From the Depths of Despair to the Heights of Heaven: An exposition of the 130th Psalm I want to thank Dr.

Burn Page, the panel for The Byrd Memorial Preaching Award, and the Byrd family for giving me this opportunity. I am very excited to be here with you this morning. We will be reading the 130th Psalm. Please turn with me to Psalm 130. George Whitfield the famous Anglican preacher who toured the Colonies during the great awakening would tell the crowds as they gathered to hear him preach, I have come
here to speak to you about your soul. Thats really what I have come to do this morning as we look at Psalm 130. This psalm consists of 8 powerful verses that not only provide a window into

the very heart and soul of the author but gives us insight into our own souls as well. The psalmist writes: 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! 2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

This summer I ventured to the beach with five of my friends from Mobile, Alabama. We decided to fill a cooler with canned drinks and lunchmeats and go catch some waves in Gulf Shores. Walking onto the beach that day, I noticed something peculiar. There was a flagpole rising up from a mound of sand with one solid red flag flowing in the wind. I thought to myself thats odd and asked one of the guys what this meant. I learned that this was a type of warning system of sort: no flags meant the water is calm, one flag, the water is somewhat rough, two flags, the water is very rough, and three flags, get out of the water. So when I saw that we had one flag, naturally, I was eager for the challenge. My friends brought with us some super nice boogie boards, and I was looking forward to putting them to good use. I immediately hit the water. I soon mastered those one-flag-waves and lost interest. So I came back to the shore for lunch. After lunch, to my delight, I noticed another flag had appeared on the flagpole, so I hit the water once again. I caught one wave, then another, and another. The waves were noticeably stronger and a lot more fun. I began to master the two-flag-waves, and after a particularly successful and smooth ride, I worked my way back into the deep to catch another. This time, however, as I waded out into the deep, instead of catching a wave with the boogie board, a monster wave caught me. I was quickly removed from my feet and found myself tumbling underneath the water, rolling around uncontrollably hitting the bottom of the ocean floor. I was at the mercy of this wave. I no longer was mastering the waves, but the waves were mastering me. I was no longer in control of my person or the water around me; rather, I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of this fierce wave. A sense of panic came over me, and momentarily, I felt hopeless.

Not to leave you in suspense, I survived to ride another wave, as you can see, but I without doubt learned of my vulnerability before those powerful two-flag-waves. This experience of mine is very similar to what is happening in verse 1 of Psalm 130. The psalmist writes, Out of the depths, I cry to you O Lord! He is overwhelmed. He is hopeless. There is a deepness to his suffering that he cannot overcome. He seems to be at the mercy of his circumstances, much like I was at the mercy of the wave as I rolled across the ocean floor. The workings around him are out of his control. This feeling is not unique to the 130th Psalm either. Hopelessness is filtered all throughout the Psalms. Just above in Psalm 129, you see hopelessness in facing the affliction of military enemies. A few Psalms back in Psalm 123, you see the Psalmist expressing hopelessness in persecution. In Psalm 120, you see the psalmist expressing hopelessness from the slander of others. In other Psalms you see hopelessness of all sorts: betrayal, depression, death, loneliness, sickness just to name a few. For almost every trial in life there is a psalm that can speak to the very heart of the issue at hand. Almost even more apparent than in the Psalms, this theme of hopelessness is, unfortunately, apparent in life. One writer says it this way, To suffer is to be human. You know this is the case. You have felt hopeless before. You have felt overwhelmed by life. You have been knocked from your feet by some tidal waves of your own. To one degree or another, we have all have been confronted with loneliness, sadness, anxiety, worry, sickness or a betrayal of some sort. We all have faced obstacles in our life that at times have seemed insurmountable.

And I would like to say to you that God earnestly cares about such things. The Psalms prove this; the Bible supports this. God is intimately involved in the events in each and every one of his childrens lives. However, these depths in verse 1 of psalm 130 are not merely referring to personal life struggles. The depths in Psalm 130 are much deeper, much darker, much more hopeless. The psalmist in Psalm 130 is not hopeless from the affliction of his enemies or affliction of a friends betrayal. He is not hopeless due to overwhelming obstacles in his day, week, or year. He is drowning in much, much deeper water. He is crying out from the eternal depths of his very own personal sin. And you can hear the desperation in his words. He cries in verse 2, O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! The psalmist is painfully confronted with his own guilt and is in desperate need of mercy.

So, first, in Psalm 130, verses 1 and 2, we see that repentance is pleading for mercy. Mercy from what? you ask. Mercy in the same sense that the tax collector, from Jesus parable, prayed while not lifting his eyes to heaven and beating his chest: God, be merciful to me, a sinner! (Lk. 18) The psalmist is pleading for mercy from himself, his sin, and ultimately the judgment of God, as we will see in the following verses. But before we continue to the next verse, I would like to draw your attention to one very important point. If you look right above the first verse in your copy of the Scripture, you will see the subscript, A Song of Ascents. This psalm was written for the people of God as they ascended to the temple in Jerusalem in order to make sacrifices to God. This psalm, in some sense, is written for those who are believers in God and are already

members of His Kingdom. So what role does this play in the life of the believer? What role does repentance play in our lives? This is, in fact, what is happening in verses 1 and 2. The psalmist is experiencing repentance a change of heart. Martin Luther, the 16th century protestant reformer, gives great insight concerning this exact question. On October 30th 1517, he nailed on the door of the Church at Wittenberg, Germany what has come to be known as the 95 theses. The very first of his 95 theses reads, When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said Repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. And the psalmist affirms this by giving Israel this example of repentance to sing as they ascended to Jerusalem to make sacrifices. Furthermore, it was Jesus Christ, Himself, who said in his Sermon on the Mount that it is the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and the meek that belong to the Kingdom of God (Matt. 5). Christ pictures members of His Kingdom as lifelong-repenters. We are brought into the Kingdom by repentance unto faith and we live in the Kingdom with a repentant heart. Therefore, first, in verses 1 and 2 we see that repentance is pleading for mercy.

Second, we see in Psalm 130 in verses 3 and 4 that repentance is confessing in faith.

Verse 3 reads, If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? This is a rhetorical question; the answer is implied: none, nobody, not one, no one, nada. Psalm 143 verse 2 says plainly what 130 says suggest, for no one living is righteous before you. Romans 3 verse 9 affirms, All are under sin. Likewise Galatians 3 verse 22 states, the Scripture has imprisoned everything under sin. Mans position before the omnipresent, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-righteous God is a position of sinful hopelessness.

However, verse 4 begins, But. One respected pastor has rightly praised God for the buts in the Bible. We should be thankful for the buts in the Bible! Like the Apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians 2, we were dead in our trespasses in sin, slaves to unrighteousness, and condemned, but God has made us alive together in Christ Jesus by grace through faith we have been saved, the psalmist confesses in verse 4, But with you there is forgiveness. When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven for the past, present, and future sins. This is judicial forgiveness. Your sins are completely atoned. You are completely forgiven. When you repent unto faith, God declares you eternally righteous in that very moment, and nothing can take away this standing you have before God. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8 verse 1: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And later in the same chapter he poses the question in verse 35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? There answer is an emphatic no! However, there is this sense in which we seek forgiveness within our relationship with God. This is often called fatherly forgiveness. Once you are adopted into the family of God, you will remain until the end of days, but when sin enters into your life, similar to a relationship with an earthly father, your relationship will suffer. You see this, for example, in Matthew 6 verses 14 and 15: For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Unconfessed and unrepented sin can and will hinder your relationship with God your Father and cause much spiritual turmoil. This is why we

seek fatherly forgiveness. Apart from this fatherly forgiveness, the joys and benefits of being a member of Gods family will be greatly hindered. So what purpose does the psalmist say forgiveness is given to us? Verse 4 continues, that you may be feared. It is important to note the order here. The fear of the Lord mentioned in verse 4 follows the forgiveness of the Lord. This supports the idea that fear of the Lord in the Bible is not punitive in nature but referential and relational. This fear is not the fear you see in a pet that has been abused by his owner, for example. The pet that always cowers from fear that it might be kicked, hit, or harshly punished. This is not that kind of fear. If the fear of the Lord were fear of severe punishment, then forgiveness would alleviate this fear and not encourage it. This fear speaks to an awestruck desire to please the person you revere and love. This is a fear of dishonoring God. I remember in elementary school, I caused some kind of trouble. I am not sure what I did (I was in trouble a lot), but I do remember that they called my father and told him what I had done. I remember vividly that bus ride home. As we approached the bus stop a real sense of fear came over me. I was fearful. But I was not fearful that my Dad was going to disown me. I was not afraid of the severity of his discipline. I revered my Dad; I loved my Dad; I wanted to please my Dad, and I was fearful of displeasing him. The forgiveness of God births a desire within His followers to please Him. The Apostle John highlights this teaching in John chapter 14 when he writes in verse 23: Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word In forgiveness, we come to love Jesus and when we love Jesus we keep is His word.

In verses 1 and 2, we first saw that repentance is pleading for mercy, in verses 3 and 4 confessing in faith. And in verses 5 and 6 we see that repentance is waiting for Christ. The psalmist writes: 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning What is the psalmist waiting for? What he is not waiting for is forgiveness. He has experienced that in verses 3 and 4. He has ascended from the depths of despair to faith and a noticeably hopeful tone is present in verses 5 and 6. Note the psalmists waiting. Where does the waiting of the psalmist take place? In verses 5 and 6 there is a repetition of my soul waits for the Lord. This waiting occurs in the soul. He is not waiting on a physical healing or material blessing; he is waiting for healing on the soul level. During this wait, in what is he hoping? Verse 5 reads, in his word I hope. He believes that God is reliable and His word is true. In his waiting, he holds fast to the promises of God found in His word. And lastly, how does the psalmist wait? Verse 6 reads more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. This speaks to the eagerness in which the psalmist waits. The image is soldiers on a night watch waiting for the rising sun and thus to be relieved of their post. I imagine this is quite similar to how I feel in the last ten minutes of my 8 oclock class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. As the clock approaches 9:15 overwhelming joy fills my soul with eager expectation. You can feel the psalmists intensity.

So for what exactly is the psalmist waiting? He is waiting for two things. First, he is waiting for the Lord to restore him, personally. One pastor has rightfully observed that after one has experienced failure to sin, there is a temporary lack of joy and peace even after forgiveness is attained. You can see this in Psalm 51 verse 12 when the psalmist writes, Restore to me the joy of your salvation. The psalmist has been forgiven, but now he is longing to fully realize it as he eagerly waits for the Lord to restore to him, his joy of salvation. Second, it could be argued that the psalmist is similarly waiting for the restoration of all things. I wait for the Lord in verses 5 and 6 could be referring to the first and ultimately the second coming of Christ where all things are made new. Revelation 21 verse 5 reads, And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. The psalmist, along with all of the people of God, waits eagerly for the return of Christ, his Messiah, to restore all things. In verses 5 and 6 we saw that repentance is waiting for Christ. Lastly, we see in verse 7 and 8 that repentance is sharing in hope. The psalmist writes: 7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. The message of the psalmist is one of hope. He urges Israel to hope in the LORD! The message of the Bible is a message of hope; the message of the Psalms is a message of hope; the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope. The word gospel means good news! Case and point: if the message you share is not grounded in the hopefulness, goodness, and grace f God, you might be doing something wrong.

So why does the psalmist tell Israel to hope in the Lord? One reason is that he has personally experienced the soul-satisfying power of this message. He began the psalm drowning in the depths of despair, sunken in sadness, and he ends the psalm in a state of restoration, full of faith, hope, and eager expectation. This is a soul-satisfying message that the psalmist is eager to share. I have got to ask: Has your soul been satisfied and are you eager to share the gospel of Jesus Christ? Moreover, we see in verse 7 that this is a message of steadfast love. This is Gods covenantal, unconditional love. This hesed love in the Hebrew is equivalent to the agape love found in the New Testament Greek. This message is hopeful because it is a message of assurance and certainty. Once you are adopted into the family of God by faith, nothing and no one can shake the steadfast love of your Father in heaven for you. John 10 verse 29 reads: My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fathers hand. This is a message of sure love. Likewise, in verse 7, you can see that this is a message of plentiful redemption. This redemption is not short-changed; it is full; it is complete for with God there is an abundance of redemption. Ephesians chapter 1 verses 7 and 8 reads, In [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. This is a message of plentiful redemption. Lastly, this is a message of hope because it is a freeing message. The last verse in Psalm 130 ends with this promise: And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. God will redeem those who hope in Him from the condemnation of their sin, for with God there is forgiveness and also deliver them from the bondage of sin, so that he may be feared. He is good for His word.

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You know that day when I was being overtaken by that wave. I fought against it with all my might. I was telling this story to someone and they told me you dont fight against a wave. And it made me think; fighting against a wave really is a fruitless and frivolous thing to do. That wave was much stronger and much more powerful than I was. This is true of sin. These depths are much more powerful than we are. You have already lost the battle, for there are none righteous, no not one. What I needed that day and what we all need is to be rescued, to be delivered from the condemnation of our sin and the slavery to our sin. And that is precisely what is given to us in the gospel. Galatians 1 verse 4 reads: [Christ] gave himself for our sins, to deliver us from the present evil age This morning, there are two people this psalm speaks to especially. One person is sitting here and has sinned significantly; you have sinned very severely and you feel the depths of your guilt. This psalm calls you to move forward from these depths, to embrace the forgiveness of God and be restored to hope. Another person is here and is in the depths and has no idea. Youre at the bottom of the wave and youre drinking salt water like its Gatorade. This psalm calls you to wake up and realize that you are drowning in sin! You will not stand in the judgment; you will be brought so low to your knees. Gods justice will be withheld no longer. This psalm calls you to repent. How foolish you would be to reject Gods forgiveness! And if you are a Christian, you must know that you were forgiven that God might feared, so you are to walk in newness of life. So my question to you all here today though we are not ascending to the temple in Jerusalem, we are ascending upward towards the throne room of God is have you pleaded with God for mercy? Have you confessed your faith in Jesus Christ the only one in

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whom no iniquity is found? Have you been restored from your fallen state and adopted into the family of God? If not, I urge you to place your faith in Jesus Christ, the one in whom all forgiveness, hope, and satisfaction is found; the Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified on the behalf of sinners, resurrected, and who is now seated at the right hand of God the Father interceding for His people; the Jesus Christ, who is the one and only way to the Father in Heaven; Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lords of lords. Romans 10 verse 9 reads: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Will you make Him Lord? Will you surrender your life to Jesus Christ? And if you are a believer here today and you have fallen into sin, I leave you with the promise the apostle John left the Church of Ephesus. 1st John 1 verse 9 reads: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us pray.

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