Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study # 31 - A Beatitude of Hope

This will be our last look at the Hebrew words "sabar" and "seber" which express the idea of "looking in hope".  In our last post we ended with some of the spiritual desires found in Psalm 145 for which the believer must look to God to provide just as we and all of creation "looks" to Him for the provision of our material needs.  There we saw the nearness of God's Presence (vs.18), the hearing of our prayers (vs.19), and the granting of His protection (vs.20) as some of the promised provisions God graciously imparts to those who call upon Him, reverence Him, and love Him as expressions of our looking to Him in hope.  Psalm 146 continues this theme of "looking in hope" for God's provision with a Beatitude of Hope:  "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God."  Here the word "hope" is the Hebrew word "seber" and the word translated as "happy" is the familiar Hebrew word "asshur" which also means "blessed".  The Psalms contain some 25 such declarations of blessedness or happiness beginning with Psalm 1:1 and ending with this one in Psalm 146.  You can easily find them with a good concordance - 18 of them begin with "blessed" in the KJV and the remaining seven with "happy" as in this verse.  Like the Beatitudes of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12) they declare the enviable state of blessedness and true happiness possessed by those who meet God's conditions of Divine blessing.  In Psalm 146:5 the believer's "seber" hope in God is expressed by his looking to God for His help. The familiar title for God, "the God of Jacob", is in itself a reminder of the weakness of man.  Jacob was by nature a schemer (his name meant "heel grabber"), a struggler, and a sojourner, yet God in His mercy dealt with him graciously, helped him in times of trouble, and guided his life's path.  A man like Jacob needs a God like Jacob's God!  Our hope must not be in man, or ourselves - our hope must be in the  LORD our God to whom we must always look for help.  With such a God to help us, we are blessed indeed! He alone is unlimited in His power, unchanging in His verity, and eternal in His dominion:  "Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever ... The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations" (Psalm 146:6,10).  So what kind of help may we find as we look in hope to the God of Jacob?  Verses 7-9 gives us a list of just some of the ways God has been known to help His people:  He performs justice on behalf of the oppressed, provides food to the hungry, sets the prisoner free, gives sight to the blind, lifts up the fallen, shows love to the righteous, protects the traveler, relieves the helpless and thwarts the plans of the wicked.  Clearly these words can be taken in their literal sense but they may also be applied to the spiritual emancipation, salvation and protection the Lord has provided for us in His atonement.  The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated his power to deliver fallen man from all of his physical maladies in His miracles, but His greater work was in delivering us from all of our sins through the power of the Gospel (see for example Matthew 11:5; Luke 4:18,19).  The greatest help we can receive from the Lord is the gift of eternal salvation and along with it His sustaining grace!  Our final two references speak to these very things. In Psalm 119:116 the Psalmist looks to God in hope for His sustaining grace:  "Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe ...".  The Psalmist prayed that he would not be disappointed as he looked in hope (seber) for God to uphold him and to enable him to be faithful in keeping God's commandments and statutes.  The shame and disappointment would come because of his own failure, not the Lord's.  But he was claiming in prayer God's own promise ("according to thy word") to help him and to uphold him in his spiritual life.  Matthew Henry wrote: "We stand no longer than God holds us and go no further than He carries us" adding that "Our holy security is grounded on divine supports".  It is reassuring to know that the God who sustains us is the very God who saves us!  In Psalm 119:166 we find the simple confession, "LORD, I have hoped (sabar) for thy salvation."  Many centuries before, the patriarch Jacob had made the same declaration: "I have waited (qawa) for thy salvation, O LORD" (Genesis 49:18).  Like Jacob before him, and like all who have followed, the Psalmist simply looked in hope to His God to provide his soul's salvation.  Do you have the God of Jacob for your help?  Are you looking to Him for His saving and sustaining grace? Have you answered His invitation in Isaiah 45:22?  "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."