Hope in the Lord

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.    —Jeremiah 17:7

People seldom get the opportunity to be in the woods during the early moments just before dawn away from artificial light and heat. I recall my first turkey hunting experience over thirty years ago. It was shortly before the sunrise, and I thought I could no longer bear the cold.

I lived on a 100-acre farm and had numerous friends who asked permission to hunt on our property. I had never seen a turkey in the wild and had never hunted them. After getting some basic instructions about where to go and how to hear gobblers in the morning, I set out very early to listen for and locate turkeys. Not realizing how cold the morning hours can become, I was woefully underdressed for the experience. As I sat quietly listening in the pre-dawn hours, the cold seemed to penetrate my very being. I learned the hard way that the coldest time of the day is the moment just before the warming rays of the sun appear.

This is also true in life as the Bill Gaither song, Joy Comes in the Morning, encourages, “Hold on my child; joy comes in the morning. The darkest hour means dawn is just in sight.” Many persons struggle with the challenges they face in life. They believe things will never get better. Hopelessness overcomes them as they begin to think they can no longer stand under the weight of their problems.

Kings Saul and David are examples of persons handling the stresses of life differently. Saul, after being rejected as king, obsessively hunted David down to take his life. During a battle against the Philistines, Saul’s sons were killed and he was severely wounded (1 Samuel 31). Saul’s response was to kill himself before the enemy could torture and kill him and desecrate his body.

Suicide never solves anything. As it turned out, Saul was still beheaded by the Philistine army, and his body hung on the wall of Beth-Shan. David’s troops were already returning from defeating the Amalekites and would surely have marched into the Philistine camps. The Lord could have healed King Saul, but rather than put his trust in the Lord, Saul took his own life in hopelessness.

King David, on the other hand, had been running for his life for years. At one point, his band of men returned home to find that the Amalekites had destroyed their city and taken their wives and families captive. “Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). Not only was David a fugitive, his city destroyed, and his family taken from him, but now his own loyal men were threatening to kill him. Rather than give up in hopelessness, as many of us might do today, David strengthened himself in the Lord.

God is still on the throne, and there is always hope as long as we are alive. Psalm 30:5 says, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” Many times our rescue, our breakthrough, our answer to prayer is just around the corner. We can and must stand firm in hope; the darkest hour means dawn is just in sight. “Blessed is the man … whose hope is the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:70).