Psalm 119:166 – Hope

I put my hope in your salvation, LORD,
and I put your commands into action.

I’m thinking of this today from a distinctively Christian perspective, and less about historical meaning. I’m looking back at the text through another lens.

In one of my favorite texts, Paul puts these two concepts together:

… With fear and trembling work out your own salvation, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure.

Philippians 2:12-13, my translation with the final word taken from the KJV

This again brings together these two important concepts: Trusting and Doing. If one’s hope is in God’s salvation, then what’s the doing about? Paul makes it clear here (and I think it’s clear in the Psalm as well) that it all depends on God, and yet there is doing involved.

The problem for us is mixing the two up, getting our hope from our efforts. For many, there is a fear that if we don’t demand effort, no effort will be made. So we try to make salvation, or many other lesser goals depend entirely on work that is simply not sufficient to support it.

What would it do to someone’s morale if they are facing an impossible barrier, and are told, “You have to put your hope in your own efforts to get over this barrier”? The result is that hope dies and the person gives up. One human approach is to follow this up by calling the person a loser because they have failed to overcome a barrier that was, in fact, impossible.

The book of Hebrews, also a favorite of mine, leads up to presenting Christ as the one God perfected on our behalf at the end of chapter 5, and then in 6:1 says, “let us be carried on toward perfection.” (I believe the passive, not middle is the correct translation of the verb here.) The idea being that having through Jesus we are now to be carried on to the kingdom.

If we get this idea of identity, and of a hope provided by God, then the idea of putting God’s commands into action becomes something different. We are winners with every step, not because we have accomplished the goal, but because we are on the journey, being cared along to perfection.

Given a couple of quotes recently, you might be aware that I’m reading Deanna Thompson’s commentary on Deuteronomy. I have another quote from that book:

Moses’ act of remembering and retelling Israelite history, as Israel stands between its future and its past, makes an important theological point about Israelite identity: Israel’s relationship with the God who freed them from slavery is its identity, and after years of dishonoring that memory, it is time to remember, honor, and obey.

Commenting on Deutereonmy 1

The Bible is very much about trust and hope, but it is also very much about action. Our problem is often leaving one or the other element out, or getting them in the wrong order. Trust and hope make action possible. Knowing who we are is what frees us for action.

So, after all, this verse of Psalm 119 is very clear and reminds us of the order. Trust in God and do. In that order.

What will God free you to do today?

(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)