Read: Psalm 130
1Out 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.
For many of us, peace is one of those feelings that is often elusive. We live with stress; with discouragement; with unsettledness; with dissatisfaction; with discord. We have want to be at peace – to have a sense of hope and joy and well-being – but we feel like something’s missing; not quite right; just out of reach.
How can we have a heart at peace? How can we walk through our days and weeks with a joyful sense that everything will be ok – even when it doesn’t look that way? The biggest obstacle we face in our desire for that peaceful heart is our own sin. Sin deceives us. It lies to us. It subtly plays upon our weaknesses and our insecurities and leads us to do, say, or think things we don’t want.
Psalm 130 is “a song of ascents”. It was one of the fifteen psalms (Psalms 120-134) pilgrims would sin as they came into Jerusalem for one of the three festivals all Jews were required to attend. They are psalms of hope, joy and expectation. Psalm 130 gives us a pattern that can help us find that elusive peace we long for: repentance; forgiveness; waiting; and worship.
Repentance (Psalm 130:1-3): Scripture encourages us invite the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and show us where we are out of step with God. Where have we disobeyed? Where is there sin?
When we come under the conviction of sin, often there is a heavy weight of guilt that leads us to cry out to God. David begins this psalm by crying out to God from the depths of his heart. He longs for God to hear his confession; to hear his plea for mercy; to not hold his sin against him. If God were to “mark iniquities,” who could survive?
Forgiveness (130:4): But God does forgive. When we confess our sin to him, he is faithful and just to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Jesus paid our debt in total at the cross. His blood washes us clean. The holy, perfect, almighty God is to be feared – respected; awed; overwhelmed – and he loves us so much, he doesn’t hold our sin against us. He made a way for us to be forgiven.
Waiting (130:5-6): God’s timing is perfect. When we seek him with confession and receive his forgiveness, we also wait. We come to his word with hopeful expectation he will speak. We pray and speak to him with a heart tuned to listen as well. We wait for a nudge of his Spirit; we pause at a word or phrase that catches our attention; we sit in his presence and wait.
Waiting here is not simply sitting in his presence as we study his Word. Nor is it not stepping out to serve or to trust him until he moves in an incredibly obvious fashion. It is a companionable walking with him; a seeking to keep in step with him. It is a relationship that does not run ahead and seeks never to lag behind.
We wait for wisdom or guidance. We wait for answers to our prayers. We wait for him to make us whole and holy. We wait for him to come again and make all things new. We wait for him to take us home and to hear him say, “Well done!” Until Jesus returns, we wait.
Worship (130:7-8): We do not wait because God is too busy or because he is on a break. God is always moving. He is always at work. He is constantly doing all that is needed for us to grow closer to him. He is constantly moving in and around us to draw us closer.
All God does is worthy of our praise and adoration. Everything he does is good. Each and every character trait of our God is awe-inspiring and far more than we can imagine. He is infinitely good and infinitely worthy of our worship.
He is the God of hope. He is the God of steadfast love. He is the God of plentiful redemption. He is the God who saves. Worship is the appropriate response of hearts that are forgiven. Worship is the appropriate response of lives that have been and are being transformed. Worship is the only appropriate response to the God of the universe because of who he is and all he has done.
These four things – repentance, forgiveness, waiting, and worship – anchor us in a rhythm of grace. They help us to continue to seek God and to experience his deep love for us. They keep our eyes focused on the God of our circumstances rather than on the circumstances themselves.
Take time to reflect:
As you reflect on the psalm and on this pattern, where do you sense an invitation? What is stirred in your heart? Hope? Discouragement? Why do you think?
Take time to pause and ask God to reveal to you any sin you need to confess and repent.
Thank God for his promise to forgive your sin.
Take time to pray and ask God for whatever is on your heart. Ask too for the grace to wait on him for all you need. Ask for eyes to recognize how he answers.
Before you move on, take a few moments to silently wait in his presence. Rest and enjoy the presence of a Father who loves you beyond anything you can imagine.
Finish your time with worship. It could be a prayer of praise for who God is and what he does. It could be a praise song or hymn you sing or listen to. However you wish, give glory to the God who saves, redeems, and forgives.