DESPAIR VERSUS HOPE

Greetings O Ye Mooers and Chewers of the Cud of the Word of God... got a minute?

Waiting...is normally watching the clock tick by slowly...that ranks up there with watching a pot full of water to boil.  When you are kid and you are going to Florida on a vacation... and as soon as you leave your driveway from home...within five minutes the question arises..."Are we there yet?"

 This thing called waiting...with no hope of ever seeing what you are waiting for...can easily turn into a little thing called DESPAIR.

"I would have DESPAIRED..." This phrase is found in a Psalm by the Shepherd King David...who was familiar with reasons to despair.
FAINT/DESPAIR: râphâh (raw-faw')=A primitive root; to slacken (in many applications, literally or figuratively): - abate, cease, consume, draw [toward evening], fail, (be) faint, be (wax) feeble, forsake, idle, leave, let alone (go, down), (be) slack, stay, be still, be slothful, (be) weak (-en). 
 This despair...is a HOPELESSNESS.  Hope means to have CONFIDENT EXPECTATION.

HOPE:  tiqvâh (tik-vaw')= literally a cord (as an attachmentfiguratively expectancy: - expectation ([-ted]), hope, live, thing that I long for.

 

In Psalm 27...David speaks of FEAR and DREAD...EVILDOERS and ADVERSARIES.  He speaks of ENCAMPMENTS SURROUNDING...and WAR RISING.   Do you have these things happening in your life...in your family, in your job, in your church...in your WORLD?  The question is the same one that David addressed (there is nothing new under the sun)..."Whom shall I FEAR?  Whom shall I DREAD" (Psalm 27:1-2)

 

David's expected answer was NOTHING (no thing, zilch, zero, nuttin' honey)  His "Biblical answer by faith was..."In SPITE of this...I SHALL BE CONFIDENT."  What this means is...that David has HOPE.

 

David said..."I would have DESPAIRED...unless...I HAD BELIEVED...that I WOULD SEE...the GOODNESS OF GOD...in the LAND OF THE LIVING." (Psalm 27:13)

Despair was nipped in the bud by FAITH...by his BELIEVING (trusting in, relying on, clinging to, adhering to) seeing with spiritual eyes and not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7)...and perception of things not seen by things revealed to the senses (Hebrews 11:1).  What did David see?  THE GOODNESS OF GOD...in the face of BADNESS in the world.

The question is...what do you do between the point of prayer and the point of provision?  The answer is WAIT.

WAIT: qâvâh (kaw-vaw')=A primitive root; to bind together (perhaps by twisting), that is, collect; (figuratively) to expect: - gather (together), look, patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon).

 

Psalm 27:14 lays out what we are to do:

 

(1) Wait for the Lord  (2) Be strong (3) Let/Allow your heart to take courage (4) Yes...WAIT FOR THE LORD.

Back in the 70's...during the Jesus Movement...we would sing Scriptures.  One of those was found in Isaiah 40:31...about waiting upon the Lord:

 

They that WAIT upon the Lord

Shall renew their strength

They shall mount up with wings as eagles

They shall run and not be weary

They shall walk and not faint

Teach me Lord...Teach me Lord...to WAIT.

 

Again...this concept of waiting is binding together and twisting together for strength...to have an expectancy. 

 

The Everlasting God...the Lord...the Creator of the ends of the earth...DOES NOT BECOME WEARY or TIRED. (Isaiah 40:28)  If you are WEARY and TIRED...it would behoove us to WAIT on the one who does not become WEARY or TIRED...The Lord.   Why would you want to WAIT on the Lord?

 

(1)  He gives STRENGTH to the WEARY

(2)  He increases POWER to those who lacks MIGHT

(3)  Youth and young mean who grow weary/tired and stumbles badly He increases POWER

(4)  The will GAIN NEW STRENGTH

(5)  They will MOUNT UP WITH WINGS AS EAGLES

(6)  They will RUN AND NOT BE WEARY

(7)  They will WALK AND NOT FAINT/BECOME WEARY

 

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

 

Teach me Lord...Teach me Lord...to WAIT.

Love and Goodness In The Land Kisses
Rodney "Wait A Minute Mr. Postman" Boyd