“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” Psalm 130
The writer of this Psalm finds himself in the place where we all too often find ourselves…we have sinned…we realize the heinousness of our sin and we are genuinely sorrowful. Do you remember the last time when these three moved us to cry out to the LORD…to our Father? All too often we know we sin…but we throw up a quick, “forgive me” and move on…simply because we haven’t realized the heinousness of even the smallest sin before our Holy God and Father. This is a psalm of genuine sorrow for such behavior because ALL that we do is done Coram Deo…Before the Face of God.
The writer cries out for mercy because of the heinousness of his sin realized, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” He realizes what he is due because of his sin, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” The psalmist knows he does not deserve to be listened to by the LORD (Yahweh), the Sovereign One (Lord), because of his sin, but to whom else is he to call in his distress and recognition of sinning against God and God alone, than to the Only One who has the words of life. I am convinced that we “forget” about this all too often. How often do we reflect on how heinous our sins (even the smallest ones) are before our Holy God and Father and what they justly deserve save for His mercy and grace?
So the psalmist cries out to God because of what he knows to be true, “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” He KNOWS that in the Lord there is forgiveness because that is His covenantal promise for all who are His. He knows and he trembles with that knowledge of what he deserves and the mercy he receives because of God’s mercy and grace.
It is in knowing this…truly knowing that, that he can now wait on the LORD for His deliverance. Because of God’s great mercy he can wait on the Lord. Because he knows he is forgiven he can wait on the LORD. Because of His Word he has hope in the LORD. “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
There are times when our sins may seem overwhelming, but knowing God and His covenantal steadfast love towards His own enables us to also know:
There are times when our sins may seem overwhelming, but knowing God and His covenantal steadfast love towards His own enables us to also know:
- We can wait for Him knowing that in His time and in His way He will deliver, because He always has and always will.
- We need to cry out to Him, because of how heinous even the smallest sin is to a Holy God, with genuine sorrow…
- We are forgiven, which should cause us to tremble with the knowledge of what we deserve and what it is that God our Father actually shows to us because of His steadfast love.
The last couple of verses alone ought to get us on our knees, “O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption.” Plentiful redemption…more than enough…an overabundance of grace and mercy to us His children because of His steadfast love. But there is more. This great declaration comes with a promise attached, “And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” Through Jesus Christ, His elect…His Church…“the Israel of God” has been and is being redeemed. Praise the Lord!
God Bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
