Hope in God's Promise

I didn’t plan on going this far in Psalm 119, but let’s spend at least one more week in this great chapter. I read it this morning and was reminded again of how much of a work of art it really is. 22 sections of 8 verses and each section starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So, if we were to do the equivalent with our English alphabet it would be 8 verses all beginning with A, eight verses beginning with B, etc. As we come to verse 49 we come to the seventh stanza and all of the verses start with the Hebrew letter Zayin.

Verse 49 calls us to Hope in God’s promises, “Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.” According to Google, there are over 8,000 promises in the Bible. The overwhelming majority of them are God’s promises to us.

When we face affliction, we must turn to His word, find His promises and hope in Him. It is interesting that the psalmist is suffering, but this is the only direct prayer for help in this section…the rest of it is devoted to showing that he trusts God’s Word. He doesn’t even ask God to deliver him from the affliction…he just goes back to God’s promise and asks God to remember His promise.

Consider Jehoshaphat’s prayer…it is interesting is that 2 Chronicles 20 tells the story and the king stands before the people and said, “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” He goes on to remind God of His promises to them and in doing so he is taking hope in God and God’s Word.

We must be students of the Word. We must hang on to His promises and when we are in trouble it helps to remind Him of His promise. It isn’t that God has forgotten and needs our reminder…our reminding God of His promises reminds us at the same time and builds our faith…that is the secret!