“The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” —Deuteronomy 33:27
When we use the word hope in everyday conversation, we tend to mean it in a passive sense: “I hope the weather will change” or “I hope my kids will grow up soon.” But hope in the Hebrew language is an active word. It means “to wait, to be patient, to tarry, to stay on something, to trust in something.” It’s actively hoping, leaning, resting, waiting.
As the old hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” says, “What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.”3 We have hope when we place our confidence in Him. We need to get our eyes off our problems and onto the Lord instead.
Psalm 131 provides a way to do that. As we memorize it, meditate on it, and quote it back to the Lord, we can learn to “hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore” (v. 3). As we do that with this and other Scripture passages, they will help us when our hearts are heavy.
3 E.A. Hoffman, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” 1887.
Make it Personal
Meditate on Psalm 131 (or your favorite Scripture passage) throughout the day, and pray that the truth of its words would quiet your heart.