Where is Your Hope Placed?
What are you hoping in? Where is your hope placed? Or better yet—Who? Misplaced hope can lead to devastating lives. But when hope is in the right place, we are never disappointed and can have peace, joy, and hope in all circumstances.
Bible Reading: Psalms 129-131 and Ecclesiastes 7-8
Where is your hope placed friends? I am sure you have thought about this before. I know in our culture it is easy for people to say I hope I will meet my husband . . . or I hope this will be my outcome. We can say we hope in Jesus, but we can sometimes hope that things will go ok, don’t we? Uh . . . I just hope we will have a break.
I know sometimes in my life hope looked like achieving something or a status . . . or just peace. But true hope is not that at all. So we are going to look at the Psalmist here today about where our hope is placed.
In Psalm 130, the Psalmist is awaiting redemption.
Psalm 130:1-8
“Out of the depths I call to you, Lord! 2 Lord, listen to my voice; let your ears be attentive to my cry for help. 3 Lord, if you kept an account of iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that you may be revered.
5 I wait for the Lord; I wait and put my hope in his word. 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning—more than watchmen for the morning.
7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord. For there is faithful love with the Lord, and with him is redemption in abundance. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.”
Where is your hope placed—in God’s Word and Faithful Love
The Psalmist chose first to put his hope in God’s word and faithful love, but then he is asking Israel to do the same.
This hope is not something that is temporary. It is something we know we can count on. It is not just a desire. Cross my fingers . . . I really hope this turns out. No hope is something that is firm and secure.
Where is Your Hope Placed—What keeps us from hoping?
Fear can. Doubt. We don’t trust God. My song, “Layers” came from this place of wanting to hope but struggling to trust God when life seemed hopeless and God allowed a lot of suffering in my life and I did not understand why that level of suffering. We feel disillusioned and discouraged and hope just feels like, man I can’t be let down one more time. And I wanna put my hope in God, but God allowed these circumstances in my life.
These are real questions that if we are honest, we need to deal with them, right?
As we are thinking about this hope, we need to think about the obstacles to hope because there are so many things that stand in our way that want to keep us from hoping in God.
Where is Your Hope Placed—Patience.
The meaning of the word hope is to wait in a certain outcome. So if we are going to be willing to hope that means we are going to have to be willing to be patient.
Hope is choosing to believe either in a person or a God or an outcome and we are content to hope or trust no matter what goes on around us. That takes faith, right? Hope is closely tied to faith.
But patience is something that I think really plays into this. We don’t like to wait.
The Psalmist hoped in God, in His Word, and in His faithful love. The Psalmist hoped in God more than the watchman for the morning.
Think about the job of a watchman. I personally would not want that job. What are they doing? In pitch dark They are staying awake. I could picture a lot of coffee for this girl if that were my job. But you are staying awake and constantly on the alert watching. Can you imagine how much the watchman longs for the sun and the light.
The Psalmist is giving us this analogy. First he chooses to hope in God more than the watchman.
Anyone can wait a little bit. Christmas time is such an example of this. I think of my kids around Christmas time when it was hard for them to wait for the presents and one of my kids finally confessed that he would always take a peek at the gifts by slightly unwrapping the gift then rewrapping it. Some of the joy was lost on Christmas day because he already knew what he was getting.
Hope does not see it yet . . . but it chooses to trust in God and wait.
Where Your Hope is Placed—Why Hope in God?
Psalm 130:7 God is faithful. There is nothing else we can put our hope in. We don’t even know for sure who our next President is. We cannot put our hope in our elected leaders. We can’t put our hope in people . . . they are fallible. Or in circumstances . . . nothing. We don’t even know for sure what a day may bring.
Even though I have had a pretty tough year with Melanoma, COVID, etc., my God is still always faithful. Even though I am struggling with asthma, I have also been very blessed. And my God is always good and faithful.
Psalm 130:4 God forgives us. This is great hope. And this forgiveness last forever.
Psalm 130:7 God loves us. His love is faithful. Sometimes we put our hope in people who don’t really love us. I know that sounds harsh but sometimes in this world people just want what they want and they use people. But God loves us. So much. Hard times don’t mean that He does not love us or whether he is good. He is there with us. We just have to shift our focus from hoping for a perfect life to hoping in a good God.
Psalm 130:7 God redeems us. With Him is redemption in abundance. Overflowing. Redemption costs greatly. Sin destroys us and we need someone to redeem us. Redemption costs our Savior His life. He is our hope. What a secure place that is.
Where Your Hope is Placed—Pursue God, Not Happiness
Ecclesiastes 7-8
“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart. 3 Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.”
Now isn’t that interesting? A lot of times we pursue happiness. Our hope is that we will be happy. Why would Solomon say it is better to have mourning or grief . . . then you can be happy?
Sometimes when we don’t go through hard times we can take things for granted and we hope in futile things that keep us bummed all the time because they never pan out? But there is something about when you have been through pain in your life, then you see things from a different perspective and see all of the blessings in this life.
The beauty of hoping in God is that you can have an election go awry . . you can have a global pandemic . . . you can get COVID yourself and be hospitalized . . . overcome cancer and betrayal and all kinds of suffering and still have hope. Our hope is not in avoiding COVID, but inthe One Who controls everything. Then we have peace.
Where Your Hope is Placed—Where Hope is Found
Ecclesiastes 7:8
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.”
To hope is to wait is to be trust in a certain outcome. We know God has a certain outcome . . . we need to trust Him with that outcome. Hoping is not holding tightly onto things and demanding things from God. It is a hope that God will use all that happens to us will bring Him glory. Hope is not for the American Dream . . . and I want this and I want that . . . and then I will trust in you, God. A true hope is that we will love God through it all and trust the hope He has for us.
Ecclesiastes 7:10
“Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” since it is not wise of you to ask this.”
Easy times don’t require faith or hope, do they? But when we wait on God in both times – when we are blessed, are we going to hope in God then, or hope in the blessing? And when times are hard, this is where real hope is. Real hope is not when everything is good. It is found when it isn’t.
And it is when we choose to say, “I worship You, God”. I can’t do this, but You are where my hope is placed, that we have hope this world can never take away.
Scripture of the Day: Psalm 130:5-6
“I wait for the Lord; I wait and put my hope in his word. 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning—more than watchmen for the morning.”
Application
- Think about your hope and take inventory – ask yourself if you are hoping in God or things.
- Go with God, your living hope!
𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘁 12 𝗽𝗺 𝗘𝗧.
“Where is Your Hope Placed?”
Day #319-320: Psalms 129-131 & Ecclesiastes 7-8
𝒱𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒟𝒶𝓎: Psalm 129:3
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