The Concept of Hope
“It’s the hope that kills you.” So says the supporters of the fictitious Richmond English Football team in the season one finale of Ted Lasso. This phrase resonates with so many because we know what it’s like to hope for something. And, we know what it’s like to have our hopes dashed. Children have hopes for “that” present waiting for them on Christmas morning. A married couple unable to have children long to adopt that child they’ve loved during foster care. We wish the momentary afflictions of sickness, loneliness, job loss, etc. would fade away. Hope described in the Bible is what we really desire. We will provide examples of hope in the following paragraphs.
Giving Up Hope
We look to a future day when our darkest moments give way to light. But the days continue to be dim and the hope of something good and beautiful fades. As these hard times continue with no relief, we will say, “It’s the hope that kills you.” We begin to think it would’ve been better to have never hoped at all. If we had only resigned ourselves to these difficult times, then our hearts wouldn’t be hurt. Had we only accepted these difficult times, our expectations would not be crushed. If we had resigned ourselves, disappointment would not hang over our heads.
Maybe our problem isn’t with hope itself, but instead with our understanding of the meaning of hope. Perhaps we’ve confused real hope, true hope, with wishful thinking.
Hope vs. Wishful Thinking, Part 1
Wishful thinking is taking a posture of positivity towards a situation and expecting change regardless of reality. We desire that in a little while there will be change, a better day, or a bright future. But there’s nothing to ground our desire in beyond a longing for things to be different. We want our lives to be better, though we have no tangible reason to believe it will get better.
Hope described in the Bible is hope that is true, a different kind of hope. The reason for hope is similar to the reason for wishful thinking. As Cornelius Plantinga put it, “hope is the reach of our hearts for a cure.”[1] We hope because we believe that the pain we’re experiencing isn’t right. We believe that there is something better. Furthermore, we long for a righting of wrongs. To hope is good. We should never scold or dismiss someone because they hope for a brighter day. Yet, we must put our hope in the right things and for the right reasons.
Where Do We Place Our Hope?
What are the things that we often put our hope in? In our desires to have a happier day, we look to things like political parties, economic prosperity, or relational stability. However, these things are wanting. Politicians make empty promises, financial markets fail, and relationships wane. So, where ought we to put our hope?
Before addressing that question, note that though the things we put hope in are often lacking, we shouldn’t stop hoping. That’s what the phrase “It’s the hope that kills you” wants us to do: never hope.
Rather than resigning ourselves to a hopeless existence, I want to argue that we’re made to hope. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that eternity is set upon the hearts of all mankind. Thus, we’re supposed to long for a better experience than the sin-soaked existence we often face.
We return to the question from above, where should we put our hope? In what can we hope so that our hopes won’t be dashed? We turn to God’s Word and find a message of hope.
Examples of Hope Described in the Old Testament
A common theme in the Old Testament book of Psalms is for us to “hope in God” (Ps 33:18, 22). There are 20 other passages in the Psalms telling us to “hope in God.” Instead of looking at all of these Psalms, we’ll look at two of them. They are foundational for how we conceive of hope. These two Psalms are Psalm 42 and Psalm 43. They are taken together because many biblical scholars believe them to have once been a single Psalm. They were made into two Psalms sometime after their composition. Therefore, they are taken together. In these Psalms, we see that the Lord is the God of hope.
In these Psalms, the Psalmist calls upon the people of God three times to hope in the Lord. These calls to hope occur in Psalm 42:5, Psalm 42:11, and Psalm 43:5.
When We Feel Exhausted, Parched, and Lifeless
We have hope in God’s deliverance when death threatens.
The first occasion of this hopelessness is that of a soul feeling exhausted, parched, and lifeless. Psalm 42 begins, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (42:1). The image that the Psalmist gives is very intense. An animal finding itself in drought, needing water to live, the deer pants longing for just a bit of water. Without it, the deer will not survive. This is a matter of life and death. In using this metaphor, the Psalmist isn’t being melodramatic. He realizes that his heart is restless, that his soul is lifeless, and that he needs life-giving refreshment.
Wishful Thinking Is Like Salt Water
If we’re honest, then we know our souls experience this longing as well. We look to things around us to bring refreshment. These may include career, sex, family, success, money, notoriety, and many other things. But with each attempt to find refreshment through these things, we’re left parched. Like drinking salt water, we think what we consume will satisfy our parched mouths. However, we discover that it leaves us even more thirsty than we were before.
Wishful Thinking, Something’s Missing
Singer-songwriter John Mayer won a Grammy, made hit songs, and played in front of sell-out crowds. After all of this, he wrote and sang: “I’m dizzy from the shopping malls; I searched for joy, but I bought it all; it doesn’t help the hunger pains; and a thirst I’d have to drown first to ever satiate … Friends – check. Money – check. Well slept – check. Sex – check. Guitar – check. Microphone – check. Messages waiting for me, when I come home – check … Something’s missing, And I don’t know how to fix it, and I don’t know what it is at all.”[2]
We know what it’s like to put our hope for life in things like this. And we know that we find them lacking. Hope for life, for satisfaction, it’s a common human experience. That hope will only find fulfillment when it hopes in the Lord. Saint Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in [the Lord].” This is what the Psalmist is saying when he declares, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps 42:2). We hope in God when our souls are looking for satisfaction.
When We Feel Abandoned
We also hope in God when we feel abandoned or alone.
Initially, the theme of abandonment may not come to our minds when we read these Psalms, but when the Psalmist says that he will “remember [God] from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar” (Ps 42:6), he’s speaking of places that were far from Jerusalem, which was the center of the Jewish religious world. These places point to the fact that the Psalm was written while the Psalmist was in exile. And while in exile, it would have been easy for the people to think God had left them, forgotten about them, abandoned them. Verse 9 makes this feeling explicit when the Psalmist says, “I say to God, my rock: ‘Why have you forgotten me?’”
What Does Abandonment Feel Like?
Isn’t this the very sentiment we’ve felt? All of us have felt like we’re alone, forgotten, not seen. We look at the pains and struggles in our lives and think, “Where is God? Does he see what I’m feeling? Has he forgotten that I’m here?” We know, firsthand, what the Psalmist is expressing. It doesn’t shock us that someone would say these words because we’ve at least thought them, if not said them. Yet, what might shock some of us, is that these words are in the Bible. It’s easy to think that the religious, the spiritual, and the authors of sacred scripture, would never think these things. They’re the “pious” ones. Thus they must always feel a closeness to God. Yet, the words of the Psalm, sung by the Old Testament people of God, express a feeling of abandonment.
We Can Have True Hope
But abandonment isn’t the final word of this Psalm. It is hope. The Psalmist returns to the refrain: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” In other words, though we might feel alone, we have God’s promise that he hasn’t left us. We can have hope that he is near, even though our feelings might say something different. Hope in the God who is our salvation.
When We Feel Opposed
There’s one more situation when the Psalmist looks to God for hope: When he’s opposed.
The need for hope isn’t caused only by internal consternation but also by external difficulties. There are those who are deceitful, who are unjust, who are challenging him, and raising questions about God (Ps 42:10). Just like before, we understand, even in small ways, what the Psalmist was experiencing. Often, disease attacks our bodies, or injustice reigns in our cities, and wickedness seems to prevail. When these things happen the question that is asked is, “Where was God?”
The Psalmist, like in the other situations, responds, “Hope in God.”
We Can Hope in God Despite Sin and Evil
Some of us might think that his response is a skirting of the issue. Some might accuse the Psalmist of passing over the question, but the Psalmist is wrestling with the issue. He has asked God why rejection has come (Ps 43:2). He understands the tension that we experience in the world — the tension of believing what God has said and the effects of sin in the world.
Sometimes the effects of sin are so great it seems like sin and evil are greater than goodness and holiness. That’s why the Psalmist says, “Vindicate me, O God” and “Defend my cause against an ungodly people” (Ps 43:1). You see, the reality of opposition doesn’t negate the presence of God. It drives us to look to him in hope. So again the Psalmist returns to the refrain, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
Examples Of Hope Described In The New Testament
Hope isn’t only an Old Testament experience. It’s also a New Testament virtue.
There are many places we could look to consider how the New Testament writers appropriate hope. To put forth an exhaustive summary would be impossible, so we’ll consider how the Apostles Paul and Peter and Jesus himself discussed hope.
Hope In Paul’s Letters
Let’s start with Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 4, the Apostle Paul takes up a topic that was clearly on the minds of his listeners, a topic that every person is confronted by, that of death. How are we to respond when a family member or a friend dies?
Hope In The Face Of Death
He says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” We should notice when reading this verse that Paul expects all people to grieve in the face of death. He never tells the church not to grieve but instead, they’re to grieve in a particular way: with hope. Of course, he doesn’t explicitly say that. It is implied that he doesn’t want the Thessalonians to grieve like those who have no hope. That is, when people experience the death of a loved one, some will grieve without hope, and some with hope.
Where Does This Hope Come From?
Paul tells us in the following verse, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thess 4:14). Hope in the face of death comes from the sure belief that because Jesus rose from the dead, for all those who trust in him, death is not the end of the story. There is life after death. Hope in the face of death comes from the knowledge that because Jesus rose from the dead, all those who trust in him will have life after death.
This Hope is Built on the Steadfast Love Of God
This hope amid death is confirmed in another of Paul’s writings, Romans 8:38-39. There we read, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Clearly, the word “hope” doesn’t appear in these verses, yet hope is what’s being communicated. Since those who are clinging to the love of God demonstrated through Jesus cannot be separated from that love, the resulting posture is hope when facing death, life, challenges, difficulties, things in this world and the next — hope that the steadfast love of God in Jesus is stronger than anything we will experience.
Hope In Peter’s Epistles
Let’s turn now to Peter’s inspired writing.
In 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter wrote to a group of churches that were facing persecution. That persecution was because of their faith in Jesus. He gave them instructions for how they were to live. As they would suffer for what is right (1 Pet 3:14), he says to them, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15).
This verse communicates that those who are being persecuted because of their Christian faith, who are suffering for the sake of Jesus, will live in that situation in such a way that others will ask them about their manner of life.
Biblical Hope is a Condition of the Soul
The reason for this is that biblical hope isn’t an expression that is dependent upon circumstance or situation. Instead, hope, as Vaclav Havel put it, “is a condition of the soul, not a response to circumstances in which you find yourself.”[3] Havel was a Czech leader who lived under Soviet rule. Havel understood that Christian hope transcends the situation. It’s a condition of the soul that knows there is a better day to come despite the difficulty of the moment, because of God’s power demonstrated through Jesus’ resurrection. This is why Peter can call the church to hope when surrounded by opposition and experiencing persecution.
Hope From Jesus’ Words
The final biblical text to consider is what Jesus said concerning hope. While the gospel accounts don’t use the language of hope frequently, it’s clear from Jesus’ teaching that the virtue of hope is foundational to our response to his teaching.
Hope of Salvation from Sin
We can have hope that sin is forgiven, that Jesus has defeated death on our behalf, and we will dwell with him for eternity.
We can have hope of salvation from sin because Jesus says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The biblical teaching about sin is that all people have sinned against God (Rom 3) and because of our sin we deserve God’s condemnation (Rom 6:23). But because Jesus went to the cross, he took our sin upon himself (2 Cor 5:21), and instead of condemnation, all those who trust in him will have life (2 Cor 5:21). This is the hope that Jesus gives us: those who trust in Jesus, their sins are forgiven.
Hope in the Face of Death
Jesus presents us with hope not only regarding the forgiveness of sin but also in the face of death.
In John 11, when his friend Lazarus had died, he declared that those who believe in Jesus, that though they die, they will live (John 11:25-26). This is an invitation for those who believe in Jesus to have a confident expectation that death is not the end of our story. This is because Jesus has defeated death and thus given us a living hope.
Hope for Eternity
Finally, Jesus tells us that we can have hope that he hasn’t abandoned us, but instead, he is with us through his Spirit, and we will dwell with him for eternity.
In Matthew 28, his departing words to his disciples are, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In this verse, he doesn’t say how he will be with his followers, but in John 14 he promises that God the Father will send his Holy Spirit to be with the followers of Jesus and will “bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus dwells with his people. Because of Jesus’ unfailing love and great mercy for his people, we have a confident hope that he will be with us.
Hope For Those Who Believe In Christ
Jesus also speaks of trusting that though he will leave his disciples and be with them through his Spirit, that his followers will dwell with him in eternity. He says in John 14, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3). The hope that Jesus presents to his disciples is that though there will be separation, that distance is a momentary affliction.
Jesus, and the testimony of the Bible, is that for those who believe in Christ, there is a sure and future hope that on the last day, when Jesus returns, eternity will be marked by his physical presence and living among his people.
Concluding Comments
Throughout this article, our discussion of hope was focused on the “big” things of life — death, sickness, sadness, and despair. These are times when people hope and look for something to put their hope in. Yet, we often use the language of hope for things that are much more mundane. We say, “I hope they still serve my favorite sandwich.” Or, “I hope the rain will hold off.” Or, “I hope I get that gift for my birthday I’ve been wanting.”
Hope vs. Wishful Thinking, Part 2
While we use the language of “hope” on these occasions, we all know this is simply wishful thinking. If our sandwich is no longer served, or the rain comes, or we don’t get that gift, we will move on and not think much about it. Wishful thinking is wanting something that we do not have and is out of our control to gain. Yet, it’s wanting those small things that have little consequence. But hope, true hope, is talking about the deeper things of life.
Do people think of hope as a true extrication from their dire circumstances, or are they generally just expressing vacuous hope? “I hope the weather is good tomorrow; I hope the bus comes on time; I hope the paper is delivered before I need to leave for work; I hope I get a nice gift for my birthday.” These are examples of wishful thinking.
Jesus Christ, the Giver Of Hope
Why is the good news of the Gospels not wishful thinking? Why is the good news of the Gospels not just an attempt to convince us that every dark cloud will have a silver lining? The answer is because of what Jesus has done. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything. It gives those who believe in him a trust that our sins are forgiven, and an assurance that he will never depart from us.
It also gives us hope that because he has defeated death, hell, and the grave, everything that he has said in his word and through his Apostles is true. What Jesus did gives us hope. Not a hope that brings disappointment or one that kills, but one that encourages us to see the world with eyes of faith. The author of Hebrews wrote, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1).
Who Or What is Our Hope “In”?
Every person hopes. The question is, what have each of us put our hope in? We can put it in our abilities — but they will fade. We could put it in our intellect — but that will subside. Furthermore, we can put it in our financial planning — but markets aren’t given over to our bidding. There are many things we can put our hope in, but each one will eventually fail or falter.
The invitation of these events of hope described in the Bible is to put our hope in that which will never give way: Christ’s death and resurrection. We are to put our ultimate hope in Jesus because he has promised that those who trust in him will have their sins forgiven. Those who look to him will not be forsaken. Those who hope in him will dwell with him for eternity. Jesus is our hope and he cannot be shaken.
Recommended Reading
Embodied Hope by Kelly M. Kapic
Faithful Doubt by Travis Scott
Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering (Paperback) by Tim Keller
“Inviting God into the Hard Places” by Julie Lowe
Footnotes
Cornelius Plantinga, Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 2002), 15. ↑
John Mayer, “Something’s Missing,” track 3 on Heavier Things, Columbia Records, 2003, compact disc. ↑
Vaclav Havel, quoted in Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2013), 166. ↑
