Psalms 1-25 Study Guide | Hope

fiery gem. The lesser facets only add to its brilliance,  Such are the Psalms; the main facet is Hope. All the other truths in the Psalm only help make this main truth shine a little bit brighter. Diamonds are not forever, but the  prophecies and promises of the Psalms are forever. While the Psalms do not always answer the most asked question in life, Why! They do tell us why we must never lose hope.

We cannot live meaningful lives without hope. Many people die in their spirit long before they die in their body. And the reason is because they lose Hope.  That is why in the Psalms  hope  is the bedrock beneath our feet.  Like a  hope diamond it stand  between the two virtues of Christianity,  faith ~Hope ~love. Hope gives you rest like Jesus  had on a restless sea. Hope gives you courage  like Daniel had  while walking into a lion’s den. Hope gives you endurance to soldier on like the psalmist  David   when betrayed by family and friends.

Hope is the calm assurance that the promises of God control every facet of our  lives. An optimistic state of mind is a wonderful thing. But even the stoutest heart   has a breaking point. Leaning heavily upon the promises of God as found in the Psalms has healed more millions than all the psychiatrists, pills and practitioners put together. And so they continue  healing and restoring broken hearts to this  day.  When all human  hope is gone believers turn to the Psalms and find  that underneath are his everlasting arms. Even in the most ominous circumstances they were able to praise Him.

But where do we find  true hope?  Some secular scientists are hoping that we will find it by building a new world somewhere  on a planet   the regions of outer  space. But such wishful thinking is as vain as looking for the Garden of Eden. In the early 19oo’s hope was dancing in the streets. There had been no major wars for almost one hundred years. But then came 1914, then 1929, then 1939, then  1945  leaving over 100 million people dead, killed  like  wild beats killing wild beasts.

We quickly learned  that Hope cannot be bought like gold or weighed like silver.  The only Hope that springs eternal is to be found   in the eternal Promises of God. We have no other source. There is no other source.   That is why we must read and re-read the psalms. Hope is  the  wellspring from which  all one-hundred-and-fifty psalms  flow. To tap into them is to drink  the cool, clear, refreshing  water of a coming new world. Take the spring of hope  out of the Book of Psalms and you have but the speculations of men.  Philosophers  and politicians  and prognosticators who led us astray in the past and who can still see no further than tomorrow or beyond the present fading horizon. The messages from these twenty-five  Psalms are a treasure trove of promises, prophecies and pardon. They are pearls of truth drawn from the deepest seas of despair and disappointment and death’s dark valley. They are also  jewels of truth  rich and rare that have stood the test of time and  proven in the fiery furnace  human experience. They are truths  as reliable as “the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem  Truths that you  can share with those who are “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,”

We are a people of Hope. We still have a song to sing.  Let us sing it, shout it out from the highest mountain top:  Our God Reigns!