Hidden Treasures of Psalms 119: Verse 49 - Our Hope

Hidden Treasures of the 119th Song.

How fun! We get to get back in the elevator and go down into the mine and dig into this first verse of the Zion section, which is verse 49. And as we've talked about, if you lay Isaiah 11 up against this, this would be the wisdom of that letter, Zion. And the wisdom of this, I find fascinating, is that, you know, there's so much that we need to remember God and mindfulness of those kind of things. But that isn't where David goes first. The first thing he does is ask God to remember. And remember something very specific.

I think it's really beyond cool when you really analyze it. He says, Remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. So, you know, of course, you can't help but wonder what word that might be. And the simple answer is, it's debar, which means Jesus, the word, right? Remember thy servant. Remember Jesus.

I mean, what a wonderful continual remembrance. And I don't think you can get away from that in this verse, no matter what you do. But certainly a lot of the Jews teach, and I think it's probably accurate, that he's referring to the word that Nathan gave him, that the Messiah would come through his son.

So once again, you come back to, it's Jesus, OK? So where is his hope there? Of course, his hope is in that God the Father is going to be mindful of what he's promised. And I mean, what could give you more hope than that? And of course, you may delight in this.

I hope you sure do as well as I do. Because there's going to be a time where hope becomes really, really important to you. And like, for example, as I was thinking about this verse, you know, I am so grateful that God remembers, right, his word, which is Jesus. And because he remembers that, you know, when my mother died, all of a sudden, my faith got put to the test, right?

My mother was the first of my close family that died, and it was just a few years ago. But all of a sudden, my faith took on a different kind of meaning, like, oh, my goodness. So my mother used to tell me all the time, the older I get or my treasure is in heaven.

And what she was meaning by that is the more of her friends, the more of the people that she loved, clearly her own parents. And so, of course, the older I get, I'm experiencing the same thing that the older I get, the more of my treasure is in heaven. But what a wonderful hope it is that I will get to see Jesus, and I will get to see my mom again, and I will get to see my dad. But, you know, when you're at that crisis of loss, then all of a sudden, you know, that promise that Jesus made, you know, he's going to make all things new, right?

That's what the word is all about. The word is all about hope, and it's all about what God is going to do to redeem all of us who have sinned. So it really comes down to, okay, not only is my hope obviously for me to be in heaven, but I want my family to be in heaven, and I want future generations to be in heaven. In other words, the same place that King David came down here on this particular verse, which would be the Jubilee verse, right, is freedom, right? Freedom for the captives.

That's why Jesus came. He is the word, and as God remembered, you know, right, he came to set the captives free. Free, of course, to believe, free to have eternal life.

And so not only am I looking at all the past people that I knew that are going to be my treasure in heaven, but then all the people moving forward, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren. In other words, the same thing that King David was hoping on here. There's no doubt in my mind that the freedom that he experienced through the word, right, where did he get it, you know?

Where did he get his Jubilee? Well, it's clear. It says, upon thy word, upon which thou has caused me to hope, right? This is where he got his freedom, and this is what his hope is for future generations, that they would get their freedom. Even I, who at this point am hoping, right, to have a discussion with King David on this. So, as we talked about, that first word, zakar, it starts with a Zion, like all the verses that are going to be in the Zion section, and that Zion being like a plowshares going to plow through, like David is asking God to plow through and make what, priority, right?

He's trying to get him to remember his word. So it's the plow, and then it's a focused crown, like that kuff that, if we talked about, it's like the palm of the hand, it's going to put that thought on priority, and then the race, so it's going to be the first thing, just like God remembered Noah. And just like God asks us to remember him when we take of the cup, it all comes together in remembrance. This word is so critical to the idea of the Zion, it's so critical to the wisdom of the Zion, right? Because we know, simply, a fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Well, it's all over this verse, right? God's going to be the one, right?

It's going to take him. It doesn't start with David trying to remember, it starts with God, I mean, it starts with David asking God to remember, right? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom, and he's the one that's going to make it happen. Thank goodness, thank goodness, and upon which has caused me to hope in so many things. I hope you're hoping with me today, and I'm certainly honored that you would listen, as we are going to continue in the Zion for the next seven verses.