Where is Your Hope?

If you have your Bible with you this morning, I encourage you to open it to the Psalms.

To Psalm 33.

Psalm 33, as we look to God's word together.

I generally try to stay away from sermons that fit a particular holiday.

For some reason I just don't like them, maybe because they're harder.

But there is an appropriate passage of scripture for us this morning as we think about this holiday that we're going to be celebrating here in a couple of days.

This time when we often have our minds directed towards patriotism, nationalism, who we are as a country.

I would like you to not think about that for a few moments, but instead to think of who you are in Christ.

Now, as believers in Christ, we accept a few things to be true, more than a few things, but here are a couple that we accept as true.

In Psalm 24, verse 1, it says, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all those who dwell therein.

Psalms 24:1

As believers in Christ, we accept this to be true.

The earth is Yahweh's, it is the Lord's, it is his, it belongs to him.

Somewhere up here, we know that to be true.

We also know and accept to be true, Psalm 29, 10, that says the Lord sits enthroned, Yahweh sits enthroned as king forever.

Somewhere in our being we recognize that, at least I hope we do.

We know that, according to Psalm 2, Christ is God's perfect king.

He is the promised Messiah, the Son who rules as King of kings and Lord of Lords.

Let me ask you a question.

If we know those things to be true and we accept them to be true, what is it that our lives actually show to be true?

What is it that our lives actually demonstrate?

I would suggest to you that what our lives often show is that government must save us.

That our nation must save us, that military might is our country's greatest asset, that it is our greatest strength.

What our lives often demonstrate is that the president or the person who is president determines the rise or the fall of our nation.

What our lives often demonstrate is that our hope is based on the USA.

Or maybe our own personal ability to defend ourselves.

This may not be you, and if not, praise God.

But there are Christians who are worried and anxious and stressed over who occupies the White House.

There are Christians who are worried over what will happen if we as believers in Christ lose certain rights and privileges that have been ours from the beginning of this country.

There are Christians who are anxious over what will happen as biblical ethics continue to disappear from our country's fabric.

There are those who are concerned about the gradual loss of national sovereignty in exchange for international cooperation.

Now, please understand me, it's not that Christians shouldn't be informed or hold opinions about issues such as this.

It's not that those things are unimportant.

Hear me carefully.

It's that they should not be dominant worries for the one who hopes in God.

So the question before us during this time of the year when we honor America's independence is this Where is your hope?

Where is your hope?

What guides us as Christians?

I think we will be greatly helped and even challenged, perhaps, by spending a few moments in Psalm 33.

So if you have your Bible open there, I will read it if you would follow along with me.

And just so you know my pattern and aren't distracted by it, when when your Bible has Lord in all capital letters, that refers to God's personal name, Yahweh.

And so I like to call God by his name, since he gave it to us, right?

He told Moses, when you go there, tell the people, Yah sent you.

So that's that's that's just me.

You don't have to do that, but that's me.

Psalm 33, one.

Shout for joy in Yahweh, O you righteous.

Praise befits the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.

Sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.

Why?

For the word of Yahweh is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice, the earth is full of the steadfast love of Yahweh.

By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap.

He puts the deeps in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear Yahweh, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spoke, and it came to be.

Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of Yahweh stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

Yahweh looks down from heaven, he sees all the children of man.

From where he sits enthroned, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.

The king is not saved by his great army.

A warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for Yahweh.

He is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O Yahweh, be upon us even as we hope in you.

Thus says the Lord.

We often read the Psalms singly.

That is, we read Psalm 33 and we stop.

We don't read any more than that.

That's often our pattern when we read the Psalms.

Or if we read more than that, we just keep on going and we forget what we've just read, right?

Anybody?

I know you do.

Come on.

I know that because I do that too.

But we must remember that these songs, these ancient songs, were often sung in groups.

Not just one, but several of them.

And when they were assembled into the current grouping, they were placed in this order for a reason.

So the context of the songs next to this one may be significant.

Let me show you what I mean.

Back a couple of chapters in Psalm 30, verse 9, David says, What prophet is there in my death if I go down to the pit?

Psalms 30:9

That is, if I die and am buried.

Will the dust praise God?

Will it tell of your faithfulness?

And the implication, the answer there is, no, it won't.

Then in Psalm 31, verses 3 and 4, David says, You are my rock and my fortress, and for your name's sake you lead me and you guide me.

Psalms 31:3

And then he says this very interesting statement.

You have taken me out of the net, they have hidden from me.

For you are my refuge.

So first, there's something that should have caused David's death.

And then secondly, in Psalm 31, he's in need of a protector because of his enemies.

A little bit later in Psalm 31, 15, David says to God, rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors.

So you get the sense then that the psalmist, the king of Israel, is feeling quite stressed and quite anxious because there are enemies on every hand.

There is uncertainty for his life.

In fact, Psalm 31, 21 says, Blessed be Yahweh, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city.

You understand that word besieged, right?

That means in ancient Israel you would have been most likely in a community that was surrounded by a stone wall.

Not only were you surrounded by that stone wall, but you are surrounded beyond that stone wall by the enemy and camped all the way around the city.

Seeking to cut off your water, seeking to cut off your food, seeking to cut off any help that might come.

Then, if we jump forward to Psalm 32, verse 7, David says, You are a hiding place for me.

Psalms 32:7

That makes sense based on what we've just seen, doesn't it?

David was in need of a hiding place.

Now here's what we begin to see.

Psalm 33, what we've just read, is David's answer or God's answer to David's dilemma.

Psalm 33 begins to answer all of these struggles, this pain, this anxiety, this worry, this stress about his enemies, about what's going to happen to his very life.

His world was in turmoil.

You might say, if we put it into modern words, you might say that he was surrounded by ISIS.

He was the target of North Korea's missiles and being flown over by Russian jets all at the same time.

And he's wondering, what do I do?

Where do I go?

Where do I turn?

Where is his hope?

Beloved, by God's grace, this country has long been a place of support and encouragement for our faith.

But that's changing.

That's changing.

When it becomes difficult to be a Christian, when we are in David's place, where will you turn?

Where will your hope rest?

The song, Psalm 33, is divided into two primary parts.

The first 19 verses are the command of a choir or a soloist.

In this case, we don't have those tiny little words and inscription at the top of the psalm telling us whether it was for a choir or not, but it would have been sung.

So it's the command of those singing to those who are hearing.

Note the commands at the beginning, verse one, shout for joy.

Verse 2, give thanks, make melody.

Verse 3, sing to him.

Whoever's singing this song is singing commands to those who are in the congregation.

Then the last three verses, if we jump to the very end, are the congregation's response to what they've heard.

So the first 19 verses are a song to the congregation, the last three are the congregation's response.

Let's begin with the first section, what the choir would have sung.

And here we see four reasons to place your hope in God rather than in yourself, in your country, or any other means of strength.

The first reason we find to hope in God is in verses four and five.

And that is we should hope in God because of his character.

Because of who he is.

For the word of the Lord is upright.

When we think of God, of Yahweh, his word is upright.

And all his work is done in faithfulness.

And this Psalm begins, as many do, with a call to praise.

So verse 1 identifies the hearers, those who are righteous.

He says, O you righteous.

And then it gives a comment that praise befits the upright.

Upright is just another term for the righteous, referring to them in a different way.

And befits refers to something that is beautifully appropriate.

So, for example, a white dress with lace and a long train is appropriately beautiful for a bride, right?

If you are God's child, praise is appropriately beautiful for you.

That's how the Psalm starts.

Verse 2 tells us the instruments that are used.

One is smaller with two to four strings, and another is larger with about ten strings.

And verse three emphasizes the volume and the freshness.

By the way, thank you for singing this morning.

I love to listen to God's people sing.

We are never commanded to do it softly.

Sorry, Webb.

When we are commanded and given reference to volume, it's always loudly.

That's what we have here.

Now in verse 4, we see we're to praise him because it's beautifully appropriate to us.

Why are we to praise him?

He tells us in verse 4, because the word of Yahweh is upright.

He will always do what he says.

As you will very quickly learn, because I can't remember your names.

I have a poor memory.

Sometimes I don't do what I tell Allison that I will do.

Not on purpose.

Just because I don't remember.

You can't blame me, right?

All the husbands out there are saying, go, go, go.

Yahweh always does what he says.

Always.

He is always true to his promises.

Jesus said in Matthew 15, 11, speaking of what a person really is, he says, what comes out of a mouth, so he is.

That is, what's inside of you is what really determines what a person is.

What comes out of God is always righteous, is always upright.

Because God's words are always straight.

That's what it means literally.

God's word is straight.

That's as opposed to crooked.

Straight, crooked.

God's words, God's speech is never crooked.

In Proverbs, Solomon talks about this quite often.

Proverbs 3, 32, he talks about the devious versus the upright.

In Proverbs 11, he talks about the integrity of the upright versus the crookedness of the treacherous.

Or if you want a local example, I have learned very quickly that 24th Avenue South, just outside the church here, is crooked.

You don't have to go very far to the west to learn.

It curves around and goes around one of those awful curves.

I'm not going to name it by name because it doesn't deserve that roundabout.

It's crooked.

32nd Avenue is straight, right?

God's words are always straight.

Never are they crooked.

Now notice this in verse 1 praise befits the straight.

The same characteristic that God has ought to be exhibited in his people.

God's character is straight.

Therefore, his people ought to be straight.

Not only that, in the last half of verse 4, we see that his work is done in faithfulness, or in truth, your translation may say.

Everything God does is true, it is right, it is faithful to his word.

He gives no reason not to trust him, unlike human beings.

Now there's some emphasis here on the word all, all his work.

There is nothing, nothing at all that he does that is faithless.

There is nothing that he does that is untrue.

There is nothing that he does that is crooked.

Why is that?

Because in verse 5, another aspect of his character is that he loves righteousness and justice.

Some have said that righteousness or rightness, if you prefer, is the essential principle of justice.

So you cannot have justice without having rightness.

And justice or judgment is the carrying out of righteousness.

God loves these characteristics.

Why does he love them?

Because Psalm 11:7 says, the Lord is righteous.

Psalms 11:7

That is his character.

He is always righteous.

Because of his righteousness in the last half of verse 5, the earth is full of his steadfast love.

This is the Hebrew word chesed, which is a really hard word to translate.

So if you look in different translations, it'll be translated quite differently.

Steadfast love, loyal love, loving kindness.

It's a word that carries the idea of a steadfast love that is unmoving, but is also at the same time incredibly loyal.

God shows this loyal, steadfast love to all the earth.

Now we see often in the scriptures that he shows that love to his people, which is fantastic for us, right?

But here it says the whole earth is full of his steadfast love.

He has caused the earth to abound with his steadfast love.

Doesn't this planet feel bad sometimes?

Evil?

Horrible?

If you listen to Stephen Hawking, it's hopeless.

As bad as this planet feels, as evil as it is, God's steadfast love still fills the earth.

Imagine what it would be like if God removed his steadfast love.

Now, how does God's character move us to hope in him?

Because remember, this is about putting our hope in him.

So how does knowing God's character move us to hope in him?

Let me suggest to you some ways.

You cannot always trust in the words of other human beings.

We're full of sin, folks.

It's gonna happen whether on purpose or by accident, that we will not be truthful.

Major issue in politics is the ability, or maybe we should say the inability, to trust in the truthfulness of what politicians say.

You can always trust God in His Word.

Politicians and government do is not always right or not always faithful to our founding documents.

They're not always faithful to their constituents.

But everything that God does is straight.

It is always right.

It is always faithful.

It never deviates from being true.

Political leaders and governments do not always love what is right and just.

Often what they display, at least, is they love what benefits them most.

I don't know everybody, so if there are politicians in our midst, please forgive me.

I'm not speaking directly about you.

Don't know you enough yet.

That's just a generalization.

Therefore, we should not be surprised when wrong prevails and justice fails.

But, beloved, you can rest in your God because he loves those qualities.

And he will always be right and always be just in his dealings.

We should hope in God because of his character.

We should also hope in God in verses 6 through 9 because of his creative power.

By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

The word that is straight made the universe.

The word spoke the universe into existence.

He spoke and it was.

His power is creative.

He brought into existence all that is from nothing.

He spoke the galaxies into existence.

He spoke stars and planets and black holes into existence.

He spoke oxygen and hydrogen into existence.

His power is incomparable.

He made the greatest stars in the universe, burning, exploding balls of energy.

Mankind can make atomic and nuclear bombs, but we cannot make stars.

Supposedly the Russians are sending a satellite into space.

Just read about this the other day.

Supposedly, this satellite will be the brightest man-made element in the heavens.

Almost as bright as the moon.

But even that cannot compare to what God makes.

Notice that he says he controls the oceans.

He controls its depths and its waves.

I can't help but think that what was in God's mind was something that would happen more than a thousand years later when the Lord Jesus was in a boat on the Sea of Galilee with his disciples.

You remember the story, right?

They thought they were going to capsize in the middle of the night.

Jesus is taking a siesta in the boat.

He stands up and he says, What?

Peace be still.

And just like that.

It was a flat lake.

He controls that.

Think of what the psalmist is saying here.

What is mankind capable of doing?

How powerful is mankind?

Imagine that the greatest capabilities that exist in the human race.

Imagine the power that we are able to generate.

Every generation invents something new.

Our abilities are ever expanding.

Our knowledge is increasing.

The most awe-inspiring invention and the greatest power from the hands and ability of mankind cannot compare to God's creative power.

It's like holding a little candle up to the monster of the sun.

Beloved, your God is more powerful than any politician, than any government, than any world leader, than the United Nations, than ISIS, then Putin, than North Korea, and anyone in anything.

He is more powerful than anything any scientist can ever dream up.

Rest your hope in that power.

Not only that, Christians should hope in God because of his commanding rule.

Verses 10 through 12 here hinge on the word counsel.

We see it in verse 10.

Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

Verse 11, the counsel of Yahweh stands forever.

So we have a contrast here between God's counsel and man's counsel.

First, he talks about human governments.

He says he brings them to nothing.

He brings them to nothing.

I'm reminded of King Belshazzar and Daniel.

Remember the writing on the wall?

Meeny, meeny, tikle, eupharson.

On this night your kingdom will be taken from you.

Brings them to nothing.

That word there means to break something such that the person or the object being broken is destroyed, is made useless, it's made ineffective.

I will not tell you how many times I've broken windows.

Or why.

Have you ever broken a window?

Or a mirror?

It's shattered, isn't it?

It's brought to nothing.

That's God's commanding rule over nations.

He frustrates them, it tells us.

He frustrates the plans.

This means to hinder something, to keep something from coming about.

That's why we read in Job 5.12, he frustrates the devices of the crafty so that their hands achieve no success.

The greatest power that human governments can wield pales before Yahweh.

The greatest plans that human government can ever devise must meet the approval of Yahweh, or it does not happen.

Nothing happens without his governing control.

Now look at his counsel in verse 11.

On the one hand, council of the nations are crumbled.

He frustrates them.

But his counsel does what?

It stands forever.

Literally to eternity.

It will keep going and going and going longer than the energizer bunny.

Who's in charge here?

Who is in charge of the governments of the nations of Earth?

Who is in charge of the plans and the decisions of the politicians of our cities, our counties, our states, and our nation?

And by the way, whatever answer you give to that, it applies to every single nation that exists presently or will ever exist.

God does, right?

His power, his rule is what really counts.

This is important to grasp because it must be the heart of every Christian.

We may not see his purpose or his plan this side of eternity.

We may not understand it.

We may not understand his reasoning.

We may not understand how he's going to move us from point A to point B.

But we can rest and hope in his commanding rule over all human governments.

That must be in your heart.

That's important to grasp regardless of your political leanings or political associations.

Do you remember Acts 5?

When two of the apostles were before the Jewish Sanhedrin for preaching the gospel.

And they were trying to decide what to do with these two men who were turning the city to Jesus.

And an old man, Paul's teacher, ironically, said these words.

You might even be found opposing God.

Beloved God rules.

That's why ancient Israel was told in 2 Chronicles 13, 12, do not fight against Yahweh, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.

You will not succeed.

No.

Verse 12 points out the blessing that comes with relationship to God.

Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

This is a verse that is often connected to the United States.

I've heard it preached that this was spoken of the United States, that it refers to the United States of America.

So if only we would return to our godly heritage, God will bless us.

Let me challenge that.

Notice the clear meaning of that verse.

The nation that is blessed is the nation of people whom God has specifically chosen as his heritage.

The second half of the verse explains or defines the first half.

The nation that is blessed is the nation God has chosen as his heritage.

That cannot be said of the United States of America at any point in her history.

We are not the nation God has chosen as his heritage.

There is only one nation in all of earth history that has been chosen by God as his heritage, and that is the nation Israel.

Therefore, we cannot rip this verse out of its context and say it is speaking about our nation.

So let's return that verse to its immediate context.

When Israel is obediently following Yahweh, he will confirm her counsel and plans as though they were his own.

The opposite is true as well.

If they disobey him, their plans will be frustrated and destroyed.

Now let's apply that.

It means Israel.

It can never be said specifically of another nation.

It can, however, be applied to the church.

How do we know that?

We know that because of what Peter says.

Peter says of the church, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

This verse does not mean the church, but it can be applied to the church.

Therefore, as we obey his word, we are blessed in that our plans and counsel are not frustrated or crumbled, but he guides us and he directs us so that our plans and counsel are brought into alignment with his own.

When we are in that place, that means that we can hope and rest in God's caring gaze.

Verses 13 through 19 begin to show us things from God's perspective.

Yahweh looks down from heaven and he sees all the children of man.

Look at all the references there in those verses, verses 13 through 19, of words referring to sight.

Verse 13 looks and sees.

Verse 14, again, the word looks.

Verse 15, observes.

Verse 18, God's eye.

God's gaze is all encompassing.

He does not miss a thing.

Verse 14 tells us his gaze is sovereign.

His gaze is knowing in verse 15.

He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds, he knows them.

Verses 18 and 19, we see that his gaze is caring.

The eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him, and those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.

Notice the purpose in verse 19 of God's caring gaze.

To deliver and to keep.

We see that military strength cannot save.

In verse 17, we see that tanks and planes cannot save.

Bombs and missiles cannot save.

Missile defense cannot save.

Politicians and government cannot save.

Only the Lord your God can save.

It is reported that after a particular Revolutionary War battle, George Washington had four bullet holes in his jacket and bullet fragments in his hair.

I don't know about you, but that would freak me out.

He had two horses shot out from underneath him in the same battle.

Native Americans later testified that they had specifically targeted him, but that he was protected by some kind of invisible power.

George Washington later is quoted as having said, By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation.

George Washington got it.

Even though he was leading the revolutionary army, he knew that the army could not save.

Notice what it says.

Verse 18.

Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him.

For those who hope in his pessid, in his steadfast, loyal love.

God's saving, caring power is not for those who hope in legislation or the decisions of politicians or the election of a president or the laws of Congress or the appointment of a Supreme Court justice.

God's caring gaze is not for those who rest in their country or in its people or in its military.

God's caring gaze is for those who trust him.

Now it doesn't promise deliverance.

What it does is it points to the only one who is capable of deliverance.

It's a long song, isn't it?

Especially when I'm preaching it.

The choir has spoken.

How are we to respond?

Well, there are three responses.

Let me share them with you briefly.

Verse 20, our soul waits for Yahweh.

He is our help and our shield.

The Christian should wait patiently.

There are times when I'm not very patient with God.

You want him to act and act now, right?

You probably heard that statement, God give me patience and give it to me now.

What should we wait for?

For God Himself.

Why should we wait for him?

Because he is our help, no matter the situation.

His creative power is on your side for your good, and he saves you.

He is your shield.

Nothing can hurt you without his approval.

Just ask Job.

The New Testament we see the words, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

And he ultimately protects us from sin and death, doesn't he?

So we need to wait patiently for him.

He may not act in the time that we want, but wait for him.

Because he is always just, he is always righteous, he is always faithful.

Not just that, we should trust in God.

Now that sounds like a very bland and basic statement, but there's more to it than that.

In verse 21, we read, For our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name.

Trust in his name.

What does that mean?

Well, when the Bible talks about God's name, it refers to everything that he is.

His character, his power, his actions.

Everything about God is included in his name.

And when we trust in who he is, that trust will bring rest and gladness to a troubled spirit.

Worries and stresses take their proper place underneath God's greatness.

Worry, stress, and anxiety all have their basis in a deficient view of God's greatness and his care for us.

We're sinful people, so we can't always constantly fully understand and comprehend God's power and greatness.

Therefore, we get worried, we get anxious, we get overwhelmed.

But the righteous one, the upright one, the straight one who trusts in Yahweh need never be shaken by the counsel of peoples or nations, or be disturbed by war, or being in need of rescue, or facing death, or being in desperate need.

Because trusting carries the believer through the concerns, the frustrations, and the uncertainties of life.

Finally, verse 22.

Christians should hope in God's steadfast love.

Let your steadfast love, O Yahweh, be upon us even as we hope in you.

Those who look beyond the present to hope in God's power, in his kingship, and in his salvation experience his steadfast love like no one else.

And this means that we are to trust and anticipate God's providential actions in our world.

Hope looks at God's character and knows that he will do what is right and he will keep his promises.

Hope looks at God's creative power and knows that he is capable of doing whatever is needed to bring rescue to me.

I don't know whether or not the Russians colluded to change our election, but I can tell you who did collude to change our election.

He sits on the throne of heaven.

Hope looks at God's commanding rule and rests in his sovereignty over the affairs of men, governments, nations, and instead of anxiously fretting over what might occur, we can say, look at who my God is.

Let me rest there.

The one who hopes in God is steady, is confident in God's rule, even though, from our viewpoint, tomorrow is uncertain.

The one who hopes in God does not rely on national history, political movements, or even national freedoms, which all reside in shifting sands.

Instead, the one who hopes in God rests in his promises.

Ultimately, his promise to restore his sin-cursed world to himself through his perfect King, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom his people trust.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we come to you bowing as your people, acknowledging that too often we fail to trust.

We get concerned, we become distracted.

The cares and the anxieties of this world just overwhelm us.

But we are so incredibly grateful that you never let go of us.

We rest in you.

We trust in you, knowing that in Christ we have all that we need.

Because he is our good shepherd, the one who cares for his sheep.

Amen.