Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing Love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
O Lord God, please make these Your Words. Your beautiful, powerful, and moving Words that we all need to hear. Amen.
It has been a long time since a post on a Psalm, but I have been inspired by the Words God has spoken through my pastor in a Psalm series. This Psalm has been on my tongue for a couple years for my sin has always been before me. But even in the darkest of sins and times, when I have thought that there was no way for God to forgive me, this Psalm has humbled and reassured me. God willing, I will now show you why.
The Psalm goes in sections spaced out in paragraphs. Starting in the first is a desperate cry for mercy. In desperation a cry is made to God in fear because the Psalmist knows that God can choose to condemn him, but also that God is the only One that can pull him from the depths. The depths of his misery that his sin has brought that break him down in pain. He is begging God to let His ears turn to hear his cries. He wants God's mercy because he knows there is no other way except in God's mercy and forgiveness. Even today I have felt this way, seeing no light in the depths of darkness I have fallen into by my own actions and thinking. Seeing no way for a Perfect, Beautiful, Almighty God to forgive me and Love me. To cry to Him with almost no faith in Him hearing me, almost.
The Psalmist continues facing the fact that if God kept a record of sins no one could stand. No one, by God's standards, would be able to keep from being crushed by the guilt and death of their sins. He points out God's Righteousness and Power and Purity. To feel this heart wrenching feeling of how unworthy I am and the ultimate fear of God's power that He could crush me instantly. But then the realization that the question the Psalmist asks has the word "IF" in it. IF God kept a record of sins. But He does not. For God is Love and 1 Cor. 13 says Love keeps no records of wrongs. God keeps no records, He throws them out with the sins themselves to where all evil goes, never to come against us again. This changes the fear of destruction to a fear of understanding that our God is Truly Powerful and able to channel that Power to our destruction, but has instead channeled it to His Love for us causing All Powerful Forgiveness of our sins. Trough this Forgiveness the God of justice justified us by His Son's sacrifice. Then He gave us the Holy Spirit that came together with our own spirit to bring it to life and make it into something new, to make us a new creation.
This new creation, our new living soul within us, waits on the LORD. Why did the Psalmist write that he was waiting on the LORD? Because he knew that to wait on God is to wait on the time that God will take him up to Heaven, for the Psalmist knows now that he is forgiven. He waits, even his soul with its own conscience of the sinful nature of the flesh waits eagerly for God to come. Knowing this brings our souls, my soul, to wait and stir at the sound of Jesus Christ's Name because it knows the Salvation coming soon. Because of this instinctive knowledge of our souls we put our hope in God's Word that promises this in words. We hope in it and the commands and blessings written in it about the time we eagerly and patiently wait for here on earth. This is why our souls wait more than a watchmen waits for the morning. Because we are in the night, vulnerable, watching for attacks, but when the dawn comes and the King returns to relieve us and free us we will be free of the chance of attacks, of sinning again for our sinful nature will be gone.
The Psalmist then speaks to Israel, the nation around him, and tells them to put their hope in God. He finds this Forgiveness and Love and then feels the need to use the end of the song to tell them all to choose this God of Forgiveness and wait for Him too. He tells them what he has found in His Word and Forgiveness, that with God is unfailing Love and full redemption. He needs to tell them to choose Him because he knows that all need Him. Don't we see this unfailing Love and full redemption and feel the need to tell all the people around us? If we don't, we need to. Because our God felt the need to tell us that He can save us, we need to feel that need to tell others to hope in God. We need to do this for the exact same reason as the Psalmist, because he knew that only God Himself could, and would, redeem Israel and all other nations from all their sins. And God did so by the sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ.
This Psalm has meant so much to me, and I know it will continue to be all my life as I and my soul wait for Jesus Christ's Second Coming or my death in this life, both being my assured beginning of eternal life with my Lord. My pain now comes from others living without this security and their need for God. My own pain and hope drive me to share Jesus Christ with others. I start college classes and possibly work in less than a couple weeks. Those places to me now are my nation to share Christ. My prayer is that we all see the world around us this way and endlessly share the Gospel. God is so much more than Good, He is the only Way.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment