“Out of the depth’s I cry to you, O LORD” is how Psalm 130 begins. Have you ever said that before? Have you ever been so low, felt so down that all you can do is cry out? What do you pray?
Today’s Psalm of Ascent are the footprints we’re invited to tread in, when we cry out to God, these are footsteps that tells us we are setting our feet in the right direction.
So what does Psalm 130 have to teach us about Hope and crying out of the depths to God?
Psalm 130 invites us to hope to cry Out to the God who listens
as we read in verse 1-2. Listen in…
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
So you find yourself in this situation: You’re head is swimming in a sea of confusion. It’s dark and alone . You look evil in the eye of your sins and sorrows and you feel the stab of the accusing finger. You hear the accusing voice, and things happen to us. The things we want rubbed out of us, and you cry out MERCY, God rescue me (that gut retching cry I am ashamed). You say I am crushed by the weight of what is before me. I am sinned against and I sin against others. So how often do we cry out like this? So often we only come here when all other routes of escape have simply vanished before us. This is a cry from the depths of the soul that is uncovered in its brokenness and blackness and suffering. Psalm tells us we are to cry out. As the Psalms are written by real people who lived on real streets where doubt and pain and injustice are lived out. This Psalmist won’t smooth over his guilt, nor will he try and paint us another picture. This cry for help holds no excuse for his sins. As we read in verse 3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? The Psalmist gets on his knees and he starts talking to God, and we get the privilege of listening in. He starts praying for mercy; he begins by asking God give me ears that start listening to you again, and eh says “ears” be attentive – “listen up!”. So do we see how wide he casts his view of God as he longs to properly know where he is where he’s heading, and what he seeks is to reorientate his life to the reality of God’s way. The Psalmist holds out for hope, and he cries out to God -- mercy. Just as we so often experience the finger gets pointed and you hear the voice inside say GOTCHA. The question is where you find yourself running to? Will you shift the blame - dodge the whole thing, and so grab a drink, watch another movie? Will you pretend nothing’s there, will you paper over it ? Will you say I’ll deal with it tomorrow? Do you wonder how you will ever find yourself again in this dark place. It’s been said that our bodies degenerate our emotions malfunction our minds become confused our families find fault with us and our society avoids us[1] It feels like the bottom falls out and we sin and we are sinned against, as there are sins that happen to us, and sins we want rubbed out of us, and sometimes we feel like we look more like children of Satan than children of God. The difference here for hope is one small word with one great big impact. Please notice that very small word of verse 4. We are asked if God kept a record of sin who could stand – well obviously no one. BUT!!!! You know when you’re having one of those conversations with someone, and they are telling you how nice a person they think you are, then they drop in a BUT, do you ever brace for impact. BUT usually means, warning I am about to now let you now have it. This is a different kind of BUT. This one points our feet in the right direction in verse 4
4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
Forgiveness like this feels so alien to us as we often do the opposite to God, we remember those who sin against us. We fear man. We worry about making our mortgage repayments. We get anxious about our family’s health before we fear God. So do we see how God invades here with mercy, as he forgives, he takes away our sin, he wipes it clean and remembers it no more. This is fearful forgiveness that is God’s way. This is the fearful forgiveness of Jesus on the cross crying out in his pain “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” Hope is where we find God won’t leave us nor forsake us. Hope is how God reaches out to us with love. Our hope is in Jesus who has risen from the dead, like in 1 Peter 1:3.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
In the midst of the want and waste in your life, what voice do you listen out for? Where do you step into? Please listen in again how the Psalmist directs our gaze…
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Verses 5-6
Hope patiently waits on God and acknowledges my want and waste in sin – I own up. Hope casts my view wide to take in the stunning rays of forgiveness
a new dawn of God reviving my soul, so I confess. He is the God of the resurrection. He is the God of forgiveness and mercy. He is the God of infinite love and tender care, who has made the necessary sacrifice for our sin and guilt to be dealt with. Our sins and sorrows are never made light of. They are there BUT there’s that little word again, BUT they are taken by the mercy of God. We cry mercy forgive me, as Romans 3:21-26 says it best
21-24 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. 25-26 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. (The Message)
This is no quick fix to the want and waste of sin in us as the words wait and watch are no accident to this Psalm. We are told be patient and to: hope in his word, hope in his promises, hope in his truth, hope in his direction, hope in his care, hope in his love. Don’t miss the movement of God in your life, Verse 7-8
7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
So how does Psalm 130 fit into the Psalms of Ascents and what does that mean for me as a pilgrim following Jesus today??
How do I wrap a Psalm like this around my life knowing the street I live in is filled with my very waste and want of sin? This Psalm tells me my life needs reorientation. I am reminded that faith has a voice. So do I know how to speak about my need before God? As James 4:2-3tells us
You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Do I know how to voice my confidence in the God of gladness, trust and joy that comes from the risen Lord Jesus. Only Jesus has conquered sin and death. Is my heart warmed by the love of God that sacrificed Jesus for my sin and guilt, knowing my heart is prone to stray, Lord how I feel it. Psalm 130 tells me forgiveness isn’t a ritual. This Psalm deals with knowing where you are, and to know where you are heading. This Psalm prepares us for the personal nature of God. God doesn’t take a chainsaw to dress the vine of God’s grace growing in our lives. He prunes us one clip at a time. Our growth in Christ is a more profound awareness of the love and mercy of God, and our sinfulness in that. Our forgiveness and redemption is a community event as we live out our lives rubbing shoulders with our families, in our streets and alongside our neighbourhoods. Also right here amongst ourselves here as God’s household of believers, His church. So will you this week wait on the Lord for his mercy? The God who will redeem us from our sins
Oh Lord Hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy
Let’s pray…
David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 23-4-17