What Happened to the Audacity of Hope?

David's beautiful Psalm 23 is one of the Bible's most well-known passages to believers and non-believers alike. Often read at funerals, it is perceived as a universal message of comfort and hope for all people. But the hope it promises can only by possessed by those who know God as their Shepherd.

In 2006, Barak Obama wrote “The Audacity of Hope,” in which he challenged Americans to have hope in a time of difficulty and uncertainty. Borrowing from the apostle Paul and Franklin D. Roosevelt, he said “In the end it [hope] is God’s greatest gift to us: believing in things not seen, and believing there are better days ahead.” Of a certainty, ‘then’ Senator Obama could not have known how much difficulty and uncertainly lay ahead for the nation over which he would preside. Whatever your politics, you have to admit that his presidency has not been in the best of times. And now, unsurprisingly, he no longer speaks of hope. Without a revelation of God as His Shepherd, how could he?

The metaphor may not be entirely appropriate, but King David’s path to the throne was rocky—his reign full of ups and downs. David came on the scene at a difficult time: a protracted war with the Philistines, political division, and over-taxation had weakened the new-found kingdom. Still David kept entrusting his life to God. For David, there was no question about where to put his trust. “But as for me, I will hope continually” (Psalm 71:14). David knew there was only one place to find hope. What audacity! We should all be so bold.