"I wait for the Lord; I wait and put my hope in his word. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning — more than watchmen for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the Lord. For there is faithful love with the Lord, and with him is redemption in abundance. And he will redeem Israel from all its iniquities."
Psalms 130:5-8 CSB
Hope is the gleaming jewel of promised redemption
at the bottom of the box of curses
When Pandora's foremother ate the forbidden fruit
(And her husband with her ate)
And brought upon our race death,
Labor pains, sweat-stained labor for bread,
Thorns and thistles choking fruitfulness,
Death of spirit and body.
Hope is the first good news after the first bad news:
A serpent-crusher coming, the woman's seed
(Poetic justice),
His heel bruised,
Our sympathetic, suffering Savior.
Hope is empty hands outstretched
In confident expectation
Of a promise coming
But still too far to see.
Hope is Joseph,
Urging his children to the third and fourth generation
To carry up his bones
When the Lord carried them out
Of Egypt into
The land and blessing promised
to Abraham's seed.
Hope is David,
Forbidden to build the house for the Lord,
Stockpiling the spoils of his victories,
Organizing the Levites,
Beginning the hymnal,
For the son of shalom
To complete what the father could only see in visions.
Hope is David writing
The Psalm we know as 30,
"For the dedication of the House,"
The House of the Lord
He would not live to see.
Hope is the anchor of God's
Unlying, unchangeable faithfulness
To His promises,
Dropped securely by Jesus our forerunner,
Tethering His children to the Holy Place
By a chain of His great mercies,
His promises made, kept, coming,
Giving us strong encouragement
To hold fast to the assurance of His blessing,
That all shall be well
(Empty hands and all),
And all shall be well
(So well the tears will be swallowed up by joy),
And all manner of things shall be well.
(Sorrow and sighing having fled,
We shall always be with the Lord.)
#hope #oneword2023