is not a dream of the future. It is an anchor firmly set in real past events.
Hope is what motivates us, experiencing what we went through, and how YHWH has brought us out from, into who we are and what our desires ought to be.
“God isn’t Greek”, no, He isn’t. HIS divine language is Hebrew. My very first Bible was a pocket Bible bought with my very first salary, and is still around somewhere.
My next Bible was a KJV Study Bible with cross-references. That was how I became interested in Hebrew, due to the explanations in the cross references that Sarah in Hebrew, means princess, Avaraham means father, and so forth. That so stirred me towards learning the language.

“After all, how could the world be in such a mess if what God says is really true?” Ah, the wonders of paradigmatic assumptions.” Indeed!

Here are a few translation versions of where the ROCK was mentioned-
Isaiah 26:4-
KJV Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
NLT Trust in the LORD always, for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock.

NIV Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.

ESV Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

In Hebrew, WLC בִּטְח֥וּ בַֽיהוָ֖ה עֲדֵי־עַ֑ד כִּ֚י בְּיָ֣הּ יְהוָ֔ה צ֖וּר עֹולָמִֽים׃
צוּר means rock.

There are 59 verses in the Bible that the LORD God is the Rock (strength in some translations)-
Psalm 78:35, Genesis 49:24 (stone), Deuteronomy 32: 4,15, 37; 2 Samuel 22:32, 2 Samuel 23:3, Psalm 144:1, Psalm 18:31, Psalm 31:1-3 etc…
And here is our favourite-
“2 Samuel 22:47
“The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock; And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation” Amein!

YHWH is the only Rock from the very beginning.