The Promise Of Forgiveness

The Promise of Forgiveness

I. TEXT:

Psalm 130 (KJV)

A song of degrees

1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

7 Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

II. INTRODUCTION:

Psalm 130 is a part of the pilgrim songs (Pss. 120-134). The pilgrim songs are a part of the hallel psalms (Pss. 120-136). All fifteen of the psalms have the heading "ascents." The KJV translates this as "A song of degrees." There are multiple other translations and various interpretations as to what this heading means. The traditional view is that these psalms were a collection of songs written for or by the Jews who were scattered around the ANE world making their way to the Jewish homeland to worship at the temple during the yearly religious festivals. The reason that they were songs of ascent is that no matter what direction you come from, the journey to Jerusalem is always an uphill climb.

The journey of life is at times a struggle and what is worth having often takes work. The apostle Paul said that his Christian life was one characterized by forgetting what was behind and pressing forward into the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14). The first of the pilgrim Psalms (Ps. 120) mentions the difficulty of worshipping the LORD with military opposition. There are moments in our lives where all we want is peace, but the world around us is intent on fighting. Tension has characterized life in the land of Israel for ages. Both then and now there are times when the only recourse to what we face day after day is prayer. The pilgrim songs are prayers.

Psalm 130 is a lament but also a song of confidence. God has a way of turning our morning into dancing, our sorrow into joy, our tests into testimonies, and our trials into triumphs. It may be an uphill climb, but singing our complaints to Him can transform any of them!

Psalm 130 is also one of the penitential Psalms (Pss. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 143) because of its emphasis on forgiveness. You can hear it echoed when you read Paul's epistles as he talks about God's willingness to forgive. The lament and plea for forgiveness are both individual and corporate. The decision to trust in the faithfulness of God is also something that the psalm portrays as individual and community-wide among the pilgrims. We all need repentance and confession and we find it in the community of faith together, we find it as we enter the gates to worship together. The pilgrims cried out to God alone and together. So must we. If "we" confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive "us" our sins and to cleanse "us" from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive 'us' our debts as 'we' forgive our debtors" (Luke 11:4).

"The psalm falls into four sections of two verses each. The first two verses record the psalmist's cry to the LORD out of trouble. The next two verses express his confidence that there is forgiveness for sins, indicating that the dilemma was probably due to sin." (Allen P. Ross, A commentary on the Psalms: Volume 3, pg. 710)

All our problems ultimately have their root in sin, whether it is the sin of someone else or our own sin. The pleasure of sin is only seasonal. It always results in chaos and decay. We sow the wind and reap a whirlwind. We sow to the flesh and reap corruption. Adam and Eve gave us Paradise for an apple. Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of beans. The sword never left David's household because of his sin against Bathsheba, Uriah, Israel, and the LORD. When they asked the old preacher what he had to say about sin, he replied "I'm again' it!" But, thanks be to God that that is not the entire story! There is forgiveness of sins!

"The third section tells of the psalmist's eager waiting for an oracle telling him he is forgiven. And the final two verses is a call for the people to hope in the LORD because someday he will redeem them from all their sins. The psalm is saying that the present (and repeated) cycle, for the remedy of sin--forgiveness and deliverance--is a harbinger of the final and complete deliverance from all sin." (Ross, pg. 711)