Word Study: Hope
At times in my personal Bible study I have taken a particular word or phrase and gone through a concordance looking up Scriptures mentioning it, plus what commentaries have to say on these verses.
Here are my study notes for Scriptures about HOPE
“But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Rom. 8:25
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” Prov. 13:12
“For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.” Ps. 38:15
“And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.” Ps. 39:17
What is my hope based on? On God alone.
“The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage…Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.” Ps. 16:6 & 9
My whole nature shall dwell in confidence. (Albert Barnes)
“Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy…” Ps. 33:18
The watchful providence of the Most High is one thing that can never fail. (Adam Clarke)
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” Ps. 42:1
There is no reason to despair – God will appear.
God is the healer of our spiritual maladies. (Clarke)
This verse contains self-reproof for being cast down, and self-exhortation to put trust in God. (Barnes)
“For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth.” Ps. 71:5
The ground of my hope and my expectation is in thee.
He had always trusted in God, and had always found him a helper. (Barnes)
”But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.” Ps. 71:14
I will always cherish hope; I will not give up in despair.
I will trust in God whatever may be the number, the power, and the confidence of my enemies. (Barnes)
”Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. “ Ps. 119:49
A prayer that God would not forget what he had promised, that all that he had said might be fulfilled. (Barnes)
A word of promise is a good ground of hope. (John Gill)
Reflecting on the promises God has given me for my marriage, my children and my calling, I have ample reason to “dwell in confidence.”
”Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” Ps. 146:5
While he that trusts in man is miserable, he that trusts in God is happy. (Clarke)
”The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” Ps. 147:11 (ESV)
”The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.” Prov. 10:28
”Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” Jer. 17:7
”The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.” Lam. 3:24
God is, and ever will be the all-sufficient happiness of his people…when I have lost all I have in the world…yet I have not lost my interest [in the financial sense] in God. Portions on earth are perishing things, but God is portion forever. (Matthew Henry)
”It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” Lam. 3:26
Abstain from all complaining (Barnes)
Hope is essentially necessary to faith; he that hopes not, cannot believe; if there be no expectation, there can be no confidence. (Clarke)
“And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” Acts 24:15
What would we do without this hope, this confidence, that there is an eternal Heaven awaiting us?
”Abraham…who against hope believed in hope…” Rom. 4:16, 18
Who against all apparent or usual ground of hope…believed what was promised to excite his hope. (Barnes)
The faith of Abraham bore an exact correspondence to the power and never-failing faithfulness of God. (Clarke)
”…we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation workers patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope makers not ashamed…” Rom. 5:3-5
For we thus calculate, that he who has supported us in the past will support us in those which may yet come. (Clarke)
”If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” 1 Cor. 15:19
I love this verse because we know the converse holds the truth – we do have hope in Christ for a glorious resurrection and eternity in Heaven. Therefore, of all men, we have most cause for joy!
”For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” Gal. 5:5
Our future eternity with God – which is always the Christian’s main goal and object of hope.
”For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven…” Col. 1:5
”Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1:27
Christ is the riches of the gospel. (Gill)
”…patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ…” 1 Thess. 1:3
Patience in your trials, showing you have such a hope of future blessedness as to sustain you in your afflictions. (Barnes)
”…Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope…” 1 Tim. 1:1
Without Jesus, the world was hopeless…He is called our hope…because from him hope…and all other blessings proceed. (Clarke)
”In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” Tit. 1:2
Amen and Amen.
”Christ…whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” Heb. 3:6
The word ‘confidence’ implies freedom of speech, liberty of access – showing that the way to the holiest is now open to all. (Clarke)
“Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus…” Heb. 6:17-20
An illusion to the cities of refuge and the persons who fled to them for safety.
The comparison of hope to an anchor is frequent among the ancient heathen writers, who supposed it to be as necessary to the support of a man in adversity, as the anchor is to the safety of the ship when about to be driven on a lee shore by a storm.
The soul may be strongly tossed by various temptations, but will not drive, because the anchor is in sure ground, and itself is stedfast. (Clarke)
And it holds, my anchor holds, blow your wildest then, o gale, on my bark so small and frail. By his grace, I shall not fail. For my anchor holds, my anchor holds!
We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll. Fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.
Jesus, You are my City of Refuge.
1 Peter 1:3 speaks of “a lively hope.”
A living hope. Hope must be kept alive.
vs 13 says “hope to the end.” I will choose hope always.
vs 21: “that your faith and hope might be in God.”
This is the key – hope must be rooted in God Himself.
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