December 1, 2020
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. – Psalm 62:5
Light the first candle of advent – The candle of hope.
When the world around us seems chaotic, the best place to find hope again is to find silence. I cannot speak to how many of you have found silence, or perhaps have tried to distract yourselves from it this year. I can only speak from my own experience which I imagine is very different.
Our children came home from school, a day early for the beginning of Spring Break in March of this year. They have not been away from us, or family, since. If you have ever known the blessing of children in your life, then you probably know that this blessing comes with a lot of noise. I don’t ever think the noise in intentional, but as the children play with one another, it seems to get louder with each passing moment. Then, when it’s time for them all to go to bed, after the hour or so of fighting to get them to sleep, there is that moment of silence.
Silence, while possible to find, has become difficult to find this year. However, I’m aware that others long for such noise again, and I am sure that Samantha and I will feel the same when silence becomes more common.
King David is living in a time of chaos when this psalm is written. He is facing another battle with the Philistines, with more giants like Goliath (see 2 Samuel 21), but David is now an old man, not the young person we remember who took down the previous Philistine warrior. David has been through so much in life at this point, and now understands the realities of who God has been and is for him. Much the same way, the more we have been through in this life, the more we have placed our trust and hope in God, we find the reality that God is there with us, leading us through it all.
We might even call out in those times of silence:
Rest, my soul, don’t worry anymore. Don’t be frightened. Do not fear what we cannot see with our eyes because we have a great hope that comes from the Lord. We have a great hope that something good will come because we have seen good come from times of trials and tribulation. We have seen the sun rise and the sun set even in the midst of battle and this proves that our God is sure and true. So be at peace, be at rest my soul because our hope comes from Him who makes all things happen according to his plan.
For God is my rock and my salvation. I have hidden in him so many times, so many different times when I was full of fear and dread. I could only find a proper hiding space in my God. He protected me like a mighty rock and He was never shaken. Though I lay in his embrace shaking with fear and doubt. My rock saved me before, and my God is never shaken. God remains our hope now and forever.
Grace & Peace,
Sam