July 17 - Psalm 71:14

I will hope continually

and will praise you

yet more and more

Psalm 71:14

 

What is hope?

 

On the way out of a gas station today, I saw an obviously poor person scratching off a lottery card. Yes, a few wealthier people play the lottery. But it’s disproportionately the poor that are scratching tickets. (Enough that lotteries a called “a tax on the poor.”)

 

Why do the poor play the lottery in disproportionate amounts? Because of hope! Even though the odds of winning the power ball jackpot are less likely than getting struck by lightning while getting attacked by a polar bear in the Sahara Desert, the one chance in umpteen billion is still hope, a dream, a possibility of a better future.

 

What is hope?

 

It is confidence

that a possibility

could become a reality.

 

In today’s verse, the Psalmist pledges to “hope continually.” Indeed, in spite of some pretty dire circumstances (see below), the psalmist commits to be continually confident that a possibility – a “2 rescue,” a “2 deliver[er], and a “2 deliver[ance]” – will become a reality.

 

·         Even though they clearly need to take “¹ refuge,” the Psalmist pledges to “14 hope continually.”

·         Even though he needs “² rescue,” the Psalmist pledges to “14 hope continually.”

·         Even though the “⁴ hand of the wicked” seems to be closing around their neck, even though they’re “⁴ grasp[ed by] the wicked and unjust,” the Psalmist pledges to “14 hope continually.”

·         Even though his poor body creaks with the frustration of “⁹ old age,” the Psalmist pledges to “14 hope continually.”

·         Even though “¹⁰ enemies” are speaking evil against him and conspiring to harm him, the Psalmist pledges to “14 hope continually.”

·         Even though he is “¹¹ pursue[d],” “¹¹ seize[d],” and “¹¹ forsaken,” the Psalmist pledges to “14 hope continually.”

·         Even though he feels “¹³ covered with scorn and disgrace,” the Psalmist pledges to “14 hope continually.”

 

Question: Do you have that confidence? Are you sure – in spite of circumstances, in spite of enemies, in spite of old age, in spite of feelings of dread – that with God the possibility of rescue will become a reality.

 

Now … that reality may not happen according to your time frame. It may not even happen while you’re on this earth. (Heaven may be the ultimate rescue that you are waiting for.) But faith is the confident hope that God’s rescue is already a reality!

 

No matter what this world may throw at you, you are more than a conqueror through him who loves you (see Romans 8).

 

Isaiah 43 reveals that hope and confidence: When we pass through the floods and fires, God will be with us.

 

Indeed, death itself is even a victory – because it is the gate to eternal life.

 

Question: Is your hope bigger than your trials?

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who has scratched off

a thousand lottery tickets

 

No … wait …

a guy who has scratched off

-- or actually underlined

in my chicken-scratch –

a thousand Bible verses.

(That’s where my assurance

of riches and hope comes from!)