Tethered For Sure

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.” (Ps 62:5 AV)

This is a good spot to continue from yesterday’s thoughts.  Yesterday, we saw David tying the sovereignty of God with his prayer life.  If God controls all things, and He does, then our natural practice should be prayer.  Here, David speaks to his own heart.  He is speaking to a heart that is disturbed in some way.  His consolation to his own ill-being is to remind himself that his expectation is from God.  That word, ‘expectation’ is an interesting one.  We would understand it as a hope of sorts.  But the word has a bit more to it.  It comes from a root word meaning rope.  As in a secured line.  Think of a boat that is secured to the dock by a rope.  It is moored to the dock and even if the waves toss the boat to and fro, it is securely anchored to something far greater than itself.  This is the understanding here.

I have been on the end of a rope in such situations as this before.  There were times my brother taught us how to repel.  We repelled from a tower.  We repelled down Niagara Gorge.  We repelled down fifty-foot walls.  I have been on boats in the middle of waves that tossed us to and fro.  I have been on a boat moored to the land where the same waves toss us to and fro.  What I can tell you is the rope that secured me was immensely important and as long as my focus was on the rope that secured me, the effect of my situation was made dramatically easier.  I don’t like heights.  You will never see me going up the Sears Tower in Chicago.  Nope!  Not doing it.  I can fly in a plane.  But I will not look down from a bridge.  So, repelling would not be my first choice of entertainment.  Looking down three hundred feet is not pleasant.  Seeing the craggy rock face of the gorge and knowing what those rocks could do to me was not a fun sight.  But as long as I looked up and looked at the rope in front of me, I was ok.  The rope did not remove gravity.  The rope did not make the ground any closer.  The tether rope did not cause the sea to calm.  I was still tossed about.  But as long as my eyes were on the rope, then anxiety was greatly diminished.

The thing to remember is the expectation from Him and of Him!  Just like the repelling rope was from by brother, our hope is from God.  He is the anchor of our soul.  He is the one who keeps us in the hollow of His hand and even though life may toss us around a bit, the rope remains strong and sure.  It is interesting.  The further you are away from the rope, the less it seems to move.  At least at the top, anyway.  As we live by faith, we cannot allow lack of sight to convince us the rope is not secure.  Faith told me my brother knew what he was doing and he had done this many times before.  He was certified to instruct and conduct repelling exercises.  The equipment was brand new.  The anchor to which he attacked our ropes were trees that stood the test of time over hundreds of years.  We were completely safe.  When life tosses us, let us remember the anchor of our soul is eternal and nothing is too big for Him to handle.  Our expectation is from Him.  And to Him!