ARCHED HOPE

“It’s just splendid!” I told my husband as I craned my neck to see the rainbow that appeared as we were driving home. “Brilliant colors, and a second one is trying to emerge!”

He was a bit disappointed because, as the driver, he couldn’t turn around and see what I was seeing. Finally, he was able to turn off to a side street and pull over long enough for me to snap a photo of the quickly disappearing rainbow.  He accommodates my crazy “photo op” moments.

I wonder how Noah felt as he emerged from the ark--dirty, tired, wondering just how they’d start over in a world that was probably little more than a landscape of mud.  Imagining this, artists have some vegetation growing through the muck of a worldwide flood—enough, of course, that the “scout” dove came back when some greenery in his beak. As the once-swollen black clouds, relieved of their water burden, dissipated, Noah caught sight of the first rainbow. The God-sign of regeneration, it must have been stunning in its brilliant blending of the spectrum’s colors.  I cannot imagine it. Here was hope in an arched palette, and every time it re-appeared, a reminder of the Creator who went way beyond a black and white world.

One passage that always reminds me to hang in there with life’s difficulties is Romans 15:4:

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

Noah didn’t have the scriptures, just stories passed down through generations that Moses would later put into written form.  But still, he believed...and obeyed. 

Sometimes I yearn for Noah’s grit in starting over in regard to seemingly impossible things I pray about. Some people I care about (and pray for) are stuck in the false belief that their miserable lives will continue to be miserable. If only they’d get out of the dark, manure-thick pens of the old life in the ark, and have courage to step on the gangplank to a new life with Jesus! If only they’d look up—and see the rainbow!  

An old poem I quoted recently says, “God has not promised skies always blue.” But every so often He hangs a sky-wide reminder that out of the storms, something splendid can emerge. So, yes, I get excited about a rainbow.  It's fleeting, just a few minutes while the sun and drizzle are just right to refract the sun’s rays. But it’s reminder enough to hold onto hope.

Power check

 
My son is an electrical engineer for our local hydroelectric power company. As a techno-ignoramus myself, I have no idea where he got the genes for that. When the power goes out somewhere, he’s one of the go-to guys for figuring out how to sleuth out bad parts and reroute things so that somebody can cook dinner, a factory keep running, and the traffic lights keep sanity on our streets.

 “Power” is a password for our times: Power Point, Power Suit, Power Presentations. But “spiritual power”? We’re told of it in Jesus’ last words before ascending into heaven:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

And it happened, just as He said. After ten days of intense prayer and waiting, the Holy Spirit empowered them in a dramatic way, sending them out to the streets to preach about Jesus (Acts 2). From then on, the New Testament is dotted with accounts and admonitions using words for “power” (dunamis, related to our English word for dynamite; and exousia, related to the idea of authority). The church age came in with divine strength and authority to preach Christ.

But we don’t always live as people of power. I appreciate the insight offered by Ruth Myers in her little book, The Satisfied Heart (Waterbrook, 1999). Her faith led her to a Christian college, where she met and married a great Christian man. They went to the mission field, had two great kids.  Then came a "power crisis." Her husband died of cancer, leaving her with two small children (almost 5 and 6). She saturated herself in Scriptures as she trusted God for the next step, and the next, and the next. In a chapter titled “His Love Liberates Me,” Ruth talked about even born-again Christians becoming aware of bondage to their backgrounds, resentments toward others, unbiblical goals, bad attitudes, wrong desires, emotions and certain ways of thinking. She noted:

But the more we know God and experience His love, the more free we become.  The longer we go to His Word and let His Holy Spirit teach us, the more liberation we experience.  More and more our personality is freed up to become as loving and beautiful as God designed it to be. (p. 166)

In other words, the power flows as it should, in abundance, and with power comes hope. “Hope” isn’t some out-there thing, but a tried-and-true provision of God. Ruth models that in writings that are soaked with scripture, revealing her lifelong, disciplined study of God’s Word. As Paul pointed out in his letter to the Romans: For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (15:4)

Paul really seemed to push “hope,” as later in that chapter he adds:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (15:13)

 So there it is: “hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” We can’t measure it like my son and his co-workers do the “zaps” that flow through our electrical lines. (Yes, I know that’s a primitive explanation, but I’m not a scientist.)  But our spiritual lives go dead without it.

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 119:57-112: Ruts and Bumps

Another picture of "tracks" or trodden ruts,
taken at an Idaho tree preserve

“See those lines in our lane?” my friend said, pointing to parallel ruts in the asphalt of a rural country road. “Those were worn down by the wheels of Amish buggies.” In this section of Psalm 119 comes a similar picture of “ruts” and “road” from the meanings of the original Hebrew.
I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes (v. 59)
The word “ways” comes from Hebrew for a “trodden road.”  A related Hebrew word is used earlier in the psalm, in this famous line:
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word (v. 8)
“Way” means track or rut, like made by a cart or chariot’s wheels. When we choose God’s “tracks,” we’re headed the right way, even when “the way” seems like a detour. Hebrews 12:10 explains it better: “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”

Afflictions—ruts and bumps—seem to run through the second third of Psalm 119. Some highlight verses:

8. Heth (57-64): You are my portion, O LORD. I have promised to obey your words (v. 57). This verse seems to echo Psalm 16:5: “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.” Both share “portion” (heleq), which refers to lands inherited after the Israelite tribes conquered Canaan. All the tribes except the Levites got expanses of land, but because the Levites were priests to be scattered throughout all tribal areas for spiritual service, they had a special heleq: “The LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance” (Joshua 13:33). Their special gifts from God would be better than pastures and croplands. Perhaps the use of “portion” here is a reminder that God’s gifts aren’t always what the world sees as “success,” like wealth or influence. Rather, having Him is the greatest gift of all.

9. Teth (65-72): Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word…It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. (vv. 67, 71).

For more than a decade, as a victim of a drinking driver, I have addressed convicted drunk drivers in a court-ordered “educational session,” urging them to choose life (theirs and others) over alcohol- or drug-impairment on the highways. Afterwards, a few sometimes tell me they’re convicted and ready to make changes. On a bigger scale of life, when troubles resulting from our poor choices come our way, we can kick at them, or be grateful God disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:5-13).

10. Yodh (73-80): May they who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word (v. 74). If you’re part of the human race, there are probably people in your life who drag you down. You weary of spending spend time with them because they’re not interested in God’s solutions for their issues or problems. Yet seeing them through Christ’s eyes means coming alongside and nudging them closer to God. “Carry each other’s burdens,” Paul wrote the Galatians (6:2), “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  How much better the opposite, when others can rejoice in spiritual progress.

11. Kaph (81-88): They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts (v. 87). The psalmist is “down, but not out.” Jesus reminded us of that truth in some of His last teaching words to His disciples: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

12. Lamedh (89-96): If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction (v. 92). Sometimes, in talking with believing friends about difficult situations, we agree on this tried-but-true conclusion: “What would we do without the Lord?” Paul reminded us of the same principle: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

13. Mem (97-104): Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long (v. 97). Posting scripture around the house is one way to do this. Memorization is another. But more important that being able to repeat words is this: “Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). The second half of that verse describes a song service! Indeed, what encouragement singing scriptural truths can bring!

14. Nun (105-112): Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (v. 105). When I was new in the faith, someone explained verse 105 to me this way: “God gives us just enough light for where we are now. We couldn’t bear to see the whole way.” Peter encouraged believers to pay attention to what had already been revealed in scripture, “as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (1 Peter 1:19).

God offers just enough light to navigate the bumps and ruts, and His hand to hold us steady!

Next: stanzas 15-22