Hope is empowered by God’s faithfulness to his promises.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Send out your light and your truth;
let them guide me.
Let them lead me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you live.” 
Psalm 43:3 New Living Translation

The Yaquina Head lighthouse stands tall on the Oregon Coast, the tallest of all the lighthouses in Oregon. As such, the brutal coastal storms beat against it and yet it continues to shine.

Yaquina Head, Oregon

The psalmist claims that God’s light will lead him to the place where he resides. That place is called God’s “holy mountain.” The psalmist understood that God’s glory dwelt where his ark resided.

God’s light shines through the struggles of life.

But why does the psalmist ask for God’s light to guide him? We might believe that things are going well for the psalmist if we pull this verse out of its context, that it was his joy leading him to God’s holy hill, yet that is not the case.

In verse one the psalmist pleads with God to deliver him from ungodly men. In verse two he asks God why he has rejected him. In all of his struggles he finds his hope in his God (v. 5)

Maybe that sounds like your life. You’re surrounded by people who want nothing more than to make your life miserable. God seems distant, and yet you place your hope in God; hope that his light will guide you into his presence.

Sometimes hope doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t have to. We place our trust in God because of his faithfulness to his promises. All of God’s promises meet their yes in Jesus as God was faithful to his promise to redeem us.

Because of God’s faithfulness, we trust that his light will lead us to that place where he dwells.

Douglas P Brauner