Take Two
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, Psalm 33:18 NASB
Hope – “Take two aspirin and go to bed. Things will be better in the morning.” Have you ever heard that advice? It might be the most common home remedy ever offered. But let me ask you, “Are things really going to be better in the morning?” Well, if the problem is just a headache, maybe. But what if it’s considerably more complicated? What if it depends on the actions of others? What if it is out of your control? Then what?
“Those who hope” uses the Hebrew yāḥal. “This yāḥal ‘hope’ is not a pacifying wish of the imagination which drowns out troubles, nor is it uncertain (as in the Greek concept), but rather yāḥal ‘hope’ is the solid ground of expectation for the righteous. As such it is directed towards God.”[1] The Hebrew verb does not claim that things will be better in the morning. In fact, things might be worse. But YHVH is in control! And that’s what matters.
Paul Gilchrist makes an important point.
However, no greater testimony to such confident expectation is given than when Job cries out, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him”(Job 13:15). However ASV and RSV render the verse, “Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope” following MT Kethib reading instead of the Qere which is supported by the LXX and other versions, in which case, Job’s impatience demonstrates his refusal to “patiently wait” for the Lord (cf. Job 6:11). Nevertheless, yāḥal, “hope” is a close synonym to bāṭaḥ “trust” and qāwâ “wait for, hope for,” as in Mic 7:7, “But as for me, . . . I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” The last phrase clearly demonstrates the confidence of the righteous in God’s future action at a time when sin is being judged. But further, the verse reflects not only the ground of faith, the Lord himself, but the saving activity of his God. In short, that which is hoped for is not some desideratum arising from one’s imagination, but in God himself and whatever he should propose to accomplish.[2]
The Hebrew idea of hope, the same idea of expectant waiting, is not focused on our desires for solutions. It is focused on YHVH Himself. We hope in Him, not in what He might do or not do. That’s why yāḥal is closely connected to bāṭaḥ, “to trust.” If faith is perseverance, it requires patient, expectant waiting—and that is the idea of hope.
Today you can put all your troubles in the hand of the Lord. That doesn’t mean they will go away. It means they are not the final word. It means, in the end, that what we need is YHVH—and nothing else.
Topical Index: hope, wait, yahal, Psalm 33:18
[1] Gilchrist, P. R. (1999). 859 יָחַל. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (373). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
I thought I knew what hope was. Darkness, depression and disaster showed me that what I suffered from was expectation. Expectation could be called the hope of the world, and it is based on the world’s propaganda that promotes the world’s safety systems and nets. The world teaches the games of expectation, and the ‘safety’ it promises provides the base of that expectation, like some giant pyramid scheme. “Everybody else is doing it” is the watchword that gets you in that clubhouse, but mutual shame is what is being counted on to supply the guards and the guns that patrol those premises.
I thought I knew what faith was. Betrayal, scorn and alienation showed me that what I suffered from was, again, the deals that expectation will cut. “Here, I am scratching your back; now you are supposed to scratch mine.” Expectation is trust advanced on the world’s credit card, which is based on mutual indebtedness; a guilt-driven phenomenon.
I thought I knew what joy was. The pain of unmitigated fear showed me that what I suffered from was the desperation that drove me to pretense and the desire to use altered states of reality to forget my sorrow.
I thought I knew what love was. At the bottom of my need I found the dirty little secret that ‘love’ in the flesh is about LACK, and lack activates the ego, which is a need-driven response. I have had the sneaking suspicion that at the bottom of all ego-driven self-focus lies the snake of self pity. I think self pity is the closest the world can get to true self love.
True love is about the riches of fullness: of cups running over and harvests bursting barns and high-voltage power lines. True love is about having enough already; having enough to share. True love is rich enough to focus on the lacks of others; is motivated and activated, in fact, by people in ditches. A person in a ditch, after all, is simply a person who is fractured at his or her contact points. It takes love, like some giant tube of Super Glue to re-connect those shattered points in someone’s life. It is a love that says “Here, I will do what no one else is doing; you don’t owe me anything; you don’t have to pretend with me; I am fine with you just the way you are.” Love is Yeshua with skin on, walking around and saying “I am here when expectations have failed and altered states of response don’t work any more and you are tired of pitying yourself”.
In the end, hope is not some sort of dangling appendage; a fishing line thrown out into the blind future on credit. Hope is about a Person on the other end. I don’t need outcomes: I need to be loved. True hope understands which Way to point me in. Halleluah!
Laurita, I love the outpouring of your life’s experiences, and yet not be embittered by them. Some of us would have gone through similar experiences, and come off them victoriously, like you, though that journey and the understanding of those experiences may take some time. And, when that revelation dawns upon us, it is wonderful and so liberating. HalleluYAH!
I WILL wait for the God of my salvation. My God WILL hear me. Our trust is in Him at all times. Amein! Shalom.
Thank you, Ester. I am much changed from where I started and the direction I was bound to go in! None of my siblings are bitter, either, which was one of my heart’s cries. It is hard to come around the back side of the mountain; from lost. Hard to lose your faith and to start over from way out there. Hard to hold faith for others, too. I watch my children struggle, too. Faith is easier for me these days, though. If He could pull me out of my ditch, then He can pull them out, too.
The very last thing I ever thought was that I would ever talk, though! It is the last thing in the natural for me. Everything you see me share was something I got up in the morning and declared “I don’t want to”. But then, Who is asking me? I say something because I love Him. And all y’all. Amazing what salvation can do! I love you, too, Ester. I always hope that I will hurt no one, and that I can help someone. It hurts when I don’t know. Thank you for your kindness. It means more than you know, because I say things sometimes that I know can make some people uncomfortable, but it is a hard planet we live on, and some people live in hard places on it. It is those precious people I feel I have to wade through my discomfort and others’, from time to time, to reach. My apologies to the rest! Please forgive me! I wish I knew better ways! Thank you for your tolerance and patience; especially Skip. I hope to get better.
“Hard to lose your faith and to start over from way out there.” 🙂 I see ABBA’s hand over many situations in my life and others around me, not just losing your faith, but losing your way. HE is not willing that any should perish…and His arm is not too short to reach out to pull us out of dreadful circumstances. Great is our YHWH Elohim.
“If He could pull me out of my ditch, then He can pull them out, too.”
Yes, He can and will, Amein! My experience too. We so need to wait patiently for the right time for them, family, relatives and friends to turn fully to YHWH. Our hope and trust is in Him.
You are surely getting better, much better than a lot of folks out there, who are high and lofty, who have not gone through half of what you and I have.
I know it is a commercial thingy but it is good to be remembered, nevertheless, Happy Mum’s Day with love and HUGS to you, and ALL Mothers here.
Shalom!
Thank you Laurita. Kosher words that turn aside self pity. IMO your posts always speak from a place that few have walked- the reality of BOTH the depth of darkness and the hopeful heights of victory. Your past and my present seem to almost collide at times. Good that you have been able to create to create a future without hopelessness, despair and depression. I WILL to get there. Please slog on and blog on.
The Message translation of the Bible has Isaiah 26:8 this way: “Who You are, and what You’ve done, are all we’ll ever want.”
AMEN!! He IS….all in all in all.
Our hope is in Him and not what He is going to do — love this. Thanks Skip! Beautiful!