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Encouragement to Hope

A Merciful and Most Forgiving God

4 But there is forgiveness with Thee,
That Thou mayest be feared.

So far, the Psalm has focused us largely on the cry of repentance. But as was said before, the cry of repentance would never be cried without hope of being heard, without hope of being answered. Here, we begin to find foundations for our hope. There is forgiveness with Him! He is faithful to forgive, as we are faithful to repent.

Our great comfort, our great hope, is in His forgiveness. It is because we know that hope to be well-founded that we can cry out to Him. Because He has shown us by His word that we can expect His forgiveness 'when we make it the object of our holy fear,' as Mr. Henry puts it. We can expect it, but we can't take it for granted. Shall we who have died to sin continue in it? God forbid!

Joel 2:13

Here, God has given us the way to His throne room. When our hearts truly repent of our ways, then we can come before Him, returning to Him without fear of His consuming wrath. Were it not for our knowing Him to be forgiving, we would not dare to approach Him, knowing our condition. With Isaiah, we would cry out upon seeing Him, knowing our sinful selves. He is the All Consuming Fire! Yet, He is indeed gracious and compassionate, and desires that not one be lost.

Why is it that He cares so much for us? Why does He concern Himself with all that has been needful to bring about our salvation? Ps 79 sets us on the path toward an answer:

Ps 79:9

Attendance on God

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,
And in His word do I hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
More than the watchmen for the morning;
Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

Ps 40:1-2

Let us remember, however, that hope is not presumptuous. Our Christian hope must be founded upon God's holy word, and not upon our own whims, desires, and imaginations. What He has promised, we may have firm hope in. What we merely think ought to be so, gives us no cause for hope. Praying the Scriptures is one way of ensuring that our hopes are firmly founded, and that our requests are in accord with His will.

Ps 143:6

Whatever may come against us, here is a hope unshakable: He has promised salvation. Not our salvation, for it is none of our doing. No! Salvation is a far more reliable matter, for it is, as we see in this verse, His salvation, not ours. It is a salvation worked by His unchangeable, unopposable power. It is not subject to our failures and weaknesses. Praise be to God! Our hope is built on nothing less than God Himself!

The Watchman

Eze 33:2-7

2 "Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, 'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman; 3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5 'He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. 6 'But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.'

7 "Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me."

Isa 62:6

(from McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia)

In Persia the watchmen were obliged to indemnify [pay back] those who were robbed in the streets, and make satisfaction with their own blood for those who were murdered; which accounts for the vigilance and severity which they display in the discharge of their office, and illustrates the character of watchman given to Ezekiel, who lived in that country, and the duties he was required to perform.

On these latter occasions [when charged with the nightwatch], their exclamations are made in a form calculated to enliven the tediousness of their duties, as, "God be merciful to you;" while the other responds, "Blessings be on you likewise." This practice of salutation, when they met, in the form of a set dialogue, was observed also by the ancient officers of this description among the Jews, the watchword being then, as we have seen it is still among the watchmen of the caravans, some pious sentiment, in which the name of Jehovah was specially expressed.

Ps 134, [which we will be looking at soon] ... is nothing more than the alternate cry of two different divisions of the watch.

For those who watch in the night, whether for an answer or for an enemy, long for nothing so much as the morning, for the end of the watch. In the Psalm we're looking at now, the author finds himself in a period of nightly darkness, sensing the wrath that is his due, and wishing for an end to that wrathful darkness. He longs for the bright realm of God's love.

Mal 4:2
2 "But for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.