A New Day

Psalm 146:5, “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”  Pastor Chuck Swindoll, in his book, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart (p. 275), tells the story of an S-4 submarine that was rammed by a ship off the coast of Massachusetts. It sank immediately. The entire crew was trapped in a prison house of death. Every effort was made to rescue the crew, but all ultimately failed. Near the end of the ordeal, a deep-sea diver, who was doing everything in his power to find a way for the crew’s release, thought he heard a tapping on the steel wall of the sunken sub. He placed his helmet up against the side of the vessel and he realized it was Morse code. He attached himself to the side and he spelled out in his mind the message being tapped from within. It was repeating the same question. The question, from within was:  “Is . . . there . . . any . . . hope?”  Today, you may not be entombed within a submarine deep within the bowels of the sea, but nonetheless, through the barrier of the difficulties that have you encased, you, through your efforts, prayers and other cries for help may be tapping out the same question:  “Is there any hope?”  The reassurance God’s Word brings us is this simple, yet profound message—“Yes, there is hope.”  Notice our Scripture lesson today.  The Psalmist forthrightly proclaims that not only is there hope, but where that hope can be found; not in a state of being absent of problems; not in a geographical location; but in a person, “the Lord [our] God.”  There is hope in God.  There is hope in an ever-abiding relationship with God.  Notice the expression in the text, “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.”  This is not a novel reference, but an expression of covenant relationship.  As you tap out the question from the depths of your difficulties today, “Is there any hope?” remember, there is; and He has purposed to deliver you from the circumstances that threatened to entomb you, and bring you up from the ominous darkness, into the light and hope of this new day!