Psalm 130

Depending upon your translation, this Psalm might read to “wait” for the Lord or “hope” in the Lord.  The reason for multiple words used here is that the original Hebrew doesn’t directly translate into a word that we have in the English language!  While the word and their English attempts at conveying the same meaning are all verbs, the words hope and wait tend to connotate in our understanding of those words a sentiment of passive action.  When we say, “I hope…” or “I will wait…” there doesn’t seem to be any action associated with it.  Hoping in something has become like a wish; we have little control over it, and hopefully it happens.  When we talk about waiting, it too is passive.  Like waiting for someone to come pick us up.  We have no control over their arrival time, so we sit and wait.  Maybe we pace back and forth while waiting, but the action itself doesn’t get us any closer to our wish or expectation that our ride arrives.  This “hope” or “waiting” in the scriptures, however, is much different.  The best way to define what this means is by reading what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:

12 Therefore my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For the one at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure, is God. 14 Do all things without grumbling and disputing, 15 in order that you may become blameless and innocent, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as stars in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, for a source of pride to me in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

I have struggled off an on with this passage myself, given the possible implication that “working out our salvation” could be an oxymoron!  If we can’t work for our salvation, then how in the world do we work out our salvation?  By hoping in the Lord!  Ok, ok, I’m creating a cycle of insanity with this on purpose, just to highlight the complexity of this concept.  Let me explain.

What I have come to understand in this linguistic conundrum is that waiting on the Lord, hoping in God, and working out our salvation is that the directive is to live out our faith.  In other words, live as if. Live as if it has already been done.  Lean into God’s promises even though we haven’t yet seen the end result.  We actually do this without even knowing it!  We just don’t think of it this way.  If you have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then we hope and wait for His return.  In contrast, we see what the disciples did after they buried Jesus post-crucifixion.  They hid in fear and trembling, not knowing what to do next.  Peter and some of the guys went back to fishing.  Their actions were unrelated to God’s salvation.  They returned to their old lives, as if they had nothing else better to do.  The disciples hoped they too wouldn’t be crucified.  The fear and trembling were there, but their hope was in something else.  This is what caused them to hide in seclusion.  Yet, when we hope in the Lord and our faith is in Him that we are saved, we don’t cower, but boldly proclaim His salvation.  This is what the disciples did once Jesus revealed Himself to them after resurrection Sunday.

So then, rereading Psalm 130, we can better understand what the psalmist is talking about.  Verse 4 is the linchpin to the point. Because He is the only one who can forgive sins, then He is worthy of all fear and reverence.  When we fail, when we are persecuted and sinned against, our hope is not in our present circumstances, but the Lord Almighty.  We can always hope in Him for forgiveness and redemption.  He alone saves and preserves our souls.  Therefore, we are able to orient our hearts and trust our souls in His hands, for with the Lord there is lovingkindness.

When this psalm was written, the Resurrected King was not visible yet.  However, now that He is, we have an even greater hope in the waiting.  Just like the disciples: when they were with Jesus they had a certain level of hope, waiting expectantly for Him to overthrow the Roman reign.  But as we learn through reading the gospels, they were hoping in the wrong thing, a physical king to sit on a manmade throne.  He flipped the script on the expectation by overthrowing the powers and principalities in the heavenly realm.  Once they learned what He really did, their hope was renewed and emboldened!  Imagine then when He ascended and told them to wait for power on high before they start sharing the good news.  They had no idea what was about to hit them!  AND THEN, they were not only emboldened, then empowered.  They began to work out their salvation with their new hope and the power of the Holy Spirit.

This, my friends, is what we are encouraged to do.  Not idly sit by wishing Jesus to return, but to walk in this boldness and power, because Jesus is our hope and we know He is coming back.  This will be something we also cannot ever imagine the fullness of, yet we walk through life with this hope, actively waiting for the return of our King to once and for all receive His Kingdom which He has commissioned us to reclaim on earth as it is in heaven.