"Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope." (Psalm 119:49)

The saints of God have always faced something of a twopronged challenge to their hope. First, those "that will live godly" and love His laws will "suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12) and, secondly, will be troubled by the "prosperity of the wicked" (Psalm 73:3). The pressure of the first and the perplexity of the second often test our expectations.

But the Word of God provides "comfort in my affliction" (Psalm 119:50). Jeremiah, often called the "weeping prophet," found that the "word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" simply because he embraced with unshakeable confidence the fact that he was "called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts" (Jeremiah 15:16). When the psalmist asked, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" (Psalm 42:5, 11), his answer--in spite of the troubles of the hour--was his certain knowledge that he "shall yet praise him."

We may recoil in holy anger when the wicked "forsake thy law" (Psalm 119:53), but we can still live with "songs" in our hearts (Ephesians 5:19), knowing that our great Creator God is working "all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11) and that even the "wrath of man" will eventually bring praise to Him (Psalm 76:10).

Our time is short. We live for about 100 years and brag as though we have lived forever. The Creator reckons the nations as mere "dust of the balance" (Isaiah 40:15). We need to shift our viewpoint from the "temporal" to the "eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18) and rest in the absolute God-given knowledge that "our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17). "This I had," the psalmist exclaimed, "because I kept thy precepts" (Psalm 119:56). HMM III