Strange Bedfellows

Most modern and secular thinking places fear and hope next to one another, giving hope the upper hand. Hope outweighs fear. Hope defeats fear. Hope is stronger than fear. It's an idea that would not be foreign to most of us because we are taught to not let fear capture our imaginations but to live in hope of what could be.

And in many ways, this is not an overall bad way of approaching life's challenges. We should be people of hope. We should look forward to what could happen. We should not be held captive by fear of the unknown or fear of failure, for instance.

But fear and hope can also be bedfellows. In fact, it is fear and hope that the psalmist points to as being dual characteristics of those that are following God.

"The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them from famine."

Psalm 33:18-19, NIV

While this is an odd combination based upon our more popular thinking of fear and hope, the psalmist is telling us that it is a fear of God - a healthy understanding of who God, is, what God is capable of, and respect for God's power and authority in our lives - along with our hope in the fact that God has a love for us that never fails, is never broken, and never fades away, is where we should be spiritually and emotionally.

The two verses prior to this passage talk about how we often try to find our hope in our own strength. Another way to look at this is that we try to eliminate the potential for fear by getting stronger, gaining more wealth, creating our own security. But, as the psalmist says, these things may be strong, but they cannot save (17).

It is God and God alone who can deliver us from death. It is God and God alone who can provide what we need and to sustain us even when the world around us is crying out in hunger.

"We wait in hope for the Lord;

he is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,

even as we put our hope in you."

Psalm 33:20-22, NIV

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