I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD;
And thy law is my delight (Psa 119.174).

Biblically speaking, hope is not wishful thinking but the joyful and confident expectation of blessedness yet to be fully experienced. This hope has an intimate relationship to Holy Scripture. People without Scripture have no hope in the true sense. People with Scripture but without faith are also completely devoid of hope. Hope is essentially faith with respect to the future based on God’s verbal promises in Scripture, and so only believers possess it. The same Bible which promises future blessedness also awakens a desire and craving for that blessedness. Apart from Scripture’s revelation of God’s glorious plan for his beloved ones, we would have never dreamt of such things. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit” (1 Cor 2.9-10), and the Spirit reveals them by the

This dynamic relationship between hope and Scripture appears in Psalm 119.174. Its two statements of spiritual testimony directed to God come in the midst of a cluster of strong pleas for divine deliverance. Note the eight petitions of this twenty-second eight-verse stanza (Tau, Psa 119.169-176):

1. Let my cry come near thee.
2. Give me understanding.
3. Let my supplication come before thee.
5. Let thine hand help me.
7. Let thy judgments help me.

As with the whole of Psalm 119, so in these verses Scripture is constantly in view: thy word (3x), thy statutes, thy commandments (2x), thy precepts, thy law, and thy judgments. The mention of Scripture nearly 200 times is the most distinctive and conspicuous feature of Psalm 119.

It is Holy Scripture that reveals more clearly than creation and conscience the very existence and nature of the true and living God, with his essential glory and beauty and attractiveness. Scripture announces that the original creation was very good and that paradise was lost through the sin of God’s creatures. Scripture teaches us that the true nature of our misery is rooted in our alienation from God and captivity to sin. Scripture reveals God’s eternal, stupendous plan to save sinners and redeem the cosmos for his glory. Scripture declares that this redeeming work has already begun and is moving inexorably toward its consummation.

All of this biblical revelation is foundational to faith, desire, petitions, and hope. Now let us observe the interplay between hope and Scripture in Psalm 119.174.

A YEARNING HOPE

“I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD.” “Longed for” connotes particularly strong desire. The Hebrew word is used elsewhere only in Psalm 119.140, “I have longed after thy precepts.” The verb means to “have an emotional attachment to something and so to have a wanting or desiring of an object.”¹ The intensity of his desire may be compared to parents hoping their suddenly-missing child will be found and a couple yearning for their wedding day. One paraphrase uses the term “homesick.”

The psalmist testifies not only of present yearning, but a course of constant yearning for some time. “I have longed.” It is in a grammatical form that indicates an ongoing condition. He has longed, and that longing continues to the present moment. This had been his experience for a long time. Clearly something was continuously fueling his passion.

The object of the psalmist’s desire is “thy salvation, O Lord.” Salvation is a word of vast proportions. The Hebrew word so translated means deliverance first from external evils, but often has an added spiritual idea, as it surely does in this context.² David has not just his own individual salvation in view, but that of the whole people of God, as this verse was to be sung by the whole covenant community unto the Lord in worship. In its largest possible sense, salvation includes the complete conquest of all sin, evil, trouble, misery, sadness, sickness, and death and the consummation of perfect peace, holiness, prosperity, wholeness, and joy in the objects of God’s favor. This is such a blessed state of things that only the LORD, Yahweh, the self-existent, Almighty, covenant-keeping God, could effect it. The full realization of salvation amounts to the Paradise restored which over many centuries mankind has proven unable to

No wonder the psalmist was yearning for God’s salvation! Nothing could possibly be more desirable than this.

A DELIGHTING TEXT

This is exactly the end that God has promised in his Word to his chosen people. And that is no small part of the reason that the psalmist could say to the LORD, “thy law is my delight.” This is a poetic way to say that nothing thrilled his soul more than the words of God, and that is to say, the text which is Holy Scripture. This holy man found the biblical text

Surely one glorious strain of truth in Scripture which excited such feelings was the foretelling of a blessed future. Hints of this great “salvation” (mentioned in the first line) had already been revealed from heaven in God’s Word by the time Psalm 119 was being written. The Lord had told Abraham, “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen 12.3). Later, God promised Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish nation, “I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries” (Exod 23.20). Elaborating on the greatness of this blessing, he said, “the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: and he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people” (Deut 7.12-14).

Centuries later, God disclosed more of this blessed future through other Old Testament prophets. The text is too long to reproduce here, but note well the glorious end announced in Isaiah 9.1 7, and accomplished by the OT Messiah figure—one who would enlighten Galilee, occasion great joy, and cast down oppressors by waging a successful warfare. He would be a child born and a Son given to his people, and exercise a reign of wisdom, power, and righteousness that shall have no end. He would be a descendant of the great King David, and accomplish his saving mission by the zeal of Yahweh. Christians know this Savior to be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

As heirs of the whole biblical revelation, we are privileged with its complete disclosure about the future. Every Christian heart is moved to joy and desire by the coming full salvation announced in Revelation 21.1 ff.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

No more death. No more sorrow. No more crying. No more pain. A state of perfect, personal, and permanent bliss for all God’s chosen people. And all this will be accomplished by this great One upon the throne, the Alpha and Omega, even our Lord

The dynamic between hope and Scripture is straightforward. As we believe and delight in Scripture, we will yearn more ardently for the blessedness it promises. And as our hope of great salvation rises, we will find the assurances of Holy Scripture that it is indeed coming by the power and through the faithfulness of God to be an occasion of greater delight. Even so come, Lord Jesus.

Notes:

1 DBL #9289.
2 Enhanced BDB H-E Lexicon, in loc.

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