Introduction
There is a story about the late American President Calvin Coolidge going to church on a Sunday when his wife was unable to attend with him. When he returned from the service in the afternoon she wanted to know what the pastor preached about. Coolidge told her, “Sin.” Thinking that this wasn’t much of a description of the sermon, she pressed her husband for more details. And being a man of few words with his wife, he responded, “Well, I think he was against it.”
Last week we looked at how as Christians we face opposition—and we looked at from the point of view of opposition we face from the outside. And knowing that the Lord has cut the cords of the wicked is both a relief and an encouragement during those moments when we feel the weight of that opposition particularly hard. As God’s people we can expect to suffer for God’s sake. But our passage today, Psalm 130, is placed after this one to remind us that while we do face outward or external opposition, we also face inward and internal opposition. To address any tendency any of us might have toward self-righteousness, we are told by Psalm 130 that we must also confront our own “iniquities.”
“Out of the depths I cry”
I think this psalm can be divided into four sections. Let’s look at verses 1 – 2 first. Our psalm begins: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” What a powerful image! What an incredible way to begin a prayer to God. You see, the word that we translate “depths” in this verse describes the “chaotic forces that confront human life with destruction, devastation, and death.” These chaotic forces are the sin that the psalmist is struggling against. What a powerful image of the sin out of which the psalmist cries to God for mercy! Verse 3 “makes it clear that the destructive forces confronting the psalmist are to be traced in part to his or her own sinfulness.” The psalmist is saying—crying!—“Lord, please hear me, please listen to me! I cry to you out of the depths of my sinfulness! I realize how much I have failed you! My sin is killing me and I need your help! Please hear me and listen to my cry for mercy!”
Psalm 32—a very similar psalm—gives us another striking image of the effects of sin on us. Here the psalmist confesses: “While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” These words describe what our sin feels like until we bring ourselves to confess it—a weight that drags us down. It’s as though the sin is consuming the psalmist. He can barely stand it. It’s all that he thinks about.
Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever found yourself groaning away all day long—feeling the weight of things you’ve done wrong, and feeling your sin almost consume you? Have you ever found yourself crying to God out of the depths, out of the deepest part of your heart and soul? I suspect that most of us have at one time or another. Most of us wouldn’t be here today unless at some point we have come to God and cried to Him out of the depths.
My bigger fear is when someone no longer feels the sting and weight of sin, when their conscience, through a lifestyle of sin, becomes immune. Oswald Chambers once said that “sin enough and you will soon become unconscious of sin!” In the same way Alexander MacLaren says: “There are certain diseases of which a constant symptom is unconsciousness that there is anything the matter. A deep-seated wound does not hurt much.” That situation is much worse. The person doesn’t even realize how serious their sin is.
We’ve all heard of the disease leprosy. Well, one interesting thing about all forms of the disease is that it eventually causes peripheral neurological damage, or nerve damage in the arms and legs, which causes sensory loss in the skin. People with long-term leprosy may lose the use of their hands or feet due to repeated injury resulting from lack of sensation. Can you imagine getting injured because you can’t even feel that you’re being hurt? Sometimes, unfortunately, sin can be the same way. People are becoming more and more injured and can’t even feel it anymore.
Psalm 130 reminds us of the importance of taking sin seriously. It reminds us that we’re better off feeling the effects of sin. Sometimes churches are even afraid of using this dreaded “s” word, but we must use it. It tells us that there is something wrong with us that we can’t fix. It tells us that we’re wholly inclined to do things our own way rather than God’s way. So if you’re one of those people who no longer feels the weight of sin, my prayer is that God will awaken you to your condition before you sustain any more serious injuries.
You see, sin destroys. It destroys relationships most of all: our relationship with God and our relationships with one another. But however seriously we take our sin, and we should take it seriously, we ought to take the Lord’s mercy even more seriously. But the fact is our need for the mercy of God can hardly be felt unless we also know the weight of our own sin. If I’m not feeling sick and show no symptoms of illness, why would I go to the doctor? Jesus, when accused of eating with tax collectors and sinners, told the Pharisees: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Which of the two groups—the tax collectors or the Pharisees—had spiritual leprosy? The first thing to remember, then, is that we need to recognize our sin for what it is and let this bring us crying out of the depths before God.
“If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities . . .”
Thankfully, though, Psalm 130 doesn’t end there. Let’s keep reading and get to verses 3 and 4. What do we read? “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” The psalmist’s cry for mercy finds a response in God’s mercy. God’s mercy and willingness to forgive is the ground upon which we can kneel and confess our sins before Him. This is the cry for mercy and the recognition that only God can forgive. Here the Psalmist realizes his need for forgiveness—he cries out of the depths! This speaks truly of a heart’s cry, of someone intimately aware of their own sinfulness and their need for God’s action in their life. He is passionately asking God to listen and take seriously his cry for mercy. He wants God’s attention. He almost seems to beg for it.
Pastor Donald Grey Barnhouse told a story once about a Christian man who was burdened with this awful sense of guilt. He felt ashamed because he had committed the same sin many times. He prayed, “O Lord, please forgive me again. I know I don’t deserve it, as this is the nineteenth time I’ve committed this sin this month. But please, Lord, forgive me this nineteenth time.” And Dr. Barnhouse would say, “And the Lord looked up in surprise and said, ‘What do you mean, nineteenth??’”
The point he was making is that while we can never keep a complete record of our wrongdoing, God decides not to keep such a record. Verse 3 says, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand?” But the very next verse says, “But there is forgiveness with you.” If God were the sort of God that did keep such a record we could never come before Him. He realizes that if the Lord were to view him according to his sin—which is his reason for approaching God to begin with—there’s no way he could stand. He wouldn’t stand a chance! And he could never begin to approach God in prayer, not without God’s mercy. D.L. Moody once said: “The voice of sin may be loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.”
Knowing this is true, that the voice of forgiveness is louder than the voice of our sin, is what brings the psalmist to pray in the first place. In verse 3 the psalmist is “reminding” God of His own character, as it were. He cries out, “If you, O Lord . . .” Feeling the weight of sin brings him before the throne of grace. Someone once said: “Looking at the wound of sin will never save anyone. What you must do is look at the remedy.”
God’s willingness to forgive here—as the psalmist says, “But there is forgiveness with you”—is based on His character as a merciful and gracious God. In Exodus 34 after the Israelites had sinned by making the golden calf and Moses intercedes, God reveals Himself in a special way to Moses. This is what the Lord says to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving the iniquity and transgression and sin.” The passage goes on to say that the people of Israel would still have to deal with the fallout of sin—there are consequences even when we are forgiven, but we can be forgiven. And we are forgiven because of who God is.
This is what makes it possible for the relationship to be renewed. This reminds me again of Psalm 32 where, after groaning and feeling the weight of his sin, the psalmist acknowledges his sin to God. He confesses. He owns up to what he’s done wrong. And as Psalm 32:5 says, “You forgave the guilt of my sin.” He also says “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imparts no iniquity.”
The name of our God—the Lord—is used eight times in Psalm 130. It is this constant reminded that even when we sin we are still ultimately to focus on God and His mercy. We are called to rely on His character. We are told in verse 4: “But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” Our response to the Lord’s forgiveness is worship—reverence, awe, and fear of the Lord. And as we have learned already from Psalm 128 the fear of the Lord includes an obedient life. So the second thing we need to remember is this: apart from the Lord there is no forgiveness of sins, but because He forgives our lives should be an obedient and worshipful response to His forgiveness.
“. . . And in his word I hope”
And after he confesses his sin and acknowledges who the Lord is, the psalmist waits. He waits for the Lord. Notice how the phrase “more than those who watch for the morning” is repeated twice. This even produces the effect of waiting. This instance of repetition recalls again the character of a God who is faithful and forgiving, gracious and merciful. “Waiting is the persistent posture of God’s servants.” Waiting is an expression of hope. The psalmist trusts in the word of God—and the word tells of a time when the Messiah would come and set all things right. The word tells of a time when God’s covenant would be written on the hearts of God’s people. And in the meantime the psalmist waits. He waits for that glorious day.
His hope is in the word of the Lord. And how much more true is this for us? We trust and hope in the Word made flesh, for because of Christ we can know mercy and forgiveness. And while the people of Israel still had to wait for their Messiah to come, we now have no such wait to endure. Redemption has come. Hope has arrived for the sinner. While we wait and hope for our redemption to be fully revealed, forgiveness and newness of life can begin the moment we confess our sins and acknowledge who the Lord is. No longer do the watchmen have to wait. No longer do the watchmen have to wait, because the morning has come: the Son has risen and we are living after Easter morning!
The third thing for us to remember, then, is this: we no longer have to wait, and we no longer have to feel the weight of our sin, because mercy is waiting for us to cry out from the depths. God is waiting for us. He’s there, arms open wide, just as Jesus’ arms were spread out on the cross, waiting for us to ask for the forgiveness only He can give. He doesn’t want us to spend any more time waiting in the night. He wants us to know that morning has already come—the Son has risen!
“O Israel, hope in the Lord!”
But Psalm 130 doesn’t end there. It goes in verses 7 and 8 to say “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.” At first this just seems like a repetition of things already said. It repeats themes already mentioned. And like the ending of many psalms it functions like a closing prayer or benediction, a way to send off the congregation. And it is all these things—but it is also more.
This is the first mention in our psalm of Israel—of the whole people of God—and so it is the first time the psalmist is speaking directly to other people. He is addressing the congregation. He’s making his experience of forgiveness public. He’s taking his words out into the streets! He’s clambered onto the rooftop to sing God’s praises! He’s shouting at the top of his lungs, “O Israel, hope in the Lord . . . with him is great power to redeem!” He’s shouting, “For all of you who feel the weight of your sins you need to know that the Lord forgives, that He takes your sins and guilt away! Come to Him, all of you who need mercy and forgiveness, because He will forgive!” He is shouting the words of Psalm 103:10 – 12, which says, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.”
So the last thing to remember is this: for any of us who know the Lord’s mercy, and have experienced His forgiveness, we are called, like the psalmist, to proclaim what the Lord has done. In this sense, we’re all supposed to be preachers—we are all called to give witness and testimony with words and deeds what the Lord has done for us. And why shouldn’t we? Recently we looked at Psalm 128, which was about happiness, and we learned how happiness spreads and how joy should be contagious. Psalm 32, which we have also used today, says this: “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Indeed, our sin is covered by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is when we bring together the awareness of our sinfulness, the weight that makes us cry out of the depths, and our recognition of God’s infinite mercy, apart from which we could never stand, that we have the good news of God in Jesus Christ. And if you were wondering how the topic of sin could ever be a song for the road, what is that if not something to sing about?
