Our Blessed Hope
Our Blessed Hope
You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “He or she is so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly good.” I don’t love the phrase. I think some of the people who did the most earthly good were just that: heavenly-minded. But, if there is one thing that verse is useful for, it’s useful for exposing a common misconception people have about what it means to be heavenly-minded. I think the person who uses that quote pictures a heavenly-minded person thinking about, well, heaven. Usually this vision of heaven is conceived of as a shiny, billowy place whose designers exclusively work in gold and white.
Well, what should we think of when we think of heaven? You shouldn’t primarily think about a place. You should think about a person. When the Psalmist is thinking about Heaven in Psalm 73:25, he says to God, “Whom have I in heaven except you.” God is the Psalmist’s chief desire when he thinks of heaven.
It’s not that heaven isn’t a place. It is. And its not that other things aren’t there, and there won’t be other joys in heaven. There will be. But put it this way: If you ask me what I did last Monday evening, I could have answered two ways: I could have said, “I went out and had dinner at a nice restaurant, strolled around downtown, got a milkshake, went to a park, and then went home. It was a great evening.” That would all be true. But I also could have said, “My wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary together and had an amazing time.” Both true descriptions. The first one contains more details. But the second reveals the right priorities. Because it focuses on the “who”, not the “what”.
And similarly when we’re thinking about our hope of heaven, it’s not wrong to ever think about the place and “what it will be like.” But its far more important, far more life-giving, to think about the “who” of heaven. And we see in Psalm 16 that David does just that: as he thinks about his future hope, he first thinks about the “what”, but he finishes by focusing on the “who” of our hope. He thinks about two different aspects of our Hope. He thinks about:
- The Bodily Resurrection
- The Beatific vision – our gazing upon God.
Those are our main two parts this evening.
But I do want to add something at the start (maybe this counts as a mini first point and this is actually a 3 pt sermon): I want to remind us on the front end, that Our Blessed Hope is found in Christ fulfilling this Psalm.
In our first sermon I mentioned the fact that the New Testament makes clear that these words, esp. Verses 8-11 are prophetically spoken about Jesus. David claims here hope that his body dwells secure because there is deliverance of his body and soul from death. He has hope of resurrection.
But while these words could be sung truly by David, they are most truly sung by Jesus Christ. Because, as Peter points out in Acts 2, David died. And his body decayed. He saw corruption. Jesus’ body didn’t. So Jesus is the great singer of this Psalm. He is the one who fully delighted in God and in God’s people. He could truly say he always set God before him. He always enjoyed satisfaction, direction, and protection from God. And He truly survives death without seeing corruption. And then we hear Jesus speaking to the Father as it were in anticipation of his ascension into heaven. “You make known to me the path of life” – You raise me up to new life. “In your presence is fullness of joy” – I’m ascending in my resurrected body to enjoy your beautiful presence, and pleasures at your right hand.
So the reason we have the hope expressed in Psalm 16 – resurrection, and the heavenly sight of God, is because Jesus secures these blessings for us in his resurrection and ascension.
Okay, so with that preface – almost a mini-first point, here are the two parts of our blessed hope.
1. First we have the hope of the resurrection (Ps 16:10).
David dwells secure because he knows his body will not see corruption. Or we might say, he knows his body will unsee corruption. Part of our great hope is that we will enjoy resurrected bodies one day. Now with this, maybe we need help just explaining why this is something we should look forward to.
I think we have gotten so used to thinking of our ultimate goal as “getting to heaven” when we die. And that’s a true part of our hope. The New Testament has some language about what happens to us when we die. In 2 Cor 5 Paul says “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,” and then he says “and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” So for the Christian, when we die, we will be “away from the body and at home with the Lord.” We have that hope and longing. Or as Paul puts it in Phil 1:21 “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” That’s part of our hope. But that’s not the end goal. That’s the penultimate stop on our way to glory.
Far more frequently the New Testament speaks in terms of THE Last Day. It speaks far more in terms of waiting for the Return, or the coming, or the appearing of Christ, referring to the second and final coming of Christ. Because then we will have souls and bodies reunited and worship him as complete, whole human beings.
That’s what it means to be human. We have bodies and souls. You and I are not just souls. Which is actually very important to know in our day and age. You and I are not just souls. Our identity isn’t just found in our spiritual side. If that was the case, do whatever you want with the body, change it, change your gender, mangle it however you want, it’s just the husk. We are composed of soul AND body. In 2 Cor 4:16 Paul says “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day”
And Christ came to save us as whole human beings. That’s why it’s so important to believe in the two natures of Christ – that he is both truly God and truly man. He is God. Period. And he is man, body and soul. Period. Because he needs to redeem us body and soul. One church father said, “what is not assumed is not healed.” That is, if the Son did not take to himself a human body or a human soul, he wouldn’t represent our bodies or souls, and our bodies or souls wouldn’t be saved. But Christ did save us, body and soul.
In fact He came to redeem his whole creation. He came to deliver the world from its bondage to sin, and his redeemed people with the world. Because God made all things good. And we’re looking forward to the day when creation is liberated from bondage, and we enjoy a renewed world. Which includes us having renewed bodies in that world. When Jesus comes again, that’s what will happen. Our bodies and our souls will be reunited. And you’ll finally know what it’s like to have a real body.
How will all that work out? What age will our bodies be? What size and shape? Will we have our scars, like Jesus has his wounds? I don’t know. There’s lots of details we won’t know. But we’ll enjoy a world free from sin and all its effects. No death. I can’t hardly imagine what that will be like. To not have to deal with any kind of death. No effects of the fall. And our bodies will be of such stuff, that we will be able to look upon God himself.
2. Which brings us to the second part of this sermon. The second key aspect of our blessed hope that David focuses on is the beatific vision (Ps 16:11).
In verse 11 David describes his expectation in positive terms. In verse 10 he says what God will not do: Not abandon my soul, nor let your Holy One see corruption. Now verse 11 states in positive terms his hope. God makes known to him the path of life. If death is not the end, then after death is endless life, a path of life. God is a God of life, who makes known to all his people a path that leads to life. And that path culminates in God himself:
In your presence there is fullness of joy.
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The word for “ presence” in Hebrew really can mean “face.” With your face, before your face, in beholding your face, there is fullness of joy. And that is what David is looking forward to. To beholding God with a newly resurrected body.
Now this is a theme you see throughout scripture: the theme of gazing upon God. What you see in OT is no one can look upon the face of God and live. Moses is described as a “friend of God,” one with whom it even describes God speaking “face to face” (Ex 33:11). But when Moses asks God to show him his glory, God says “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name… But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex 33:18-20).
Man doesn’t get to look at God. Not in his very nature and fullness. Not in his essential glory. He can’t. His glory is so weighty, so brilliant, so awesome, it would undo us. God’s glory makes the sun look like a night light. His glory is more majestic than mankind could possibly imagine, and it’s the one majesty that sinful man cannot possibly enjoy.
That’s why THE blessing God gave the priests to pronounce upon Israel is the blessing of gazing upon God’s face:
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace (Num 6:24-26).
The culmination of all the grace and peace, of all the blessing and keeping that God shows you in this life, is the moment when his face shines upon you. When he lifts up his countenance upon you.
And this is the hope of a Christian. That we will have new bodies, purified of all sin, perfected and strengthened. And we will gaze upon God in the face of Christ. That’s what we hope for at the second coming of Christ. That will be the greatest grace, the greatest peace, and blessing you will enjoy. When you see God’s face.
I haven’t conducted any weddings yet, but despite that, I already have a pretty firm opinion about what the best part of the wedding is. It’s the first look. When the bride comes down the aisle and the groom sees her for the first time. Now, if you know what’s up during a wedding, you need to look at both the bride and the groom. Because the groom’s reaction is as good, if not better, than the bride’s. But it’s that sight. It’s that moment when faith and hope are done with. When all that remains is the reality of the marital love that this couple gets to begin to enjoy.
That’s what we will have one day. We will see Christ, and faith will become sight, hope will become fruition. And only love will remain. Our bridegroom has come. We’ve waited and hoped and longed for him, and he’s here. And we get to just begin to enjoy of his love for eternity. Can you imagine the joy of that sight. Can you imagine the thrill of every time you look upon Christ seeing more beauty and love in his face.
What a hope to have. To have fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Forevermore!!
That changes everything.
a. That changes how you live your life. Because as 1 John 3:3 says, he who thus hopes in him – that is, hopes in seeing Christ as he is at his coming – purifies himself as he is pure. If this is your hope, of looking upon a God splendid in holiness and moral purity, your preparation for that day when you’ll see him is to beautify yourself – in holiness, in purity. Buy pursuing obedience to God’s commandments. Just like a bride beautifies herself for her wedding day – to present herself in appropriate splendor for the occasion of her giving herself to her groom.
b. It should also change how you respond to suffering. 1 Peter 3:15 says we should always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Now we usually think of that as a verse that calls us to study apologetics. And it does. But in context, Peter has been talking about Christians suffering for righteousness’ sake. Suffering for their faith. And as they suffer, people should notice something about them: “They suffer in hope. There’s something different about you. You have hope. There’s something that draws you to lift your head high, and it’s not personal pride. It’s hope. Why do you suffer with such hope? What’s your reason?”
“I have such a hope that you couldn’t dream of. I will enjoy perfect full satisfaction in the presence of my God for all eternity. My savior is coming back for me. He died for me, and he’s returning for me. That’s my hope.”
Having this hope makes you want to share the reason for your hope. Because it’s so thrilling.
Is this your hope. What is your hope? Are you strung along from one little hope to the next? Hoping like a child for your birthday presents, and then once your birthday passes, for good Christmas presents, and then once Christmas presents are in hand, immediately looking forward to your next birthday presents… Or are you hoping for “arrival” at some place of contentment in life? You’ll reach a certain place in your job. You’ll finally have the perfect home. You’ll travel to the right number of places, make enough money, have the right number of children, have the right behavior in your children, have better behaved grandchildren?
Or do you hope you’ll enjoy a beauty and a glory and a love beyond comparison one day? Do you hope to rejoice in Christ’s return, to praise God for his perfect judgment? Do you hope to glory in God’s grace to you. Do you hope to skip and run in a resurrected body all to the praise of his glorious grace? Do you hope to see Christ as he is, in his divine glory? Face to face?
Make that your hope! Please make it your hope! No other hope is worth having.
Or you might be a Christian and say, “I don’t deserve to enjoy that hope. It’s too grand, too good for me. I’ve sinned so much. Just the other day you wouldn’t believe how I sinned.” My friend, the best way out of that sin is to hope in God. He who thus hopes in God purifies himself as he is pure. If you call Christ your savior, he has still covenanted to secure you, to hold your lot (v5) until that last day. You still have hope of seeing him. That ought to drive out the thoughts of sin.
There’s little hope for getting away from sin by dwelling only on sin. In your repentance you must mourn for sin, yet still dare to hope. Because repentance that doesn’t look in faith to Christ does you no good. Christ has paid for your sin and he has called you and claims this hope for you. So it is sin not to believe this hope is yours. You must hope in Christ. It is your only option.
Christ is your hope.has secured the redemption of our bodies and souls in the resurrection. He is the path of life. He has trod the path from death to life. He is at the Father’s right hand: at God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore —in Christ. There is fullness of joy in beholding His Face.
Christ is your Blessed Hope. Amen.