Gunnedah Presbyterian St Andrews PSALM 130 My Soul Waits for The LORD Series “my Soul waits for the LORD” Zoom Meeting Sunday the 10th of May 2020 LGS
PSALM 130
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.
“Down in the dumps” “Out in the bleachers” “On the bench” “Being in the pits” “The Black dog” “Burn out” “Melancholy” “depths of despair”; there are lots of ways we have of describing what it means to be emotionally or spiritually down in that ‘trench’ or gully, or hole that we’ve either stumbled into bit by bit, or else entirely fallen down into, like an unsuspecting sheep at a disused well.
There we are. Its not pleasant, there’s not much sunlight or colours to cheer us, we are DOWN.
And of course the only scenery the only place to look when you’re down, is UP! And sometimes, we have to admit, that God allows us to be in that fix so that we will look up, and realise that our lives So depend upon Him.
Hear the words the Psalmist uses as he calls out to God here in Psalm 130:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
It’s called a Penitential Psalm, because, well he sounds penitent, doesn’t he? Sorry for something. (like Psalm 6,32,38,51,106, 143 also) That’s not always the case when we are down in the pits, there can be all kinds of reasons for it, but here it seems the Psalmist has recognised his own Sin, that perhaps he’s culpable for how he got into this situation.
He openly admits his iniquities to God, He seeks mercy. There is Repentance and He finds Forgiveness with God.
When you are down, at least if you believe in God, there is the knowledge that God can help you. There is the possibility His mercy and being brought up out of the miry clay, and finding our footing on the solid rock once more. And certainly there is more of a possibly of that than to just keep banging your head against the wall of the pit you are inside. Help must come from above. So…Look up!
And as you read the words of this one crying out to God you can hear a certainty that he has, which is not unknown in the O.T but is a lot clearer in the New.
Certainty that God can help you. Think of the blind man who calls out to Jesus; “Son of David have mercy upon me!” (Lk 18:38)
Or when Jarius pleads with Jesus to come and heal his daughter, (mk5:21ff)
When Martha comes to Jesus after Lazarus her brother had died (Jn11) trusting even then that Jesus could do something: “..I know that even now God the Father will hear you” In all these cases there is a comprehension, a certainty, that God is merciful AND that He can help us.
We as sinful humans have no claim on God that He should answer us, or help us, but we cry out to Him, because we are certain that He is Merciful. And this even if we are very conscious of our own sin. Remember Jesus words, that he came to save sinners.
Some fellow that I heard of was flummoxed because all of his friends had bible sounding names. Matthew, Luke, Peter, James, Noah, Joshua, and so forth and He didn’t have a name like that, where was his name in the bible, but another friend showed him, that he should look for a different name in the bible. He should look for the name ‘sinner’ because that is the name of the ones that Jesus came to save! And Lo and behold as he looked through the bible he found lots of places where his name was found!
The Psalmist here knows that he’s a sinner. He says: “If you O Lord should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand”
There is no way any of us could stand before God in our own righteousness. All of us are sinners. That’s why we need the grace of God. God meets us where we are where we are, in the hole who’ve dug for ourselves, and He alone makes the first move in drawing us up and out,
See v4
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
Notice; There’s no bargaining here. No saying; “I spied the fact that you have at your disposal a somewhat useful rope, or climbing ladder, that if you let it down here, I could climb on it, and when I get out, I’ll do this, and these other things for you”, OR ‘I’ll have my best manners,’ OR ‘I’ll lead a new life’ ‘I’ll donate some funds to the save the wild animals from falling into pits, fund.’
No, this man is aware that he has no way of bargaining, and redeeming himself. He needs grace, He needs Help, and all he can do is admit his need.
But you know, the wonderful thing is that God is well and truly aware of our predicament, He knows how to help us, and He has come prepared for the rescue.
“With you there is forgiveness that you may be feared”
Do you ever say these words yourself? Or something like them? “I know I’m a serial hole faller-into-er, And I know I don’t deserve to be rescued by you, but I also know that there is forgiveness with you.” “Please forgive me, I want a fresh start, I want to honour you. Please help me.” Do we say that?
We might have been down in this hole for some time…We might have tried many of our own tricks to shinny ourselves up and out, we might have had more than a few bystanders offer advice, some too, who’d seen us, like the man going down to Jericho, but passed on the other side of the road. But all of that’s irrelevant because only God can really save us, From outside. From Above.
With The LORD there is forgiveness – Is that not a wonderful verse!
We have an advocate who will hear us. He has ears to be attentive to our cry.
Notice the Purpose of forgiveness That He may be feared/respected (V4). Not trivial forgiveness, not notional forgiveness but genuine life changing forgiveness, that says; ‘Lord I was wrong. You now should be in the driver’s seat.’
Real repentance and real forgiveness, real respect for God.
V5-8 centre on the confidence and subsequent patience that a rescued one can afford to have
(See also Jer 31:31-34; 34:8 Ex 34:6f Mic 7:18)
You see if God really is worth worshiping. If he really does give forgiveness as a gift of His grace, then He’s also one that is worth your time waiting for.
The psalmist waits, and in that waiting he hopes in God’s word. I think he means God’s promises.
A lot of Australia is waiting right now, most of the world is waiting. Waiting to see what will happen, when things will re-open. What will be affected the most. But that kind of waiting is no where near certain. The one who trusts in God’s forgiveness can wait with a lot more certainty than that.
In a time when Watchmen were posted to keep guard at night they had no time keeping, they had no Eveready torch or handy light switch to turn on. They waited in the dark. They peered into the dark. A watchman in those times might see all kinds of things approaching out of what cant be seen. But the believer waits for what is certain. We wait for a God who has shown Himself faithful and is not stingy in His help in time of need.
V7 & 8
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.
If you wait for one you love, and you know loves you, you will wait with a far different expression on your face than the one who waits not being sure. We have a God who is plentiful in redemption. A God who is steadfast in LOVE. We can afford to endure a few dark hours if we know the one coming loves us and is strong to rescue us.
APP:
Lift up your eyes – to where your help comes from. My help comes from God. The Maker of Heaven and Earth.
Gunnedah Presbyterian Church 