FROM DESPERATION TO EXPECTATION

“My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my EXPECTATION is from Him” – Psalm 62:5

By the Power of the Holy Spirit, the Believer can transit FROM DESPERATION TO EXPECTATION and Living Hope: “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my EXPECTATION is from Him” (Psa.62:5). David was experiencing a season of desperation when he composed Psalm 62. He had many desperate experiences during his lifetime. He lived in a brutal age and endured terrible pressures. He lived much of his adult life with the threat of death looming like a shadow over him. For years he lived as a fugitive, fleeing King Saul’s paranoia. He led armies against aggressive enemy nations and guarded against espionage. And worst of all, he lived with the anguish of watching trusted friends, and even a son, turn into treacherous enemies who delighted in his tribulations and conspired against his life (Psa.55:13-14; 2Sam.15:10).

Right from his youth, David had made the Lord his trust: “Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust” (Psa.40:4a). But desperation brought him to a place where God became his only real Hope for mercy. That is usual with Man. External circumstances or internal crisis often force us into a place where other options of comfort and hope are removed or fail us. In such moments, we keenly feel our vulnerability, and usually long and plead with God for escape. But it is in these seasons that Hope and enduring Faith are forged. Despite its seeming negativity, desperation can teach us to trust God.

In the midst of those desperate experiences, David was feeling “like a leaning wall and tottering fence” (v.3). He was feeling fragile, weak, and vulnerable; like an old stone wall, bowing out and ready to crumble. This is how we often feel when we are learning to make God our only trust. Tests of our faith often feel momentarily like threats to our faith – as if we’re going to topple over and crumble. God allowed trials to compel David to make the Lord his one trust, one Rock, and one Source of Salvation. The moment he told his soul to remember God as Source of his Hope, his desperation changed to positive expectation: “For my expectation is from Him” (v.5b).

David preached to his troubled and fragile soul – and ours: “He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God” (vv.6-7). Hope in God is grounded on His promises. His Word to us is the fortress we flee to when fear threatens: “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You” (Psa.56:3). All God’s promises are places of refuge, fortresses to flee when we feel weak and vulnerable: “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2Cor.1:20). In the desperate season, when our Hope is being threatened, and we feel on the verge of collapse, we must turn from looking at the threat to look to the Source of our Hope: “In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God” (v.7).

Seasons of desperation teach us what trust means, and they train us to actually trust in God: “Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us” (Psa.62:8). Desperation is an effective instructor both in trusting God, and in the school of prayer. Few things move us to pour out our hearts to God in earnest prayer than when everything seems on the line, and we wonder if we’ll make it. Most people don’t run into a fortress unless they’re faced with real danger. But there is nothing in the world that compares with the sweet comfort our soul experiences when we really know that our greatest Hope comes from God and that He only is our mighty Rock and our Refuge, and that He can be trusted at all times. Then, desperation has transformed into Positive Expectation and Living Hope!