Hope Waits

Hope Waits

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Psalm 130:6

IN WORD The soul has cries we often cannot hear. We meet people daily who are composed on the outside and wounded within. We, too, know how to put on our game face for work, for family, or for our social life, even when deep inside we’re in pain. We don’t share our pain well because we’re afraid of what others will think of the real person inside. So the soul cries—quietly, pitifully, but deeply.

But there is no hiding from God. He hears. His ears of mercy never let cries from the depths go unnoticed. It doesn’t matter how deep the depths are, God is close and His hearing is perfect. The soul is bare before Him.

Psalm 130 gives us the appropriate posture of a broken soul. There’s no pretense, no positioning—just honesty. And when the soul is so bare, there is nothing left but to wait. We can’t pressure God, because we have no leverage against Him. We can’t induce Him, because we have nothing to offer. In the depths, broken souls have nothing but hope in the One who hears. And hope waits.

IN DEED You’ve likely been in the depths, and you’ll likely be there again. Perhaps you are there now. Look for God like the watchman looks for the morning. The watchman knows the sun will rise; there’s no question in his mind. He may not enjoy the dark of night, but he knows it will end. The night is never permanent, and the daylight never fails to come. Likewise, your depths are not permanent and light will come. God will rise on your behalf at the appointed hour. Like the watchman, you can wait for Him in certain hope.

The psalmist knows such depths, and he also knows such hope. He knows God has “unfailing love” and “full redemption” (v. 7). When He delivers—and “unfailing love” assures us that He will—it will not be a halfway deliverance. You can pray your anguish with absolute certainty that He hears, He loves, and the morning is coming soon.

Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.

—G. K. CHESTERTON