Despair and Hope

By Cameron Magby

In his famous speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” That’s also true for the tension we see in our reading today. Only against the darkness of despair does hope shine brightest.

The Bible does not shy away from despair. Job cried, “Why did you bring me out of the womb?” (Job 10:18). Psalm 88 ends with, “Darkness is my only friend” (Psalm 88:18). The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he and his colaborers were “completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself” (2Corinthians 1:8).

I’m sure if you and I could sit across the table from each other, we could share stories past and present where we, too, have come face to face with despair and hopelessness.

These are not faithless words; they are honest ones. Despair is not foreign to the people of God. It is part and parcel of living in the “already and not yet” of the kingdom of God, in a world fractured by sin. It’s reality—not one that we have to like or welcome. It just is.

But despair does not get the final word.

In Lamentations, after tears, affliction, and bitterness, Jeremiah wrote, “Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end” (Lamentations 3:21–22). Hope is found in intentionally turning our minds toward God’s steadfast love.

The women who approached the tomb in the Gospel of Matthew came in grief. But they were told, “Do not be afraid….He has risen” (Matthew 28:5–6). Their despair was real, but so was their joy. Because Christ is risen, our hope is living and secure (1Peter 1:3–5). It is anchored not in our situation but in our Savior who defeated death.

And so we find an invitation in Psalm 62:5–8. When we feel shaken, or lost in despair, we speak to our souls: “Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from him” (Psalm 62:5).

Rest. We can find that in God. We can rest in Him because everything we need for peace has been accomplished for us in Jesus. This is why we can live out verse 8, which says: “pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge.” If we find ourselves in despair today, we can bring it to God. He will listen. We do not have to “grin and bear it.” There’s nothing wrong with naming our despair to our Father. We actually glorify Him by bringing it to Him.

Through Jesus, we can bring our despair into the presence of God. And through Jesus, we find the hope that we so desperately need.