Hope Arising

In Psalm 71, again and again, the psalmist cries out: Deliver me. Rescue me. Save me.

None of us would have to reflect very long to remember a time when we prayed that prayer… maybe by a hospital bed… or in the wake of diagnosis… or divorce… or even in the throughs of a long-term series illness. Save her! Help us… Deliver me!

I remember some time ago, a young man who was in recovery from serious drug addiction, told me that right before he got sober, he had this moment when he realized that there was nothing he could do within his power to stop using. He simply fell to his knees in prayer… Help me… But he shared with me that this prayer is not something he prayed just once. It is the same prayer every day first thing when he gets out of bed. He hits his knees and pleads, “I can’t do it, without you Lord. Help me…”

What’s interesting about this Psalm is that there is a balance, a back and forth, between a heartfelt prayer for deliverance and a confident sense of trust and hope.

In verse 14:

But I will hope continually,
and will praise you yet more and more.

In fact, three times the psalm goes back and forth between a crying out and a statement of trust and praise. And it seems to be, in the balance of it all, in the holding of it all together, the crying out, the remembering, and the praise, that something arises deep within this psalmist. It’s a confidence that cannot be shaken, a hope that cannot be contained.

Verse 3: …you are my rock and my fortress.

Verse 7: …you are my strong refuge.

This is not a hope that we will necessarily escape hardship. But a hope in the God who is with us in the midst of all of it… in the joy and the sorrow, the laughter and the tears, the tragic and the breathtakingly beautiful. It is a hope in the God who holds it all and who holds us, from the moment of birth to the moment of dying, and beyond…

I pray today, that this prayer from the psalms, would be your prayer. May you too cry out when in need, and even in the midst of that need, may you too remember God’s past grace. And as you do, may there arise within you a profound hope, a measure of trust, and even a song of praise.

Let us pray: Loving God, I pray today especially for those who need you need. Deliver, Lord. Rescue. Save. We entrust our very lives to you again this day; through Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.