Advent is a time of tension. There is the joy and anticipation of the season and the stress and strain of trying to prepare for it, amen? But the season itself represents an historical and theological tension as well and I am going to use songs from the Jewish song book and songs from our own song book as a way to explore the tension of expectation and celebration, the despair and hope of Advent as a way of helping us to understand and appreciate the incredible way that God has reconciled these two extremes in the form of one person … Jesus Christ.
We start off with the song …or “psalm” [spell out] … 130 from the Jewish hymnal or “psalter.” Please turn to Psalm 130 and follow along. [Read Psalm 130.]
“Out of the depths, I cry to You, O LORD” (Psalm 130:1). What a powerfully graphic image, amen? What do you picture? We probably picture someone in the bottom of a deep pit crying out for help. They can’t see if there’s anybody out there and so they cry out in the hopes that some passerby or search party will hear them and come lift them out of the hole. You can almost picture the hand of God reaching down and lifting this poor soul out of the pit of his or her despair, can’t you?
But the image of verse 1 is more intense, more serious than just falling into a hole and crying out for help. The phrase or word “depths” is a metaphor or shorthand for “depths of the sea.” The author of Psalm 130 is “drowning” in despair. He is being overwhelmed by his problem or problems. Being stuck in the bottom of deep hole is pretty serious but you could possibly hold out for a few days but drowning? You need help and you need it now. The author of Psalm 130 is going down for the third time. His problem or problems are imminent and overwhelming and he needs someone to rescue him now or he’s done for.
Clearly the author is not drowning in water … he is drowning in guilt … he is drowning in remorse … he is drowning in sin. “If You, O LORD,” the author cries out, “should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). Indeed … who could stand? A cry that has echoed through the ages. “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it,” cries the Apostle Paul. “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. … Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:18-19, 24). For the Paul, the answer is Jesus Christ … but Jesus hadn’t been born, the cross hadn’t happened yet, when the author wrote this song and so he appeals directly to God who is the only one who can rescue him from his iniquities and the consequences of his sin.
He raises a question in verse 3 and then he answers it verse 4. “If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?” Not him. Not me. Not you, amen? “But there is forgiveness with You, so that you may be revered” (v. 4). If verse 3 is true and no one can stand, if we are held accountable for every single sin or infraction of God’s law, then we are all doomed, amen? But there is hope. God is a forgiving God and it’s not due to any righteousness on our part but because of God’s grace and mercy and “hesed” … God’s steadfast, unshakeable love for us. That is the point of his cry in verse 1. He can’t help himself. No one can help him except God and so he cries out to God from out the depths of his despair knowing that God won’t just stand there and watch him drown in his own sin, his own iniquities, but will forgive him and rescue him because He loves him. Who here would be so cruel as to stand there and watch a loved one or even a beloved pet struggle and drown and not reach out and attempt to rescue them?
The problem is that I can’t save myself from my sin because I am the cause of my sin. I can’t rescue you from your sins and you can’t rescue me from mine. Only God can do that and the author of Psalm 130 knows that God can and will because God loves him and we know that God can and will rescue us for the same reason, amen?
The fact that we are drowning in our sin, doomed to suffer the consequences of our iniquities, coupled with the fact that God loves us and will rescue us causes us to “revere” God and trust God. We can “wait” on the Lord because we can trust God’s “hesed” … God’s steadfast, unshakeable love for us, amen? Listen carefully and think about what the psalmist is saying in verses 5 and 6. “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord.” Waiting is, in fact, an act of hope, amen? If I’ve never entered the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes then there’s no point in me waiting for them to show up at my door with confetti and a big cardboard check, am I right? Waiting is expecting something to happen that hasn’t happened yet. Remember, the psalmist is still in the “depths” … and yet, he has hope and that hope allows him to wait on the Lord in the sure and certain expectation that God will not only hear his prayer but answer it. He knows this not only intellectually but he knows this with all his heart and soul. Though he is drowning, he is absolutely certain that God can and will come to his rescue.
He waits for the Lord, his soul waits for the Lord, more … MORE … than those who watch for the morning (v. 6). He trusts the Lord so much that he repeats it twice to emphasize the depth of his trust. The image of watchmen standing guard on the city walls is such a powerful image of the tension in this song or psalm. Watchmen watch out for danger during the night … when enemies and danger lurk but it is hard to see … just as it is hard to see our way of out of our problems when we are drowning, amen? The idea of standing guard and peering for danger in the darkness is one of fear and suspense … but again, the psalmist flips the image to one of joy when the watchmen see the dawn breaking over the horizon and they can breathe a sigh of relief. At the beginning of the psalm, the psalmist is sinking into the darkness of despair but God’s hesed, God’s unshakeable love shines through his darkness and he can, in the midst of his despair, have hope and can breathe a sigh of relief. The irony is that the watchmen are responsible for the protection and safety of the community but they are called to guard the city at night … when it is most difficult to see any danger threatening the community. When the sun shows up, their job is over and they can go home and rest in peace just as we can rest in peace because God is now on duty and God’s love not only exposes danger but drives it into hiding.
The author of Psalm 130 waits in expectation of something that has yet to happen but that he knows in his heart and soul will happen … somehow … and it gives him hope … hope that comes from the word, the promises of God … as he waits for the light of God to break into his present darkness. John describes Jesus as the “Word” and that that “Word” was a light for all people (John 1:5). Jesus came like a light on the horizon after a long, dark night.
An important shift happens in verse 6. The psalmist says that he waits for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning.” “Those” who watch for the morning is plural. Those who watch for the morning are those who guard the community. They stand on the walls to protect those who are sleeping within. The job of the priests was to “stand on the walls” and to watch for danger and, at the same time, look for signs of the Lord on the horizon, to listen for the sound of God’s voice in the darkness … and it is at this point that the psalm moves from being an individual plea for help to one that speaks to and for the community and the nation … in this case, the nation of Israel … which the psalmist clearly states in verses 7 and 8:
“O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with Him is great power to redeem. It is He who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.”
Just as the psalmist cannot save himself from drowning or pull himself out of the depths, neither can Israel and neither can we. The watchmen can do their job and watch but it is God who will rescue the people. We can look to human institutions like politicians and scientists, intellectuals but ultimately only God can rescue us from our iniquities and He does it not because we are righteous or because we deserve it but because He loves us and He is true to His Word.
That is why Psalm 130 is such a popular Advent scripture and it is also why Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” is also such a popular Advent hymn. Like Psalm 130, it beautifully and skillfully captures the sense of our anticipation and expectation and expresses the heart of that expectation while sustaining our anticipation and justifying our hope and expectation at the same time … and it starts, interestingly enough with a single word … the very first word of Wesley’s hymn … the word “come.”
Psalm 130 starts out with the psalmist crying out to the Lord from the depths. “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” beings with a request … ‘come.’ Both Psalm 130 and “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” begin with the faith and trust that God will hear their call and answer it. The word or verb “come” is in the imperative here, a command, if you will but it is more of a request. The word “come” has the same sense of need and anticipation as we find in the opening verse of Psalm 130. We ask people to come, to be with us because we either need them … as in “come help me, God” or “come help us, Jesus” or we want to show them something or tell them something … as in “come here so I can” … and there is an implied expectation that the person we’re calling to come will, in fact, come, amen?
In Psalm 130, the expectation is that God will hear and respond to the psalmist’s plea for help. Wesley’s title of “long-expected Jesus” makes a nice bridge between the expectation of Israel before Jesus and our expectation since Jesus. In Psalm 130, the psalmist reflects the nation of Israel’s anticipation and faith in the arrival of a redeemer. They waited and they hoped … and eventually God showed up in the most unexpected way … a baby born in a stall in Bethlehem during a very dark time in Jewish history. He also rescued them … and us … in a most unexpected way … by dying for our sins on the cross where He cried out from the depths of His suffering on our behalf: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” … “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:25).
“Come, thou long-expected Jesus” harkens back to Israel’s long wait for a messiah but it also speaks to our waiting today … waiting for Jesus to return. Advent is a celebration of what has happened … the birth, the death, and the resurrection of our Hope and our Salvation … but is also a time of waiting and watching with hope … a hope that is based on Jesus’ word that He will come back.
When the psalmist cries out in Psalm 130, he calls out to the “LORD” … in all caps … designating that he is calling out to “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” … a name “too sacred to write or pronounce” (www.gotquestions.org/meaning-of-Yahweh.html). In Wesley’s hymn, he uses the personal pronoun of “thou” … a familial term used by friends and family. Wesley’s use of “thou” comes from the fact that we have met God … in the form of Jesus … up close and personal. He no longer calls us servants but friends (John 15:15). The psalmist in Psalm 130 is crying out and praying to an unseen, unknowable Being out in the cosmos somewhere … whereas Charles Wesley is praying to a God who took on flesh and became personally and intimately involved with us. The psalmist in Psalm 130 grounds his hope and trust in God’s word … our hope and trust also comes from God’s word but also from His Word made flesh (John 1:14).
The structure of both Psalm 130 and Charles Wesley’s hymn are very similar. Both begin with a petition: “Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice” (Psalm 130:1) and “Come, thou long-expected Jesus” (stanza 1). Their petition leads to a declaration. In Psalm 130, the writer declares that there is forgiveness with God and that he waits for the Lord with hope. In Wesley’s hymn, he makes the declaration that Jesus was born “to set thy people free” (stanza 1) and they both speak of the results of their prayers and their faith in God. “It is He who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities” (Psalm 130:8) writes the psalmist in Psalm 130 … and it is Jesus who will “set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us” (stanza 1) in Wesley’s hymn and we will find our rest.
The two songs also move from personal to corporate prayer. The author of Psalm 130 cries out in his struggle with sin or the consequences of his sin, his iniquities, and then draws Israel into his prayer, which would also include the writer of Psalm 130. In his hymn, Wesley goes from his individual petition on behalf of God’s people … “born to set thy people free” (stanza 1) … to every person … “hope of all the earth thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart” (stanza 1).
Psalm 130 begins with a plea to be rescued and ends with a hope and longing for salvation and redemption. Wesley’s hymn describes God’s answer to the psalmist’s hope and prayer: Jesus, who was born “to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us” (stanza 1). And the hope of redemption at the end of Psalm 130 is again found in Jesus, where we find rest from our worry and our struggle.
In “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” Wesley outlines our subjective experience of Jesus’ redemption. “Here we experience our own: freedom, rest, strength, consolation, hope, joy” in stanza 1 (artspastor.blogspot.com). In stanza two, “Wesley draws attention to the objective work of Christ, specifically the Lordship of Christ: He is born deliverer … He is born a child and king … He is born to reign in us … He brings His gracious kingdom … He rules in all our hearts by the Holy Spirit … He raises us to His glorious throne through His sufficient merit” (artspastor.blogspot.com).
At the end of Psalm 130, the psalmist encourages the people of Israel to “hope in the Lord … It is He who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities” (v. 7-8) … a positive note. Charles Wesley’s hymn is set to a Welsh tune known as a “hyfrodol” … a Welsh word that means “good cheer.” Be of good cheer, Israel, say the writer of Psalm 130, because God will redeem Israel from all of its iniquities. The very music of Wesley’s hymn … “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” … is a musically cheerful song, don’t you think? Be of good cheer, my brothers and sisters. Advent is a time of hope and celebration because our long-expected Jesus, who was born to deliver us … who came to set his people free … rules in our hearts … and who will one day come again and raise us to His glorious throne.
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” … the word “come” is one of the meanings of the word “advent.” “Advent” comes from the Latin word “adventus” which means “arrival” or “coming.” “Waiting” is implied in the word itself. We are “waiting” for the “coming” or “arrival” of something that is not here … yet. In Psalm 130, the author is waiting for his salvation and the salvation of Israel to come. Today, we are waiting for Jesus to come and complete the work that He began 2,000-plus years ago.
Christmas is a time of waiting. Waiting for Christmas to get here. Waiting to give and receive cards and presents. A time to wait for the arrival of family and guests before you can begin eating and celebrating. The question is: Do we wait for Christmas like little children eager to open their Christmas presents or do we wait for Christmas like we wait in long lines at the store or for the bill to come in the mail?
The first time that Christ came it was as a baby in the manger. When Christ comes again, He will come as judge and king. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to stand before your Judge and King? That could depend on whether you’re a Christian or not, amen? If you are a Christian, your longing will be one of hopeful waiting. If not, your waiting may be a time of great fear and deep dread. The good news of Advent is that the “dear desire of every nation,” the “joy of every longing heart” will be fulfilled if they have Jesus in their hearts, amen?
“God has great things in store for His people,” says Charles Spurgeon. They … meaning us … “should have large expectations” (www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles). Children have large expectations on Christmas morning, don’t they? Every child’s dream is to wake up on Christmas morning and see box after box after box under the tree … big boxes, am I right? The bigger box the higher their excitement and expectation, amen? And we should be the same way because the best gift of Christmas … the biggest gift of all … is the gift of God’s “hesed” … His steadfast love … a love that took on flesh and bought our salvation and our redemption with His own blood … “born to set thy people free” (stanza 1) … “born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king, born to reign in us forever” (stanza 2). And when He comes again, Israel’s “strength and consolation,” the “hope of all the earth,” the “dear desire of every nation,” the “joy of every longing heart” will bring His gracious kingdom and raise us to His glorious throne (stanza 2).
Jesus was worth waiting for the first time that He came and it will be absolutely worth the wait the next time He comes. “Be assured that if God waits longer than you could wish,” says the 19th century missionary, Andrew Murray, “it is only to make the blessings doubly precious. God waited thousands of years to the fullness of time ere He sent His son. Our times are in in His hands,” says Murray, “and will avenge His elect eagerly. He will make haste for our help and not delay one hour too long” (www.followmeusa.net/biography/andrew-murray). Brothers and sisters, we don’t know the day or the time. We don’t know the hour but we wait with hope … we wait with longing … we wait because we know that when He comes … and He will come … His timing will be perfect … again.
We may find ourselves being tempted to long for many things during Advent. We are already being bombarded with commercials on our TVs and on our computer screens and our devices and we may be tempted to long for that toy or this device or that gadget or whatever. Our hearts and our souls may be pulled in all kinds of direction but in those moments remember that nothing the world has to offer can compare to what God has to offer, amen? As Jesus … the embodiment of God’s hesed … Himself pointed out: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
When we find ourselves in the depths of despair … drowning in our problems … struggling with our fears and doubts and it feels like we’re losing the battle … we have God’s word that He will never leave us nor forsake us and we have His Holy Spirit and the promise of His return. We have the gift of Jesus … the very embodiment of God’s “hesed” … God’s steadfast love … and we have the cross to remind us of the greatest Christmas gift of all, amen? Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord, my sisters and brothers (Psalm 27:14).
And in case you didn’t know it, psalms and hymns are more than just poems or songs … they are also prayers. For example, let us pray:
Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
From our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born thy people to deliver,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.
In the name of Jesus, our gift from Heaven, we pray. With joy and hope we say “amen.”
