Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #35 - A Feeling of Hope

We have been considering the Hebrew word "batah" and its derivatives as expressing "a feeling of well-being, safety and security."  This is an aspect of "hope" that we have not encountered before in our study of the word "hope".  Whenever we begin to contemplate the idea of "feeling" or "feelings" in connection with the Christian life all kinds of red flags come to mind to caution us against trusting in our feelings or placing any confidence in them.  We all know that feelings can be misleading.  They can be faked, faulty, phony or false!  But feelings may also be valid and valuable in the believer's experience and life when they are verifiable.  Feelings should never be the basis of our security, but they can be and even should be one of the benefits of it.  We are saved by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:8).  This is the basis of the believer's security in Christ.  But we are also saved unto hope (Greek text of Romans 8:24).  This is one of the blessings of our justification in Christ.  Faith is the root; hope is the fruit.  True faith results in a true feeling of safety and security in our relationship with God.  Feeling is not a substitute for faith, but I would not want a faith without feeling, would you?  Last time we looked at this "feeling of hope" expressed by our Savior in the Messianic prophecy of Psalm 22:9.  There we saw this sense of security and safety beautifully portrayed in the description of the infant Jesus in the loving arms of His earthly mother. Thus His earthly life began with a consciousness of trust and the accompanying feeling of hope in His Heavenly Father.  This was a sense of security that was to continue in the life of our Lord unto the very end, even when He was being crucified on the cross.  But it was also to continue beyond His crucifixion even as He contemplated His own Resurrection from the dead and the fullness of joy He would possess eternally in the Presence of His Father afterward.  This is described for us in Psalm 16, another of the Messianic Psalms:  "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope (betah). For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:9-11).   That this passage speaks of Christ and His Resurrection is verified by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:22-36 and by the Apostle Paul in Acts 13:30-37.  The Pulpit Commentary contains the following comment: "More than 30 generations of believers read and sang this Psalm, pondered and prayed over it, and drew, no doubt, sweet though vague comfort from this verse, before the hidden glory of its meaning was disclosed.  At last ... the time arrived for putting the key into the lock.  The same Spirit who inspired the prophecy interpreted it."  This betah hope in Christ Jesus was a feeling of safety and security He experienced even in the face of death.  He was confident of His own triumph over death and hell to the bitter end.  Delitzsch who applies this Psalm to both David and to Christ makes the following comments:  "David here expresses as a confident expectation ... that he also hopes for his body that which he hopes for his spirit-life .... He looks death calmly and triumphantly in the face, even his flesh shall dwell or lie securely, viz. without being seized with trembling at its approaching corruption. David's hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man, who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God  his own, to fall into the hands of death (emphasis mine).  He goes on to define "resting in hope" as "dwelling in safety under the divine protection" as in Deut. 33:12,28 where the word "safety" is also the Hebrew word "batah".  Thus David prophetically spoke of his own resurrection in connection with the Resurrection of God's Holy One, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because He lives we shall live also!  It is this hope that gives to the believer in Christ a sense of well-being, security and safety even in the face of death and indeed well beyond it!  What a wonderful feeling of hope flowing from and based upon our faith in our Risen Lord!