From The Depths

Good morning. Welcome to another week here at the bridge. I am so glad to be back this week and thankful for the opportunity to be back in the pulpit and sharing the word of God with you.

Vacation

It was a good vacation. We were able to enjoy the time away and together as a family. We went to Upstate NY in the Adirondack mountains. This area is special to me for a couple of reasons. We went to the camp ground that we would often go to every summer for two weeks. This was a great experience and something i fondly remember and am thankful for. The second is that this was the area of the country where my dad grew up. I was able to show my kids places that i experienced growing up and were places that had fond memories of my dad and his love for this place. One of the bests trips was climbing up Panther mountain to echo cliffs and taking in an amazing view of Piseco lake. This was a hike that we did almost every year that we camped there. It was a time full of emotion and also joy. It was amazing to celebrate my Dad and his legacy in my life and what he did for me growing up.

It was in this place that i was reminded of so many highs and lows over the past year. I was reading my Bible while i was there getting ready for this message when i read the passage for this morning and i was so excited to share with you the Passage that God showed me. Turn with me to Psalm 130

Psalm 130 NIV

A song of ascents. 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 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.

The Depths: The Deep Dark

I read this passage and i was amazed by the beauty of this psalm. It is always a blessing when a Psalm speaks so much to your heart. This one did exactly that. The first line though was where i wanted to begin this morning.

Psalm 130:1 NIV

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;

The Depths: The Deep Dark

Out of the depths. The depths is such a powerful and imapctful word as i read this passage. I immediately connected to it and was able to see so much of my life in that state of in the depths. Yet, I want to make sure we really understand what that means for us.

The Depths in the original languages can be a reference to ‘the deep’ that the earth was thought to have been placed upon. Think about Genesis 1:2

Genesis 1:2 NIV

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

It was thought to be a “body of water” that the earth was built upon. This was the void of nothingness the chaos or the removal away from God. There are so many images that we can interpret from this understanding.

The Depths: The Deep dark

The Depths is also connected to the understanding of the underworld, or Hell. The polar opposite of heaven. This is the place where we are separated form God and removed from him. This is why the wording choice is so powerful. To reference the deep gives us the understanding of the place that the author was coming from and understanding where they viewed their position in relationship to God.

It also makes me think about my life and the times when i felt like i was in the deep. Where i was living in a way or choosing to be separate or feeling like i was not walking with him and i see those places and the connections to the deep and the times where i felt so distant from God. Thinking about these things i look back and i do not shed a tear for those times but in many ways i see those as times to rejoice because God was able to deliver me from those points.

For some people though there are things that can happen in our physical lives where we feel so distant from God and it is causing us to feel like we are in the deep. I thought of a story from the Gospel of Mark that is a great example of this for two different people. The first one was Named Jarius.

Mark 5:21–24 NIV

21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him.

Here is a man who i can relate to. I think i would be as desperate as he is with the thought of my little girl dying. Trying anything to save her life and to be free of the fear and despair of losing a child. Yet, in this story he wasn’t the only one who encounter Jesus who was in the depths.

Mark 5:25–26 NIV

25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.

The crowd grew around Jesus and there was a woman living in the town who had been battling with a life long disease. She tried everything trying to free herself of this disease. She was broke, sick, and struggling to find relief form this affliction.

Stuck in the Deep

Both of these people had to be struggling with the affliction that were placed on their lives. They had no idea why they were going through these things. These were just natural byproducts of being a part of this broken and fallen world. Yet, i imagine that they felt like there were stuck in the deep and looking for a way out. While we may not have gone through exactly what they have experienced we can all relate to some kind of experience where we have struggled with the realities of this broken world and we have felt like we are in the deep and there is no hope.

We don’t feel connected to God, we don’t feel the love of God, we are struggling. This is where we begin. This is the reality of the lives that we live.

Escaping the Deep

This is the goal for us though. This idea that we need to be free of the burden and the hardship of the deep. We don’t want to be in this place any longer we want to get out of it. This is important not only for our physical lives but for our spiritual lives. Think about Jarius and the Women for a minute. They saw the way out from the depths. They had heard about Jesus and who he was and knew that he was something special and powerful. The recognized his lordship and this was why the sought him out.

Mark 5:27–29 NIV

27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

She knew that all she had to do was touch Jesus’ clothes and she would be healed. She had that much faith in him and his abilities and who he was. She saw that he was the way to be free of the deep.

We already saw that Jarius recognized the power of Jesus.

Mark 5:22–23 NIV

22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”

We see though that he had to endure even more before Jesus would get to his house.

Mark 5:35–36 NIV

35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” 36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

Jarius actually entered the deep further in this moment because people came and told them that his daughter was dead. Then Jesus informs them to not be afraid; just believe. Can you imagine hearing those lines after someone just informed you of the lose of a loved one. It is bold and in many ways feels like Jesus was insensitive to the news that was just delivered. In fact, in my opinion it looks like Jesus makes it worse.

Mark 5:38–42 NIV

38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.

Jesus delivered them from the deep though. He was true to his word and in that moment he pulled this family from a dark moment and instead gave them a moment to rejoice.

Escaping the deep

God provides for us and it in this moment that we recognize what the Psalmist was saying in his pursuit of god.

Psalm 130:3–5 NIV

3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.

He is our Hope

It is in God that we find hope. It is in God that we find escape from the deep. It is in him that we can have joy. The reality is that without God’s love and mercy who could possibly stand before him. It is only because of his love for us that we are able to even think about escaping the deep.

The Psalmist speaks about the problem that all of us face. The problem of Sin. Because the reality is that Sin is the common factor that keeps us in the deep. That’s why we have passages like these..

Romans 3:23 NIV

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

and

Romans 5:12 NIV

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

It is because of Sin that we can’t see a way out of the deep and how we are going to be free of that burden. The world doesn’t alway recognize this burden and challenge that we face.

He is our Hope

This need for the connection to God is the most important thing for pulling us out of the deep. It also helps us to recognize when we are in the deep and when we need his support more and more. It is here that i realized the true benefit of being a follower of Christ. It is in him that we can have confidence and because of that when we enter into hard times it isn’t as hard because we have Him to lean on and help us through these hardships. This really helps bring to light those last couple verses.

Psalm 130:7–8 NIV

7 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.

It is in him that we find full redemption no matter what is going on in the world around us. It was in Him that the women and Jarius found freedom from their hardship. Ultimately it is in him that we find the true freedom from sin and we find forgiveness. That is the hope we have this morning and we can be reminded of that because of his Love for us.

Let us Pray.