Luther was (reportedly) asked what his favourite psalm was. He replied, ‘The Pauline psalms’. 130 is one of those psalms; it emphasises the fact of sin, the forgive­ness of sin, redemption from sin, and the salvation of God. (It’s also one of the seven penitential psalms i.e. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143).

This a psalm of ascents in more ways than one. It’s part of the section of psalms entitled ‘Psalms of Ascents’ that the ancient pilgrims sang on their way up to Je­rusalem. But it also ascends spiritually; it begins in the depths of loneliness, distress and despair and rises to the heights of faith, assurance and exhortation. As we approach this psalm, I’d suggest it tells us two things we should know, and two things we should do.

Two Things We Should Know (1-4)⤒🔗

The aged John Newton said, ‘Although my memory is fading I remember two things very clearly. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Saviour’. These are the two things that we too should know, that are emphasised very clearly in these opening verses.

It begins, ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice’ (1). The psalmist is in great distress, darkness, loneliness and despair. Why? Is it because of persecution? Is his life in danger? Is he grieving over the loss of a friend? Is he depressed? Is he homesick? Is it a family problem? Has he been diagnosed with a fatal disease? No, it’s none of these things. The clue is in verses 2b and 3. He cries, ‘Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?’ (ESV). This is a man in the depths of personal sin. This is the confession of a godly man who felt deeply the pain of his guilt, and the horrible shame of his iniquities. (‘Iniquity’ means crookedness, twistedness, it’s the moral corruption in our heart, it’s our perverseness, it’s like our attempt to draw a straight line without a ruler.) This is a sin entangled soul who felt the sinfulness of sin (Owen). He knew that if God were to deal with him not in grace but according to justice, there could be no hope for him (3).

Perhaps he, like David, had done something very devious and wicked? Or, he could have been like Isaiah? Remember how Isaiah was overwhelmed by his sense of sin in the Temple and cried out, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts’ (Isa. 6:5). His experience is similar to Paul’s, who always considered himself the chief of sinners. When he pondered his sin he complained, ‘For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Wretched man that I am’ (Romans 7:18-19). C.S. Lewis perceptively described this paradox, ‘When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less’.

John Newton was a godless, drunken sailor before he was converted by God’s amazing grace; but he (like Paul) always considered himself a sinner to the very end. His epitaph reads, ‘John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and a libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy’.

Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be much sense of sin nowadays. Perhaps this is due to the teach­ing (or lack of it) in the churches. There is no longer an emphasis on the reality of hell and the wrath of a holy righteous God against sin. Sin is no longer thought of as an offence against God. It’s merely a breach of personal or community standards. ‘But we will never really know what sin is till we learn and to think of it in terms of our relationship with God’ (Packer). That’s what we should know, that we are great sinners.

The second thing we should know is that Christ is a great Saviour. He says, ‘But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared’ (4). There are two surprises in this verse.

The first surprise is that there is forgiveness at all in light of the fact that the Lord knows all about us. If he were to tally up all our sins and hold us accountable, who could stand? (3). Not one of us. We don’t have a leg to stand on. We have all sinned in thought, word and deed.

But yet there is forgiveness with God! How can a holy God who hates sin with a perfect hatred possibly forgive sin? It’s wonderful and mysterious. It takes us to the heart of the Gospel. John explains, ‘This is love. Not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4:10). The death of Christ has appeased the righteous wrath of God so that we can now enjoy His favour and fellowship. That broken and damaged relationship has now been mended and restored through Christ. Now, ‘there is forgiveness with God’ for every sin (4).

There is forgiveness for murder and adultery (ask David). There is forgiveness for lying and deceit (ask Abraham). There is forgiveness for drunkenness (ask Noah). There is forgiveness for coveting (ask Paul), and swearing (ask Peter). You may not get it from your husband or wife, your son or daughter, your brother or sister, your neighbour or friend. But there is forgiveness with God.

The second surprise is the link between forgiveness and fear. ‘With you there is forgiveness that you may be feared’ (4). It’s a paradox. Surely if there is for­giveness with God then there should be no need to fear Him?

If there’s forgiveness there should be love and gratitude — but not fear! How do we explain? It’s when we realise that God had every right to condemn us be­cause of the enormity of our sin, and that He could have thrown us body and soul into hell, but He didn’t! He pardoned us — as He alone can. How should that make us feel? It means we are no longer flippant about sin. We don’t take forgiveness for granted; we don’t receive it lightly. We fear God. That’s what we should know, Jesus is a great Saviour.

Two Things We Should Do (5-8)←⤒🔗

In the first part of the psalm the psalmist was addressing God; in the second part he is addressing Israel. He applies the lessons he has learned to them. He says there are two things that the forgiven should do. They should wait on the Lord (5-6), and they should witness to the Lord (7-8). They should trust and tell. Three times he exhorts, ‘wait’. ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, my soul waits for the Lord’ (5-6).

Why wait? Has he not already been forgiven? Yes. But per­haps the feeling of closeness and fellowship hadn’t yet returned. The feeling of estrangement may still have remained. ‘I wait for the Lord.’ After David received forgiveness he prayed, ‘Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones you have crushed rejoice — Restore to me the joy of salvation — Then will I teach transgressors your ways’ (Ps. 51:8, 12, 13). Cowper desired ‘a closer walk with God’. Waiting also indicates the attitude of trust. ‘They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint’ (Isa. 40:31). That’s what the forgiven must continue to do. As believers we also, ‘wait for His Son from heaven’ (1 Thess. 1:10). We wait with patience and longing, ‘for the redemption of our bodies’ (Rom. 8:23). Then there will be no more of sin’s misery.

On what does he base his hope? ‘In His word I put my hope’ (5). Matthew Henry says, ‘We must hope for only that which He has promised in His word, and not for the crea­tures of our fancy and imagination.’

How does he wait? ‘Like a watchman for the morning’ (6). If you’ve ever worked a night shift, or sat up through the night with a crying baby — you know how eagerly you wait for the morning to come. God promises to ‘meet’ with those who wait longingly and expectantly for Him.

The second thing the forgiven should do is witness (7­-8). Here the psalmist becomes an evangelist. He exhorts others to put their hope in the Lord. ‘O Israel, hope in the Lord!’ Why? Because with the Lord there is ‘unfailing love’ and ‘full redemption’. Unfailing love is one of the big words of the Bi­ble (Hebrew — ‘chesedh’). It’s His enduring, steadfast, covenant love. It’s His unconditional love for His people. It’s permanent, unbreakable and irrevocable. It’s love that is unique to the Lord. He is ‘merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’ (Ex. 34:6).

He also exhorts Israel to hope in the Lord because with Him there is ‘full redemption’, ‘abundant redemption’, ‘plentiful redemption’. Re­demption was not purchased on the cheap. We are redeemed not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. ‘In Him we have redemption through His blood for the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us’ (Eph. 1:7).

A final reason for hoping in the Lord is because salvation is all of God (8). ‘He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.’ Salvation is not a DIY job. We need someone to do the work for us. That’s exactly what the Lord has underwritten in Christ.

Prayer:←⤒🔗

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for the surprise and joy of forgiveness that you have richly provided for us in Christ. Help us to continue trusting in the promises of your word that we might share our hope with others. In Jesus’ name. Amen