""For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD."" (KJV) 

I was riding through downtown Atlanta recently and I observed some window washers cleaning the windows on a high-rise building. The courage that those workers have is amazing. We have all heard reports of how these workers have at times been left dangling from the sides of buildings because the scaffolding had fallen. The scaffold would plunge to the ground and the worker would have to be rescued while being suspended by ropes anchored to the building and wrapped around his body. I was reading on a window washer's website and found this statement. "Rope is the single most important component of your safety system. Without it, rope access work and high rise window cleaning would be impossible."

 

Psalm 71:5 reads "For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD." Did you know that the Hebrew word for "hope" is the word "tiqvah" (pronounced tick-vah) and it means "cord" or "rope"? The word carries the idea of a line that is attached to something in order to pull it to safety. The writer of Psalm 71 recognizes that from the time of his youth, GOD had been the single most important component of his safety system. GOD had been the rope that kept pulling him to safety even when the scaffolding that he stood on plunged to the ground and left him dangling.

 

Whenever we are holding on to hope, we are holding on to the rope. Even if everything around you collapses, hope's got you.