Day 27: It is Time to Embrace Anticipation and Hope

of The Heart of God: Through David’s Eyes

Below is Day Twenty-Seven of the study, but there is an introduction to check out which gives context and sets the tone, and previous weeks to look at below. If you would like the full content all in one place, this book is now available for purchase on Amazon. 

Week 1 - He Longs for Us to Know Who We Are 

Week 2 - He Longs for Us to Respond

Week 3 - He Longs for Us to Know Him

Week 4 - He Longs for Us to Reflect His Heart

Day 22: How Despair & Community Impact We Reflect God’s Heart

Day 23: Benefits of Noticing and Experiencing God’s Righteous Anger 

Day 24:  Why Extending Mercy Increases Compassion

Day 25: The Gift of Practicing Grief with a Broken Heart

Day 26: Notice the Amazement of Others to Experience a Contagious Awe

Day 27:  It is Time to Embrace Anticipation and Hope 

Even though David spent much of his life on the edge of despair as he grappled with sorrow, grief, anger, and empathizing with others, he experienced incredible hope of what God is capable of. David was not shy when it came to allowing his feelings to flow, but he anticipated that there is intention, purpose, and meaning behind God’s movements. 

There was a calm confidence David had in God’s ability to do the impossible. David rarely seemed concerned at God’s choices, because he trusted God to his core. Even when things get messy, scary, and most people would abort mission, David saw God at work and stayed exactly where God placed him. His anticipation was based on his own experience and what he understood about God from the experience of the generations of Israel before him. 

David grew up listening to stories about how God delivered His people from Egypt by allowing them to experience the costly sacrifice of their rescue. By requiring them to leave what they knew, participate in the Passover, and see the impact of the incredible loss of the firstborns in each family in Egypt who did not paint their doorposts, God invited His people to encounter the difficult parts of sin. 

From then on, God continued to teach His people about the incredible cost of rescuing them through the tabernacle - a tent used for worship. In response to the people’s desire to worship in a more structured manner, God gave them a structure and process they could use to worship Him. With instructions on how to build the tabernacle came the law that gave a framework for knowing God and being right with God. 

Instead of protecting His people from pain, God allowed his people to deal with their own sin through atonement and sacrifices. The complicated process is an indication of the intention of God. The Israelites did not simply trust God, they relied on Him. In the desert, He provided their heat, food, light, and comfort. While they wandered for decades, God revealed His ability to withhold and give.  

It was about 350 years after they arrived in the promised land God gave them after He rescued them from Egypt that David was born. In those years there were judges, prophets, and kings that ruled before him who all trusted the promises of God because their lives were a result of the faithfulness of God. The stories were shared, repeated, understood. It was the only history they studied: the history of their own people. With anticipation, they constantly waited for God to move the way He had for centuries. 

📸: Mike (via pexels)

David trusted the God who anointed him a future king at a young age and patiently waited for Samuel’s words to become true. The same God who protected him from lions or bears attempting to snag his sheep, gave him the confidence and accuracy to beat Goliath and the position to lead armies to victory. David noticed how God impacted his life and gave Him the credit He deserved for the work God had done.

In the introduction to this guided study, we read these same verses. Notice how your knowledge of David’s life, choices, behavior, relationship with God, and emotional complexity changes the way you hear the exact same words. 

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
 You know when I sit and when I rise;
     you perceive my thoughts from afar.
 You discern my going out and my lying down;
     you are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue
     you, Lord, know it completely.
 You hem me in behind and before,
     and you lay your hand upon me.
 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
     too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
     Where can I flee from your presence?
 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
     if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
     if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 even there your hand will guide me,
     your right hand will hold me fast.
 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
     and the light become night around me,”
 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
     the night will shine like the day,
     for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
     you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
     your works are wonderful,
     I know that full well.
 My frame was not hidden from you
     when I was made in the secret place,
     when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
     all the days ordained for me were written in your book
     before one of them came to be.
 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
     How vast is the sum of them!
 Were I to count them,
     they would outnumber the grains of sand—
     when I awake, I am still with you. (Psalm 139:1-18)

1. Summarize David’s words. What is he saying?

2. Based on what you know about David, when do you think he may have written this specific Psalm?

3. How do you think your perspective of God’s presence in your life has shifted over the past four weeks?

4. Why do you trust that God wants to be with you and know you so closely?

Reflection

Notice that God concerns Himself with you and your future. Write a prayer of hope and anticipation. Without trying to dictate how God will move, (audibly) ask Him: “God, what do you want to do in my life?” 

Take five minutes (yes - set a timer) to allow God to bring things to your mind. Write words, phrases, or ideas He brings to mind - especially the things that you may be expecting. 

Consider setting an alarm or add a time a week or two from now to your calendar to circle back and see if these words/phrases God gave you today make any more sense than they did when you wrote them. 

An excerpt of The Heart of God: Through David’s Eyes by Jill Ng