Out of the Depths

Mark Dunagan
07/06/08 - Sunday Evening

Psalm 130

"How do we deal with guilt? One way is by denial. We simply refuse to admit its existence. Another way is through rationalization. We admit that we are guilty, but we immediately blunt the edge of our confession by pointing out all of the extenuating circumstances that have conspired to make us this way. If we can't blame our parents or our teachers, we blame the government or our genes. Another way to deal with guilt is by relativization. We simply point out that everyone else is thinking or doing exactly what we are, and that we aren't so bad. When we find worse examples than ourselves, it makes us look better. By this we also take the spotlight off ourselves and put it on someone else, much to our relief. There is another way to deal with guilt, however, and this way gets to its root. This is by admission, confession, and forgiveness... Since this way is healing, it is God's way, and Psalm 130 witnesses to it" (Donald Williams, Mastering the Old Testament, Psalms 73-150, p. 438).

The cry from the depths

130:1 "Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord": "The depths are eloquent enough in themselves as a figure of near despair... with the victim's sense of floundering and terror. What is clear in all such passages is that self-help is no answer to the depths of distress, however useful it may be in the shallows of self-pity" (Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 446). "In the Hebrew being in 'the depths' refers specifically to being caught in dangerous and deep waters" (James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 107-150, pp. 1138-1139). What has overwhelmed the writer is not some sort of external trial, persecution or suffering, rather, he is overwhelmed by the guilt of his own sins. Such language also infers that there is not any earthly way to get out of this pit. We cannot save ourselves, and even human help in the form of such things as secular counseling cannot completely remove our guilt. We can even talk long and hard to family and friends and yet the guilt still remains. Man has sought to invent all sorts of methods of either denying the existence of sin or fooling himself into thinking that he can deal with guilt without God, yet in just watching people one can tell that the guilt remains unforgiven until God is brought into the solution. We need to pity the person who thinks they can handle guilt all on our their own, for the more they look inward, the pit they are in only gets deeper and deeper. Feel sorry for the person who has become comfortable with their sins.

"Our problem today, especially in appreciating a psalm like this, is that most of us do not have much awareness of sin. We live most of our lives with very little awareness of God, and where God has been abolished an awareness of sin is inevitably abolished also... We need to recover a sense of sin. We need to discover how desperate our condition is apart from God. We need to know that God's wrath is not an outmoded theological construct but a terrible and impending reality (Matthew 10:28). We need to come out of our sad fantasy world and begin to tremble before the awesome holiness of our almighty Judge (Isaiah 6:1ff)" (Boice p. 1139).

130:2 Here we learn that being serious about being forgiven is when we start crying out to God for help. "Where do we turn when we are in the depths? We can seek to medicate the pain through drugs or alcohol. We can surrender to the pain and sink into the darkness of depression, or we can cry out to God" (Williams p. 439).

The Confession

130:3 "If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

The word "mark" means to "keep account of". If God should simply keep track of all our sins and refuse to forgive, then our account would become so lopsided that our punishment would be certain and immediate. Are we thankful that the God who exists is a God who is willing to forgive? If God were to keep tally of all sins and continue to hold people accountable for all their past sins, even the most godly could not stand before Him (Romans 3:23). "How terrible it would be if all we could expect of God is a record of our sins. No one could stand before God then, as Paul wrote in Romans 3, citing Psalm 14 and 53" (Boice p. 1140).

130:4 "But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared"

"But": We may not find forgiveness with others or even family, and some people find it extremely difficult to forgive even themselves. What wonderful news that God is both able and willing to forgive. "Verse 4 is notable, too, for its second line,that Thou mayest be feared, which may sound a strange outcome of forgiveness. In reality it confirms the true sense of 'the fear of the Lord' in the Old Testament, dispelling any doubt that it means reverence and implies relationship" (Kidner p. 446). Consider how a godly man reacts to such forgiveness. He doesn't say, "Oh well, if I sin again, God will forgive me, so why take sin so seriously?" If a person truly has repented and they truly appreciate their forgiveness, then such forgiveness will lead to only a heightened respect for God and His Word.

"The true and inevitable effects of forgiveness are love, worship and service. By these effects you can measure whether you have actually confessed your sin, believed on God, and been forgiven, or are merely presuming on forgiveness without any genuine repentance or faith. Those who have been forgiven are softened and humbled and overwhelmed by God's mercy, and they determine never to sin against such a great and fearful goodness" (Boice p. 1142). The essence of true religion has to do with a holy reverence of God (Isaiah 66:2; Micah 6:8). "When we truly understand God's forgiveness and the cost of it, in sending Christ to the cross, we are broken and humbled, as we bow in awe before God. There is no presumption here. There is no flippancy here. We deserve judgment; we receive mercy (Luke 15:1ff)"(Williams p. 440).

Applications

• "The forgiveness we are talking about does not lead to license, as some suppose, but to a heightened reverence for God" (Boice p. 1141).

• We might think that the verse should read, "There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be loved". This might make sense until we remember that Biblical fear "has to do with a holy reverence of God that is the essence of true religion. The true and inevitable effects of forgiveness are love and worship and service. By these effects you can measure whether you have actually confessed your sin. Those who have been forgiven are softened and humbled and overwhelmed by God's mercy, and they determine never to sin against such a great and fearful goodness. They do sin, but in their deepest hearts they do not want to, and when they do they hurry back to God for deliverance" (Boice p. 1142).

Waiting for the Lord

130:5 "It is the Lord Himself, not simply escape from punishment, for which the writer longs. Notice that this is more than wistfulness or optimism. In plain terms, he speaks of a promise (His Word) to cling to" (Kidner p. 446). Notice that such waiting is grounded in the promises and instruction revealed in the Scriptures. The Bible tells us that God is merciful, willing to forgive, and explains just how and when we can be forgiven.

130:6 The writer eagerly waits with great anticipation for God's salvation. He is like the watchman who waits to be released from duty at the dawning of a new day. The waiting here may be either for the deliverance of the nation, or more in line with the context, his own final deliverance from this life. "In picturing the watchmen he chooses as his simile a hope that will not fail. Night may seem endless, but morning is certain and its time is determined" (Kidner pp. 446-447).

Such waiting is inherently connected to believing the promises in God's Word. Today some people claim to be "waiting on the Lord", but what they are really waiting for is some type of mystical feeling. When we wait on the Lord, we are only waiting for what has been revealed in His Word. To expect something that God has not promised - fails to qualify as waiting on the Lord, because waiting on God is all about trusting His way of doing things (Romans 10:17).

Trust God Also

130:7-8 "Nothing could be further from the shut-in gloom and uncertainty of 'the depths' than this. The singer is now liberated from himself to turn to his people and to hold out hopes that are far from tentative" (Kidner p. 447). Having found forgiveness the writer is now able to focus on other people and their need for God's mercy. He encourages the nation to place their trust in God. "In other words, what the psalmist found when he confessed his sin and sought forgiveness from God was not a once-in-a-blue-moon experience. It is something anyone can discover, for it is based on God's nature, which does not change. God is as forgiving now as He has ever been, and He will always be this same forgiving God" (Boice pp. 1142-1143). Therefore, put your trust in this God! This writer could not really help or encourage anyone else until he repented of his own sins and sought forgiveness (Psalm 32). Here is motivation to clean up our own lives, for guilt is something that will prevent us from being much help to others. We really cannot help other people much until we take care of our own sins first.

Conclusion

God is as forgiving as He has always been and what a glorious thought that at this very moment you can pass from death to life and know that your sins have been forgiven and forever forgotten.