Earnest

The older English word "earnest" — a pledge given as guarantee of the full sum to come — corresponds to "token" and "security deposit" in the UPDV. The cluster of references is small but theologically dense: the Spirit functions as the down payment of an inheritance not yet fully received, and a visible token can be requested from God in present trouble.

A Token for Good

In a psalm of distress, the request is for a perceptible sign that Yahweh has not abandoned the petitioner — a pledge in the present that the deliverance is real. The petition is made to Yahweh by name: "Show me a token for good, That those who hate me may see it, and be put to shame, Because you, Yahweh, have helped me, and comforted me" (Ps 86:17). The token is for the eyes of opponents as much as for the petitioner's own assurance.

The Spirit as Security Deposit

The same logic — a present pledge guaranteeing a future complete payment — appears with the Spirit as the substance of the pledge. Believers are sealed and given the Spirit as the down payment: "who also sealed us, and gave [us] the security deposit of the Spirit in our hearts" (2Co 1:22). The same formulation reappears in the context of the believer's longing for the resurrection body: "Now he who worked us for this very thing is God, who gave to us the security deposit of the Spirit" (2Co 5:5). The Spirit is not the whole of what God will give but the guarantee that the rest is coming.

The Ephesian doxology connects the security deposit explicitly to the inheritance and to the final redemption: "which is a security deposit of our inheritance, to the redemption of [God's] own possession, to the praise of his glory" (Eph 1:14).