Introduction

We all do it now: we have a question and Googled it, and as always, you get some fascinating suggestions or hints with whatever you find yourself asking Google. Just below the search bar, I found some of the tips fascinating: Image, In Life, In the Bible, Quotes, Video, In Christ, in psychology, Past Tense, and finally, For you. What was the profound question that I had asked Google?

What is Hope?

“What is Hope?” is a strange question to ask Google, especially as a Christian, because we know how to answer it before it’s asked: Jesus. In fact, if you asked a Sunday School class to define hope, that is the answer you would get! As Christians, we know what hope is because we have met it in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Yet, I wonder if we have ever stopped to think about what Hope really is and how it should affect us every day. If asked that question, how might you answer without referencing Jesus or your faith? The Cambridge Dictionary describes hope as: “to want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might.”¹ Is that all that hope is? A feeling based on some good reason that something good might come, even as Christians, is that all that our Hope is? That Christ will come again based on the good merit of the truth of the resurrection. So then I continue to ask myself: What is hope? And not only that question but – What is the effect of Hope in my life, and what should be the effect of Hope in my life and living?

A Lack of Hope

Why does it matter, you might be asking as you sit here listening to me go on about Hope? Simple: in these last few months, as I have travelled, ministered around Belfast, visited different cities in the States and chatted to different people and listened to different messages and addresses, I have become more and more convinced that one of the biggest issues affecting our culture and our contexts and our lives is a lack of hope. Hope is an innate part of what it is to be human, and as the world and parts of the Church move away from the Gospel and work of Jesus Christ, they still need to have hope, so we end up putting in on different things and people, only to be let down and then in a lifeless cycle with each disappointment it’s not that we have less hope, I think we simply lose the ability to hope. Hopelessness is affecting everything and not just the Church. Barnardos, in some of their recent work, cited that 67% of Young people struggle to have hope for the future; they believe their generation will be worse off than before, and 60% believe that over their life, they will have worse happiness and life satisfaction than their parents. Hopelessness has become contagious, and we see its effects around us so much! Yet, it has become so typical in our culture and context that I don’t think we even realise it. Hopelessness has become so normal that it has afflicted the Church across the world, which should be the most hopeful place in the world! Why? Because our hope is not from this world, the people of God should always be marked by a tangible hope beyond the world, and if they are, it will be a hope that begins to affect the places where the people of God are. To put it simply and another way: If we have hope in Jesus, then that hope should bring a positive effect in the life of the Church and in the area in which we live out our call as disciples. In a world of misplaced hope and hopelessness, the people of God are marked and rooted in real Hope of Christ to come that has tangible effects today.

Seeing Hope

When I was in the States, I went on a road trip, and let me tell you, an American Road trip is very different to any journey you could ever make. We got into the car in Chicago, got onto the equivalent of the Motorway, and then drove for about 600 miles along four lanes of traffic in the same direction. It was a surreal contrast to the back and twisty roads of Northern Ireland that you so often find yourself journeying on. Add to that for the six hours that we were in the car was across some of the flattest countryside I have ever seen!

There are seasons in life that can feel like driving down the motorway for six hours in the same direction without much scenery or direction to look at: mundane, routine and consistent. Yet, across the span of our years, life is more like driving through rural Northern Ireland with its windy roads and constant ascending and descending over hills and into valleys than down the interstate for six hours in the states. We have journeyed through the Psalms over this last season, and even in the first nine Psalms, we have had to deal with almost every emotion that we will face in life and deal with them before God. We have seen sorrow, hurt, betrayal, misery, depression, joy, happiness, delight, celebration, trust, and so much more.

The Psalms have taken us on a twisty journey through the many seasons and valleys of life, and yet in each summary of the journey, whether high or low, there has been one consistent echo in the experience of the author – hope. In the depth and darkness of the human experience, the Psalmist still had hope, and at those mountaintop moments of life marked with Joy and celebration, the Psalmist was marked by the same hope! Why? Because that hope which comes from beyond this world is the same in every season of life, and thus, no matter where the road of life takes us. It is that Hope amid hopelessness and the reality of a fallen world that echoes throughout the pairing of Psalms 9 and 10. Psalm 9 is all about hope in God and the effects that hope in the life of the psalmist. In the first section of the Psalm, we see the beauty as the psalmist delights in the character of God; it is the fruit of hope-realised. Then, Psalmist has been delivered from a difficult situation, and we see the fruit of Hope in his life as he reflects on the Great rescue of God. Then, the second part of the Psalm (v13-20) shows the same hope in the character of God and his rule in the world, but this time, it arises out of a different and more complex situation as the Psalmist prays amid deep suffering.

A Certain Hope Because of Rescue (1-12)

You know that moment when a child gets a new toy: they want to show everyone whom they meet, and they find themselves annoyed if you do not have the same excitement about it as they do! It is natural to want to share that which means something to them. Or think about someone who has gotten their dream job and then finds themselves doing well in it; it seems to naturally come up in every conversation you have with them – they want you to know about it.

When you have found the purpose/relationship that you have been made for, naturally, you want to share about it; you want to tell everyone who will hear, and it is only natural. Psalm 9 begins with the beautiful, hopeful and necessary truth that it wants to make clear: The goodness, majesty and power of God. Thus, without a breath or moment, the Psalm begins with the most majestic response to God: “I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.”² To put it another way, the Psalm begins with what it wants us to understand and take home, the majesty and wonder of who God is and what he has done for us, as the reason we must always be hopeful.

It begins with the reality of a heart that has been transformed by real hope found only in a relationship with God, a life orientated towards God. We sell this in the vertical motion of the worship in the Psalm, yet also a life that overflows outwards. When our relationship with God is authentic, that which we give upwards in worship will flow outwards in transformation, fruit and hope. The Psalmist praises God is not reserved for private worship but flows naturally outward: “I will tell of all your wonders.” When you truly know God, you want others to know the same joy and hope – it is the natural outworking of the Hope of the Gospel in our lives. We don’t join in the work of the Great Commission simply because Jesus commanded it or to please Him; we naturally move into it without even realising by the Grace of the Holy Spirit in our lives because our hope is so certain, our Joy is so complete that delight in the one who saved us, and we delight to make known the one who saved us. A life that encounters the real hope of God is transformed by it, and we tell people about it because it changes who we are and how we see the world. Thankfulness is the transformed state of their heart and being; joy is overflow. Why? Verse two reminds us: “I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.”³ The Child of God knows the hope of real Joy only because of God, and such is its effect that it changes our state, and we delight in expressing our appreciation in the most exuberant yet natural of ways – song. Notice that the Phrase “with all my heart,” it should bring us to the greatest commandment – to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Thus, what we see here is the picture of a right relationship with God, a hope that brings an inward renewal and an outward change in life and orientation to the things of God.

All Because of God (3-8)

We all know that one person who talks the talk, and yet we might never have seen them walk the walk. That person who can tell you a story about walk-in to the bus stop, and it somehow makes them out to be a majestic hero who saved several lives on the way! It is our basic human nature to boast and exaggerate and make more of ourselves. If we were a leader, we might tell stories about our success and ability and how we are better than anyone who has gone before us. It is human nature to make more of ourselves, yet when we have encountered hope that comes from beyond ourselves, then as grace works in us, we begin to see differently and look different from the ways of the world.

In this season of life, David is taking none of the praise as he gives all glory to God for what he has been doing in his life. Notice the constant pointing away from himself to God: You have sat on your throne… You has rebuked the nations, you have blotted out their name forever… (4-6). David has hope because he has experienced God; thus, his hope is not in some way, but rather, it is a present hope for the work of God today. Through this whole section, David puts all the focus on God! Why? Because it is all because of God; even though he was Israel’s greatest King, even though he was one after the Lord’s own heart, and even though he would achieve more than many of his peers, he knew where the praise had to God – Yahweh. After he outlines the temporary nature of all those who have opposed the plans of the Lord and their reality now, they are forgotten: King David contrasts their temporary reality with the everlasting nature of the LORD and his Reign. In verse six, “even the memory of them has perished”, then to verse seven: “The LORD reigns forever.” David’s Hope, our hope is certain because God is the enteral one, in that he is eternally powerful and eternally good. Thus, as David praises God, he also reminds us of the why behind his Hope – not only that God reigns forever, but that as God reigns eternally, His character and nature are eternally God. As he reigns, he will Judge the world “with justice and rule the nations with fairness.” What’s the Why behind Christian Hope and Worship of God? That God is good, just, and fair. He will see that one day, evil is put in its place.

A Kind Hope (8-12)

Not only is God just and fair, but he is also kind, caring and gentle. The Lord does not deal with evil and the significant moral issues of the day; He is not just concerned with dealing with the rule of corrupt Kings or those who might oppose his plans in the world; the Lord sees those whom the world does not see, and cares for those the world does not care for. This Hope is not only for the powerful or the world, those who have positions or possession that, in the world’s eyes, gives them value; this hope is for everyone. In fact, what we often see is that those who the world considers powerful and glorious are the least likely to respond to the work of God in the world and in their lives, something which we see in the Scriptures. Rather, it is those who remain unseen by the world who will ultimately see the wonder and Marvel of our hope in Christ and then experience the transforming effect of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and world. See the beauty of the moment as, in a breath, the Lord moves from righteous Judge to merciful provider. He is a refuge for those who the world oppresses and will be their steadfast stronghold in times of trouble. Whatever the world throws at you, God is greater! Whatever the world hits you with, God is steadier. Verse ten is just a repetition of the same truth and grounds the provision of God into an even more intimate knowledge of Him; hence, we see that Hope comes from knowledge, and hope grows in understanding. Those who know your name will trust you! Why is this trust certain? Because of God’s goodness – those who truly seek him, he will receive and never forsake.

Even our seeking is not enough to be certain of our status in God; rather, it is the certainty of God’s Grace and goodness that gives confidence and assurance to the Hope that we can have each day and in light of Eternity. The Psalm is speaking in terms of the ideal: that we might be those who would Know the Lord’s Name, put our trust in him and see him. Yet, we are those who now have met the one who seeks us, the person of Jesus Christ. We have seen the Shelter of God and found rescue when we come to Know the name of Jesus, who seeks us. So, as we think of our Hope and confidence in the Lord, even in this Psalm, we are reminded that all we know of God we know because of Jesus, and as we know, we are called to live.

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Conclusion: A Beautiful Hope

So today as we think about what the first section of this Psalm has presented we are reminded of wonder of God, and the goodness of his Character and heart. That the Hope of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus who came and died for Sinners is build on the Solid foundation of the Eternal God. May we each be renewed in that Hope and as it bears fruit in our lives and transforms our living. May we as individual disciples and a Church family ground ourslves and our living in all that God has given to us, and then as we grow in the things of faith, may they overflow into our lives in that we move out into the World praising God and telling of all that he has done for us in Christ. Certain in the assurance of our Hope to come, and bringing joy to our living today as we worship god with our lives and proclaim what he has done to the world (11), and trust that as we do the world will see not just his good, not just his majesty but that he is God who hears the cry of the Afflicted and will one day through the Blood of Christ remove the curse of sin and stain of death from our lives and our world.

1. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hope ↩
2. Psalm 9:1 (NIVUK84) ↩
3. Psalms‬ ‭9‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬
   https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.9.2.NLT ↩