Forgiveness

Psalm 130:1-8

This powerful Psalm is a song of degrees, it is being sung by someone that knows the Grace and Mercy of God! I believe I have spoken about this Psalm, before. If I have, I apologize for treading down roads already travelled but I feel an importance for us to know this and continue to bask in the forgiveness of God, just as this writer does.

Some believe this writer to be Hezekiah, but I am not sure.

The writer expresses his situation and his earnest plea!

Out of the depths: The depths we could say so much about, but as you go down you read where this person is Jewish and his cry is of God chosen people knowing, how they have fell from God. He participated in or watched as Israel fell into idolatry and living their lives with no regard for God, their Father!

This is the greatest depths that anyone can ever be in! “Out of the depths”. Being separated from God is truly the most desperate situation in life!

“I cried to You, O Lord”: The writers desperation calls upon the Only Help, that can be found!

“Lord” here is defined as Yahweh, which is the most sacred terms to reference God. It also is a reference to God as the Only True God!

So, the writer goes to the only help that there is! There is no other help!

I will add there is no desperation that measures up to being out with God! Nothing, that has ever happened can even come close to living without forgiveness from God!

In verse 2 the writer goes on to cry out to God, begging Him to hear the voice of his supplications!

Supplications is a plea for mercy or a petition for kindness. The emphasis is strong! The plea or petition is one of the most desperate state!

This is not a cry to get me out of a jam or to fix my circumstances, this is the most desperate cry or plea for God’s kindness. Basically, to show kindness where kindness is not deserved!

Verse 3 strengthens the reason for the writer’s plea: “If the Lord should mark my iniquities, O Lord who can stand?”

If the Lord would remember my trespasses against Him, my sin against Him, my shortcomings against Him, my desires against Him, my thoughts against Him: if He would remember those.....

It is almost like the writer takes a deep breath and gasps for air..... “O Lord, who can stand before You?”

The answer to that is no one, to which God remembers their sin!

Psalm 143:1-2 “Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications: In Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness. 2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant (me): For in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.”

God must do something, not us to make us right before Him. We all like sheep have gone astray!

So, we cry unto the Only One Who is able to save us!

This cry must be out of the depths, in other words, it must be made from a heart the sincerely recognizes Who they offended and that it has affected them deeply (to the highest degree) that they have sinned and come short of the Glory of God!

Isaiah 66:2 “For all those things hath mine hand made, And all those things have been, saith the Lord: But to this man will I look, Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, And trembleth at my word.”

2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

This cry, plea, sorrow, must come to us in that we have sinned against Him, but not about what is going to happen to me! If our sorrow involves the world then it is of none effect and will work death for us!

Verse 4 gives us hope! There is forgiveness with God, we know there is, because of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ! There is an answer to Israel’s idolatry and wickedness, there is an Answer to the same for the Gentile (us) as well!

Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

This puts an emphasis on how we view God our Father, God the Son or Lord and Savior, and God the Holy Spirit our Comforter!

First, we fear because we will stand before God and answer for our life! He is to Who we return! He is also our only Hope, our Only Salvation, so we do fear Him.....

Second, we reverence God because He is the only True God in Whom we will return and also because He is our Only Salvation!

Verse 5 the writer declares because of the truths in verse 4, that He will wait on the Lord......that word “wait” means “hope in”, in other words he is saying, because there is forgiveness with the Lord and no one will stand before God if it wasn’t for His forgiveness, he will hope in what God has said!

We will hope in…that means we will hope for, it means we will hope in what God has said!

What has He said? Exodus 34:6-7 “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

This is His Word, as wells as His existence! It is in 3 persons, the work of the Trinity!

This is what we hear when we read, as we did 2 Wed.’s ago when we started in the book of John!

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus is the Word, He is God, He was with God from the beginning!

John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Jesus is the very representation of God, He became flesh and dwelt among us. If you have seen (or read) about Him, you have seen and read about Father God!

Jesus is Who God is and is everything God has said, He has fulfilled all of what God said about Himself in Exodus 34:6-7!

Full of Grace and Truth!

The truth of God, believed, should cause us to tremble, which in turn brings us to His Grace (Jesus Christ)! In this we must HOPE (Earnestly Expect)!

With all of this, my soul will earnestly trust in the Lord, Who is the Only True God and Where forgiveness is!

We will trust in it just like the shepherds, that have the night watch, wait for the sunrise!

We trust in the Lord, way more than the shepherds on the night watch waiting on the sun to rise!

The writer then begs Israel to hope and trust in the Lord, basically return to the Lord and believe He will forgive them!

For with the Lord (returning to the Lord) there is mercy or lovingkindness and abundant redemption (freely releasing us from captivity).

Plenteous (abundant)-literally means above any scale of measure!

We trust Him because He will redeem us from our guilty verdict!

Ephesians 1:7 “In Whom (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace;”

Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

I am going to try not to minimize anybody’s circumstances, but in view of God’s Truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no other deliverance that there is no other deliverance that compares to the forgiveness of sins through the riches of His Grace through Jesus Christ!

We seek for so many things to make us whole and centered, but there is nothing like being right with God, no matter your earthly circumstance, your spiritual circumstance is more fulfilling than anything!

Colossians 1:13-23........We went though all of that to remind us of the True Hope we have in Jesus Christ! That we can rejoice and embrace the deliverance that we do have in Jesus Christ, instead of being tossed to and fro by everything that comes along!

In this passage, Paul desires to strengthen this church in the True Hope they have!

Grounded and settled! Letting the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ be our foundation and let that be it! In other words the matter is concluded with the soul that believes and there is no other battle!

This is why Paul tells us in Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice”

I ask you today, can you rejoice in the Truth of Jesus Christ today?

If you cannot, then I say to you as the Psalmist tells Israel, “O beloved, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, lovingkindness!!