Psalm 130
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING]
A Song of Ascents. 1 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications. 3 If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord; For with the Lord there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption. 8 And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.
[CONTEXT] We have been talking about these psalms of ascent that Jewish pilgrims would use as they went up to Jerusalem for one of the annual feasts.
Beginning with Psalm 120, we’ve seen the pilgrim as a stranger in a strange land make his way to Jerusalem to worship God and pray for his people.
But with Psalm 130, the pilgrim becomes desperate; and although he has prayed for his family, for his people, and against the enemies of his people, it doesn’t seem to me that he has prayed with this level of desperation before.
His praying reminds me of the tax-collector that Jesus told of who was so broken that he couldn’t even look up to heaven, but beat his chest, while saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” (Lk. 18:13).
He is the picture of the pilgrim in Psalm 130.
He is the picture of what we all should look like before God as we desperately confess our sins.
[TS] Psalm 130 takes us through four MOVEMENTS…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
MOVEMENT #1: From Despair to Prayer (Psalm 130:1-2)
MOVEMENT #1: From Despair to Prayer (Psalm 130:1-2)
1 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.
The pilgrim is desperate for forgiveness of his iniquities, i.e., his sin, his rebellion against God, his violation of God’s commands.
He is in the depths of despair, and humbly begs God to hear his cries for mercy.
Q. Why does the pilgrim beg God for forgiveness? Why not ask a priest at the temple? Why not ask himself for forgiveness and then declare himself forgiven?
(A) The pilgrim asks God for forgiveness because he has sinned against God.
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
(B) The pilgrim asks God forgiveness because forgiveness belongs to God.
Daniel 9:7–9 (NASB95)
7 “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord… 8 “Open shame belongs to us, O Lord… because we have sinned against You. 9 “To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him…
(C) The pilgrim asks God forgiveness because sin is deadly.
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
We should be desperately praying for forgiveness for these same reasons.
[ILLUS] Imagine how desperately you would cry out to God if you found yourself in an inescapable pit with large poisonous snake or with a ravenous lion?
We often treat sin like a potentially dangerous but ultimately harmless pet, but we should understand it for the deadly enemy that it is.
When we understand how deadly this enemy is, the desperation in our praying will greatly increase.
[TS]...
MOVEMENT #2: FROM FORGIVENESS TO REVERENCE (Psalm 130:3-4)
MOVEMENT #2: FROM FORGIVENESS TO REVERENCE (Psalm 130:3-4)
3 If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.
The Lord does mark iniquities. He does keep a record of sin.
8 You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
But the pilgrim is right—because of the record our iniquities, not one of us can stand justified before a holy God.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Our names, if we are forgiven, were written in Jesus’ book of life from before the foundation of the world.
Our sins deserved death and Jesus died that death for us on the cross and then rose from the dead forever proving that we are covered in his righteousness.
Indeed, with God their is forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
But v. 4 says that the forgiveness God offers—the forgiveness we take hold of by trusting in Jesus—leads us to fear or revere God.
This is filial fear, reverential fear, the fear we have of offending God who has forgiven us so much.
The forgiveness God offers in Jesus is the riches of his kindness meant to lead us to repentance.
Q. What’s the difference between repentance and remorse?
Repentance is turning away from sin because God has changed our heart regarding sin.
Remorse is feeling bad about having sinned.
Remorse may be a part of true repentance, but true repentance doesn’t stop at remorse.
True repentance actually turns away from sin; it stops doing it.
Q. How does repentance relate to fearing the Lord?
If we really fear the Lord—if we really revere him as our loving heavenly Father who has forgiven us our sins through death and resurrection of his Son, then we live lives of repentance.
Repentance is fear of the Lord in action.
If we are not repent… if we are not obedient to the Lord… if we are not living in the fear of the Lord, then can we say that we are grateful for the forgiveness that he has provided in His Son?
His forgiveness moves us to reverent, repent obedience.
[TS]...
MOVEMENT #3: From Trust to Longing (Psalm 130:5-6)
MOVEMENT #3: From Trust to Longing (Psalm 130:5-6)
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.
‘Hope’ in v. 5 is a certain belief or trust; the pilgrim trusts in God’s word because in his word God has promised to forgive
8 ‘I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.
20 ‘In those days and at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’
18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.
But I think the certain hope in God’s word moves the pilgrim to longing for the completion of salvation, which began with forgiveness.
The pilgrim compares himself to a night watchman longing for morning.
Q. What is a watchman and why would the night watchman be longing for morning?
(A) The night watchman might long for morning because it would be easier to spot the any once the sun rose.
(B) But I think the night watchman longs for the morning because he’s been up, vigilant keeping guard all night, and with the morning comes relief.
Another guard comes on duty, and the night watchman is able to rest.
I think the pilgrim is longing for that day in which the battle with sin is over.
First Peter 5:8 calls us to vigilance…
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
But when day, when we are with the Lord, vigilance will no longer be necessary. On that day, we will finally be able to rest.
6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Today we pursue purity with all vigilance because we hope in Jesus who is pure, but when we see, we will be made like him—perfect in purity, and our tireless vigilance will give way to eternal rest.
[TS]...
MOVEMENT #4: From Hope to Certainty (Psalm 130:7-8)
MOVEMENT #4: From Hope to Certainty (Psalm 130:7-8)
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord; For with the Lord there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption. 8 And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.
Assured of his own forgiveness, the pilgrim now calls on all of God’s people to hope (i.e., confidently trust) in the Lord.
Q. What reasons does the pilgrim give in vv. 7-8 to hope in the Lord?
(A) With the Lord there is lovingkindess.
His love conquers our sin.
(B) With the Lord there is abundant redemption.
His grace is greater than our sin.
(C) The Lord will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Our total forgiveness and complete salvation is certain.
[TS]...
Conclusion
Conclusion
In Luke 18 Jesus told about a desperate tax collector that confessed his sins and walked away forgiven.
There was also a proud Pharisee who did not desperately confess but pridefully boasted in his righteousness.
He walked away condemned.
Let us be like the desperate tax collector in Luke 18 and like this desperate pilgrim in Psalm 130.
Let us ask God to show us and break us over our sin.
Let us thank God that he has given us for forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Let us live lives of reverent repentance and constant vigilance.
Let us long for the eternal rest from war with sin.
And let us call others to hope in the Lord.
There is lovingkindness with him.
There is abundant redemption.
He will redeem all who trust in him from their sins.
[PRAYER]