God’s Hope for Your Heart from Psalm 17
JESUS IS YOUR HOPE BEYOND THIS LIFE
As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with Your likeness. (Psalm 17:15)
Like many of David’s writings, Psalm 17 is a plea to God for deliverance.
David’s enemies are closing in, ferocious and without pity. They are strong, but David’s God is stronger. They are fierce, but David’s God is fiercer. They have power to destroy, but David’s God has power to deliver, not just temporarily, but eternally.
Look, though, at the last verse of the Psalm, where David reveals His ultimate hope in the midst of trial… He looks to the day when he will “awake.”
For David, it’s as if he understands a deeper truth about our reality, that there is something more real than this visible life, something more solid than this physical world. Like waking up from a long, strange dream, one day David knows his life on earth will end, and he knows a very specific hope is waiting for him.
“I shall behold your face… I shall be satisfied with your likeness.”
Now, in 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul writes something profound about Jesus. He speaks of “Christ, who is the image of God,” and that “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
David’s hope beyond the grave was revealed to him like a shadow on a wall, a dim form without color or definition. For us, though, we’ve been given a clearer view.
If you want to behold the face of God, look at Jesus. If you’re looking for God’s likeness, look to Jesus.
For David and all of God’s people, it is Jesus who will be waiting for us when we awake from this life into the true life of eternity, and it is Jesus who will be our satisfaction forevermore. Jesus is our hope beyond this life.
And if you’re in Christ, then you can have hope in this truth: Jesus is your hope, too.
-Pastor Phillip
AUDIO VERSION (Click here to subscribe to the daily podcast on iTunes.)
