As I’ve been pondering changes and improvements God has been laying on my heart to make in this New Year, He brought to mind a group study my husband and I led years ago where one of the sections centered on worshiping God.  One of the activities we were to do was to read a given list of verses from the Psalms and underline words or phrases that describe ways you can direct your worship to God through His names.  

Well, if you know me at all, this activity dominoed into a full-on word study. I mean, if the point of the lesson is to discover the various ways I can worship God, I need to know exactly what these words mean in the original language of the Bible. Right? RIGHT! 

Well, I won’t bore you with all that I journaled in response to this exercise, but one thing in particular really impacted me. It was found in Psalm 52:9 

“I will praise You forever for what You have done; 
in Your name I will hope, for Your name is good.” 

The phrase God drew me to was “in Your name I will hope“, so I researched the meaning of the word “hope“.

Hope, (gavah) in the Hebrew language means to wait or look eagerly for; linger for. The tense of (gavah) in this verse denotes an action done with frequent repetition. God prompted me to look up the word “linger” in the dictionary. Check this out!

Linger means “to remain or stay on in a place longer than is expected, as if from reluctance to leave; to dwell in contemplation or thought or enjoyment; to persist or continue, especially in the mind; to prolong dwelling.”

Oh my word…(deep sigh)…I have taken “hope” so lightly. 

• When’s the last time I “hoped” in His name, in Who He is, His character and attributes??
• When was the last time I lingered in His presence, staying long because I didn’t wanna stop my quiet time with Him?
• When was the last time “enjoyment” could describe my time with Him?
• When was the last time I walked away from my time in His Word, dwelling on what I studied??
• When was the last time that what I studied kept coming back to mind throughout my day??
• When was the last time I truly “hoped” in His name??

I have to confess that it’s been longer than it should have been, especially with the craziness of the Christmas season that we just came through. I can’t tell you how heavy my heart is right now. I want to give God ALL that is due Him. I want Him to know how much I love Him, not just by my words but by my actions. 

Oh Lord…please keep this fresh in my mind so that I truly worship You by hoping in Your precious Name. Please enable me to grow in my hope…in my lingering. I love You so much and I’m so sorry I’ve been slack in this.