Psalm 119:166

The next verse we take up in this octave of Psalm 119 entitled Schin sums up the life of a servant of God, who is called a Christian in the New Testament (Acts 11:26).

Psalms 119:166  LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.

Everything in this verse turns on that word hope. Our holy religion is all about hope. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which we believe is the message of hope.

Colossians 1:5  For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel….

Without hope, we would have long since abandoned our faith. So let’s begin by defining that word hope.

Hope – To entertain expectation of something desired; to look (mentally) with expectation.

In this verse the auxiliary verb have is attached to both of the past participles of the two verbs hope and do: I have hoped...and done. The psalmist had been both hoping and doing. His life as a servant of God consisted of what he hoped for and what he did, and so should our lives as Christians.

In this case, the psalmist hoped for God’s salvation and as he hoped he obeyed God’s commandments. Think about it. As a Christian do you not spend your life trying to keep God’s commandments whilst at the same time praying to God and expecting Him to deliver you, both now and in the end? And if you are praying to and trusting God to deliver you, aren’t you hoping for His salvation? As the psalmist wrote: I have hoped for thy salvation.


That we hope for God’s salvation, implies that we believe in God and trust Him to save us. Hope is faith in operation. It is faith that gives substance to our hope.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Why would anyone expect deliverance from someone he did not trust? Find what a person trusts in, and you will see wherein his hope lies. If you put your trust in man, then you will expect salvation from man. You will expect him to rescue you and preserve you. But the Scriptures straightly warn us against trusting in man.

Psalms 146:3  Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

4  His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

5  Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

6  Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever….

How is that for a passage warning you against putting your trust in the promises of politicians (princes) and expecting them to save you, as so many do? There is no help in them. To put your trust in man and expect your salvation from him is to invite a curse upon yourself.

Jeremiah 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

If you truly trust in the Lord, then He is your hope. Your expectation is from him. He only is your salvation.

Psalms 62:5  My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

6  He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.

Now the psalmist’s hope for God’s salvation had already been granted to him as is evidenced in the fact that he had done God’s commandments. Without God working salvation in our lives, the devil, the world, and our own corrupt flesh would long since have drawn us away from God’s commandments. How many times has God saved us from a temptation we could not bear? Or how many times has God made a way of escape for us so that we could bear a temptation?

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Now there is a connection between hoping for God’s salvation and doing His commandments as today’s verse suggests. This should be evident in the following two passages.

Acts 24:14  But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:

15  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.

16  And herein (in this hope) do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

1 John 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

And, interestingly, if you are diligent in doing God’s commandments, you will gain more assurance of your hope.

Hebrews 6:10  For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

11  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

12  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

So the more you hope the more you obey and the more you obey the more you hope. Hope and obedience thrive on each other. 1Corinthians 15 is the great resurrection chapter of Paul’s epistles. In it he vividly sets forth the believer’s hope in Christ. It is interesting to note that he concludes that chapter with an exhortation to obedience to God.

1 Corinthians 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

The historically verified doctrine of the resurrection lets us know that we serve a risen Saviour Who will raise us up also. Our hope is founded in that which is real. We are not wasting our time on a fairy tale. Our work in serving Christ in not in vain. Therefore, we hope and obey!

On the other hand, those who abandon hope will give up on God and do whatever they want with no regard for what He has commanded.

Jeremiah 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

And so let me urge you to hold fast your hope of God’s salvation and be not moved away from it. As you do so, it will spur you to serve the God of hope all the more so that your testimony will be: LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy commandments.