Reflections on Psalm 130

Psalms 130 (Contemporary English Version)


1. (A song for worship.) From a sea of troubles I call out to you, LORD.
   
2. Won't you please listen as I beg for mercy?
   
3. If you kept record of our sins, no one could last long.
   
4. But you forgive us, and so we will worship you.
   
5. With all my heart, I am waiting, LORD, for you! I trust your promises.
   
6. I wait for you more eagerly than a soldier on guard duty waits for the dawn. Yes, I wait more eagerly than a soldier on guard duty waits for the dawn.
   
7. Israel, trust the LORD! He is always merciful, and he has the power to save you.
   
8. Israel, the LORD will save you from all of your sins.
   

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Though there is no indication that this and the previous psalm are connected, I looked for the 129th psalm to convey a little of what is found in this one, and that is penitence. The writer of that psalm prayed for his enemy to be cursed because of his treatment of the writer and his people, the Israelites. This was his attitude even though the enemy was used of God to discipline Israel for her sins. On the other hand, the writer of this 130th psalm is only concerned for the Lord's forgiveness of his sin. Penitence is the theme of this psalm. If the Lord considered sins, he says, who could stand? But with the Lord there is forgiveness. This is reason to revere the Lord. It is reason also for the writer to put his hope in God's word. He appeals to Israel that she would also put her hope in the Lord. Why? Because "there is faithful love with the Lord, and with Him is redemption in abundance." The Lord will redeem Israel from all its sins - if it will allow Him to do so.

This is also true for us. Redemption is the story of the bible. God made man to have fellowship with him. But man sinned and broke the fellowship. Therefore, God established a means to atone for the sin and renew the fellowship. That is the bible in a nutshell. There are a few points in this story that are problematic for many. First, many cannot believe that the creator of the universe is all that concerned about one little aspect of that creation - mankind. But that is exactly what the bible tells us over and over again. Nor do many grasp what sin is and why it should break our fellowship with God. As long as one views God somewhat as a traffic cop enforcing certain laws of the universe and sin as the breaking of those laws, it will be difficult to understand what sin is and why it affects our relationship with God. When we come to understand that God desires a relationship with us, only then can we begin to understand it. Then we can begin to understand that as certain actions break our relationships with other people, so do certain actions on our part break our relationship with God.

God made man in His image, the bible tells us, and we are incomplete apart from this relationship with God. Therefore, we are lost, we are adrift, we are without direction or purpose, apart from a relationship with God. The only way we can fully partake of this life God has given us is to be in fellowship with Him and have Him direct us in how to live this life.