At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).
When we are looking forward to something that is highly desired, the anticipation is part of the pleasure. It is not just the banquet, but also the time spent looking forward to the banquet. It is not just the wedding, but also the engagement. The hope fulfilled is the anticipation in fruition.
And of course, there is no disappointment like the disappointment of an expected blessing not materializing. This proverb is not speaking of utter disaster—hopes dashed—but rather of hopes deferred. It is not the condition of a military wife who receives news that her husband was killed in battle—that would be hopes dashed. Rather, this is talking about her looking forward to her husband returning from deployment, counting the days, and then she discovers that his deployment has been extended for a month. That is hope deferred, and the result of this is that it makes the heart sick. The disappointment saps the heart’s resilience. Vitality starts to evaporate, and the result is a cascade of unclear and muddy thinking. The sickness here is not the kind caused by a virus, but it can feel that way. Hope deferred leaves the person tired, exhausted, enervated and weak.
But it goes the other way also, and the proverb speaks of it in superlative terms. When the long-desired blessing arrives, it is a “tree of life” (Gen. 2:9) This is a striking metaphor. The tree of life was one of the two great trees in the Garden of Eden. At the other end of the Bible it is a way of describing the gospel itself (Rev. 22:14). That is what it is like when the good news finally lands.
