God’s Word for You

Psalm 119:49 You have made me hope

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, March 9, 2024

This verse begins a new section or stanza of the Great Psalm. Each of these eight verses begins with the letter Zayin, the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, equivalent to our letter Z. In this stanza, the first, fourth, and seventh verses all begin with the word “remember” (zacar).

This stanza recalls the third one, the Gimel section, where the writer prays about living among unbelievers. There in verse 19, he called himself “an alien on the earth,” and prayed that God would “rebuke the insolent, the cursed, those who wander from your commandments.” (119:21). Here the trouble with unbelievers grows in intensity, as the insolent “mock me without restraint” (119:51).

49 Remember your word to your servant,
in which you have made me hope.

This stanza begins with a prayer, “Remember your word.” The Lord proclaims his word and is faithful to it; he keeps his promises and does not forget them. God wants us to hear his word, to study it, to contemplate it, and to use it for comfort, guidance, and as Paul says for “teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). The word of God should not be withheld from God’s people as some churches do. People who are kept from the word will begin to make up their own “word,” false doctrines that make sense to human reason but which run contrary to the will of God.

If teachers of the word are afraid that their people might grow to have contempt for the word if they knew it better, then they are shoving the Holy Spirit out of his place, as if to say, “I know better than you, Spirit. Fly away and flutter someplace else and I will stay here; I will wrap the holy treasure in a cloth, and bury it in my backyard” (Luke 19:20). But the Spirit will reply, “I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant!” (Luke 19:22).

If there are people who know the word of God and have contempt for it, “such contempt ought to be both a consolation and a warning to us, so that we give thanks to God for the blessing of being among those who love God’s word, diligently hear and learn from God’s word, and find delight in the Holy Scriptures. For it is a terrible punishment and a severe judgment of God if a man so hates God and his word that he is unwilling to hear it and does not honor or respect the ministers of the word” (Luther, Table Talk, LW 52:13). Faith comes by hearing the word, but “how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14). Therefore the word should not be withheld from people just because there is a chance that some of them might treat the word with disrespect. Rather, the word must be held out to everyone, so that by all possible means we might save some (1 Corinthians 9:22).

David prays that God would remember his word, because through that word, the preached and proclaimed word, the Lord has caused his servant to have hope. The believer has true hope through the word. This true hope is the promise of the resurrection, as Peter writes: “By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). For if our hope is only for this life, what kind of a hope is that? We would be nothing but pagans, “hoping” that our deity would give us good things in this lifetime? What things? Prosperity? Health? Power? Authority or dominion over other people? The freedom to whatever we want without any consequences? Isn’t that more and more how so-called Christians who hold public offices behave? What kind of freedom is that? It’s like children who are allowed to run around the day-care until their parents come to pick them up. A few will act like tyrants, and the rest will be terrorized, but it won’t last. The tyrants will receive the discipline that they have coming, and for those whose only hope is about this lifetime will discover that they have a terrible, horrifying judgment on the way. The true Christians’ hope is for the resurrection and the life of the world to come. This was the hope the Patriarchs believed in, such as Abraham, trusting that his son Isaac would rise from the dead (Genesis 22:5). It is also the hope of the prophets, for Isaiah says: “Your dead ones will live. Their dead bodies will rise. Wake up and sing for joy, you who dwell in the dust, because your dew will glisten like morning light, and the earth will give up the spirits of the dead (Isaiah 26:19). And again: “The Father raises the dead and gives them life” (John 5:21). For the dead coming to life again is what our faith is finally all about (Romans 11:15). Without the resurrection, no one would really care about faith or promises. But because God’s plan all along has been to have the true Israel, the Holy Christian Church, live with him forever in heaven, his promises about that life are dearest to our hearts. And everything he says in the meantime about repentance, faith, and forgiveness, are matters we keep before our eyes and deep in our hearts every day.

Forgive us, dear Father! Raise us and our loved ones from the grave! Call us home to your side on the Last Day! You have promised that this is what you will do, and you have promised that none of us will be snatched from out of your hands (John 10:29). You have caused us to believe in your word and promises, and for this we thank you, and we praise you, forever. For it is not “Remember my contrition” or “Remember my sorrow over sin” that you teach us to pray—for who could ever be sorry enough? Who could repent with a heart worthy in your sight? No, we beg your forgiveness and ask you only to remember your own word, the word that has caused us all to have hope.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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