#4. The association of trust and hope (Psa. lxxi. 5).


We have before us at the moment certain blessings and experiences which are linked together in the Scriptures with that form of trust which can be represented by “clinging” to the Lord.

In the present article we consider the relation of “hope” with “trust” which is indicated in Psa. lxxi. 5.

“For thou art my HOPE, O Lord God, Thou art my TRUST from my youth.”

The word “youth” is used with some latitude: it can refer to a new-born child (Exod. ii. 6), or to one who has reached approximately the age of twenty, as in the case of Joseph in Gen. xli. 12. The form in which it occurs implies that the words “the day of” are to be supplied mentally (the evidence for this lies outside the scope of these articles).

Psalm lxxi. speaks of “hope” and “trust”, and by the disposition of the subject-matter, “trust” appears to be associated with all the days of this life, from the earliest recollections of youth to the days of old age and infirmity. “Hope”, on the other hand, appears to be used as though it were the logical outcome of this “trust”, but whereas “trust” extends to the limits of present life—youth and old age—“hope” goes back to the unconscious moments of birth, and forward to the awakening and renewing of resurrection. This argument of faith is one that is worth pondering. When we view the whole stretch of time, and then attempt to visualize within it our own tiny span, so small and insignificant is it that, were it not for the trust that clings to the Lord in all our conscious weakness, we should be overwhelmed by the surrounding immensity. Ages preceded our birth, and ages will succeed our death, yet we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that a wise and merciful Providence was at work on our behalf before we have our being and birth, which supplies us with the argument that the same gracious Providence can and will provide for us during that second period of silence called death, and bring us to something even more wonderful than our birth into this world.

To show that these thoughts may be rightly adduced from the subject-matter of this Psalm we give the following features:

T r u s t.
(1) YOUTH.—“Thou are my trust from my youth” (5).
“O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth” (17).
(2) OLD AGE.—“Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth” (9).
“Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not” (18).

H o p e.
(1) BIRTH.—“By thee have I been holden up from the womb: Thou art He that took me out of my mother’s bowels” (6).
(2) RESURRECTION.—“Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth” (20).

This association of “trust” (operating during the days of our present life), with “hope” (which operates beyond our present experience even to the day of “quickening again”, when death shall be swallowed up of victory), contains a word of comfort for the present day. So the believer, as he trusts in the Lord Who has watched over him from youth to old age, can sing,

“His love in times past,
Forbids me to think;
He’ll leave me at last
In trouble to sink.”

“Each fresh Ebenezer
He brings to review
Confirms His good pleasure
To help me right through.”

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(From The Berean Expositor, Volume 33, page 210).

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