A Shout Away (Ps. 130)

Pipes of direct connection to God. Have 2 people, one at each end of pipes. 1 will shout help while the other listens for their call. Extend the length of the pipe each time.

1. A Cry for Mercy (1-2)

v1, its is out of his drowning despair the psalmist cries out to God.

The awareness of one’s sin and God’s complete Holiness that brings about the flood of guilt that drowns the heart and soul with sorrow.

It is not the extrordinary pressures of life or other outside influences that bring this cry out from the depths to the Holy God rather it is the weight and heaviness of sin from within that sends a person calling out to God.

Oh how even the hopeless person cries out to God, “Oh God if you only save me now I will...”

What despair that physical afflication can bring and unbearable circumstances can cripple even the toughest man but the weight of conviction of the righteousness of God and the brokeness of oneself can fold the stiffest knees of an atheist.

Even the hopeless person acknowledges God saves when no other can.

v2, This plea from the psalmist is made in faith that God will answer. It is a trusting of God that He cares to hear our voice and to give attention to us even though we may be far off. It is the beginning of true confession and repentance as one calls upon the name of the Lord for forgiveness and believes in His heart for Salvation.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

A true cry for mercy will always come from the understanding of the heart of God’s character and remorse over our brokenness.

2. A Cry of Confession (3-4)

v3, Not one person on can stand on there own credit, merit, or righteousness for we are all subject to the nature of Adam, that is the sin nature.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

All have sinned and not even the most godly person can stand before God blameless apart from His divine intervention in Christ.

And God has chosen us in Christ that we should be able to make that stand as holy and blameless.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

v4, The psalmist knew that if it was based on his own ability forgiveness would never be an option for his betrayal of God and the hidden sin of his heart against the Righteous God.

But the psalmist’s appeal was to the mercy of God, His compassion, knowing that with Him there is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a great work of mercy by God and for us it is only through His Son Jesus Christ.

This forgiveness is NOT shallow, empty, imperfect, or incomplete but deep, full, perfect, and complete. A working of God’s immeasurable greatness toward us who believe.

Forgiveness comes at a great cost, for the psalmist it would have been the cost an unblemished animal, for us it cost God His perfect Son.

Sin must be atoned/paid for and this payment in Christ through faith has brought about the greatest positional change in all of history; guilty to innocent, death to life, slave to free, seperated to fellowship.

“If you take seriously the guilt of sin, you will take seriously the grace of forgiveness. Salvation is a serious and costly transaction.” -Warren Weirsbe

A deep fear, reverance, and respect of God is birthed into the heart of the one whose sin and guilt are completely cancelled. It is out of the desire not to betray the God who loves perfectly and judges rightly.

Appropriate fear of God is based on the entirety of God’s character, not a singluar focus on one characteristic of Him; whether love, forgiveness, or judgement, to rest soley on one aspect may develop a hard heart in an individual.

3. A Cry of Hope (5-6)

v5, The psalmist cries out the it is the Yahweh that he will wait on, that his soul waits for the action of God and that his hope for restoration is based on the promises of God’s Word.

The Psalmist may be laying hold of the forgiveness for sin prescibed for the Israelites in God’s Word found in Leviticus 4:27-31.

Leviticus 4:31; “…And the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.” Gives the wanting hope of a restored relationship between a person and the God of righteousness.

v6, this wanting, this hope, this waiting is in anticipation for the newness that comes in God’s mighty work of forgiveness and restoration.

It is the anticipation of being moved out of darkness (separation from God) and into light (fellowship with God).

It is an anticipation the psalmist describes as a watching waiting in the night for the morning. The eagerness for light to expose the ground and to eliminate the attacks in the darkness of night. It is the eager hope of a new mercy in the morning as proclaimed by Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:22-23.

Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

For us who are in Christ and have His forgiveness means we are a cheerished people of God born now, out of darkness to light, for the purpose of proclaiming the hope and mercy in Christ. 1 Peter 2:9

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

4. A Cry of Assurance (7-8)

v7, The psalmist now turns the congregation of Israel reminding them to hope in Yahweh, reminding them that Yahweh’s unbreakable convenant love is loyal to them and lasting, reminding them that in Yahweh is redemption from the slavery of sin.

God is the God of freedom and He has proven it multiple times to the Israelites, most noteably in the redemption of Israel from Pharoh and the Eygptians. It was at the cost of the firstborns of Eygpt that Israel received their redemptive freedom.

But for us in Christ we are set free from the slavery of sin at the cost of God’s firstborn, Jesus Christ (not as a created firstborn for Jesus has eternally existed but as positionally/relationally firstborn having all rights and inheritance as such). Galatians 5:1

Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

We, like the people of Israel, are called to put our confidence in the hope set before in God and more so our assurance set forth in Christ. May we be reminding that redemption is plentiful in Christ and that forgiveness is the gift of God.

Ultimately, God’s forgiveness is unchanging, faithful, and just when with true confession and repentance we come to Him. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

v8, Finally, the future hope of the psalmist rest in the finally redemption brought on by God through His Messiah. A final deliverance from all sin, injustice, and wickedness. God, Himself, will absolutely redeem Israel.

Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

For the rest of mankind, we have the blessing to be able to be transferred into the family of God through Jesus, God’s plan of adoption for us, and God’s plan of Salvation for us.

We must believe in God’s redemptive work through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in order to receive mercy, forgiveness, restoration, and eternal life. Ephesians 1:13

Ephesians 1:13 “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,”

Application of the Scripture

If the Lord was to keep record of your sins would you be able to stand before Him blameless?

Call upon the name of the Lord, acknowlege your sin and ask for forgiveness. Turn from your sin and lay hold of the HOPE that is in Jesus Christ!