Psalm 130

“The way out of the Darkness”

Subject: How does the Psalmist experience deliverance from His sin?

Complement: He cries out to Jehova and encounters God’s loving forgiveness.

Idea: The loving lord fully redeems and forgives those who put their hope in Him.

HI: “We will be saved when we wait for God rescue us.”

Image: Lifeguard

When I was a senior in high school I took a life guarding class at my school. My teacher was excellent. He had been training lifeguards for decades. He had developed all sorts of games and activities to teach us the skills. It was a blast. But as much fun as we had, our teacher always reminded us that being a lifeguard was serious business. After all we were learning how to save lives. One of the most useful things we learned is what happens in many situations when people start to drown. When people are starting to drown they panic. They flail and thrash around. But their uncoordinated efforts only make them sink even more. People who are drowning become irrational. They don’t think, they simply react and panic. The person who is drowning will grab anything they can and try to climb on top of it to save them self from drowning, including the lifeguard coming to rescue them. When that happens you’ve got two people drowning instead of one. When you need to save someone one of the most important things is to calm the victim down or wait until they are worn out from the struggle. I don’t know if it is still true today but my instructor told us that when he was in the military he actually learned how to knock out a drowning victim before rescuing them. The person who is drowning is past the point of being able to help himself. He or she has to stop trying. The victim needs to quit struggling so that the rescuer can safely save him or her.

Psalm 130 has a similar message. This is a song about the psalmist’s overwhelming struggle against sin. But it is more than a personal testimony, is a song about how everyone can be rescued from sin. Psalm 130 shows us how we can be delivered from sin and its horrible consequences. This is a psalm of ascents. Often the Jews would sing one of the songs of ascents as they climbed up the temple mount. As they ascended, the song would help prepare them for worship. Often a song of ascent will focus on the temple, ore the priests, or the citizens of Zion. But this is a special song of ascent. The psalm itself ascends. It begins in the depths and it ends on the heights of God’s unfailing love and redemption. This psalm shows us how we can be delivered from sin.

The first two verses begin in a very low place. “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.” When we read this psalm we might think of “the depths” as a deep hole, a dingy dungeon, or a pit of despair. But the word “depths” most often refers to deep water, or the depths of the ocean. David uses the same word in Psalm 69:2 when he says “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.” This is not a psalm about depression or despair. It is not about the troubles of life. It is a psalm about a life and death struggle against sin. It reminds us that we are helplessly drowning in sin. We are in the depths of sin. Sin surrounds us. It overwhelms us. It is killing us. And there is nothing we can do about it. We are helpless. Like a drowning victim, all of our efforts to save ourselves are futile. We are weak and vulnerable. Sin is insidious. It sticks to us like gum sticks to the bottom of a shoe. No matter how hard we try to get rid of our bad habits and evil thoughts, we cannot free ourselves from the clutches of our own bad decisions. Our feeble attempts to save ourselves are useless. We are in the depths of sin with no foothold.

Our only hope to be saved is to admit our sin and cry out for mercy. The only thing a drowning victim can do that will really help is to get the attention of someone else. So a drowning victim yells from the top of her lungs “Help me! Somebody save me!” She doesn’t care how undignified it is, or what other people will think. She isn’t trying to impress anyone anymore. She only has one thing on her mind. I need to be saved! And we see the psalmist doing the same thing. Listen to the desperate language. The psalmist “cries” to the Lord. He pleads for mercy. He’s not trying to make excuses, or to blame anyone else for his predicament. He’s drowning; he’s in serious trouble. So he shamelessly pleads for God’s attention to save him from this desperate situation. He admits that he’s in trouble and calls out for mercy, for forgiveness, for grace. He pleads that God will do something drastic to get him out of these deep waters.

We are like the psalmist. We are helplessly drowning in sin. We have strayed beyond the buoys of God’s law that keep us safe. We are drowning because of our sin. Our efforts to rescue ourselves are futile. If we want to be saved we must admit our sin and cry out to God for mercy. Have you experienced this yet? Have you come to the place in your life when you realize that you can never do enough; you will never measure up; you can never earn your own salvation? That happened for me in college. I had been a Christian for several years. I knew in my mind that I needed a savior but I never felt overwhelmed by my own sins. At that point of my life I was occasionally viewing Internet pornography. I knew it wasn’t good, but justified it by comparing myself to so many other college students. “Well at least I’m not having sex with anyone else. I’m not technically committing adultery. Besides I can stop anytime I want.” But I was feeling guilty and I couldn’t stop. I could overcome the temptation for several days or even several weeks, but it was a losing battle. I was succumbing more and more. One Sunday night, a speaker at our evening service challenged us with the seriousness of sin. She reminded us that Jesus suffered and died because there was no other way to get rid of sin. If we could overcome sin on our own, Jesus never needed to suffer and be crucified. She urged us to confess our sins to God and to one another and to ask for help. I finally realized how much I needed a savior. I broke down that night. I cried out to the Lord for help. I confessed my sin to God and a few of my very close friends. I realized that by myself I was drowning. My only hope for salvation was to cry out to God for mercy. I admit that wasn’t the end of my struggle with sexual temptation, but that was the end of my attempt to overcome it by my own willpower. Even today I have an accountability partner and I have filters installed on my computers. We need help to overcome sin. We’re drowning and can’t save ourselves. The psalmist knows that, so He says, “I cry to you O Lord…hear…my cry for mercy.”

The Psalmist cries out to the Lord, because he knows that God can help. Verses 3-4 remind us that The Sovereign Lord is able to rescue us from our sin. “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.” The Lord is Holy. He is sovereign. He is perfect and without sin. God would be just and fair if He said to each and every one of us, “Go to hell.” If he kept a record of our sins, no one could stand before him. Every one of us needs to be rescued from sin. All of us are drowning in a sea of unrighteous thoughts and actions. We are dying because of our sin. Everyone needs to be rescued. In his sermon on this text Stephen Brown says, that we often believe the lie that there are two kinds of people in this world: good people and bad people. The truth is that the two kinds of people in this world are the very bad people who know they are bad, and the very bad people who don’t know they are bad. People who see the danger of sin, and know they are drowning shamelessly call for help. But people who don’t recognize their peril can’t admit they are drowning. Brian Coffee tells a story about his great-grandpa Joe that illustrates this. His great-grandpa was a coalminer in Kentucky. He worked hard and he drank hard most of his life. When he was sober he was the loving patriarch of the family, but when he was drinking he disappeared for weeks at a time choosing whisky and women over his wife and family. Late in his life Joe was dying of liver disease and back lung disease. When Brian’s mother became a Christian she went to see her dying grandpa in the hospital and shared the gospel with her Grandpa Joe. After he listened to her presentation, Grandpa Joe looked up and said, “I don’t believe I’ve ever sinned.” She was shocked because the whole family knew about his lifestyle. She said, “But Grandpa, we’ve all done bad things. Can’t you think of just one thing you’ve done that was wrong?” He pretended to think for a moment, and then said, “I take it back, I take it back. I have sinned once. I voted for a Republican one time.” The problem with most of us is that we don’t recognize that we need to be rescued from sin. We are quick to see the sin in other people’s lives, but often like Grandpa Joe we say, “I’m really not that bad.” So often in our churches we put on masks. We pretend that everything is O.K. We act like we’ve got it all together. We look around and we see other people who appear to have everything together, and inside we wonder, “Am I the only one who struggles?” We treat the church like a museum for saints, where the good people are on display for all to see. But the church is not a museum for saints; it is a hospital for sinners. Jesus did not come to commend those who are healthy; he came to heal those who are sick! Everyone needs to be rescued. Scripture says, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord who could stand?”

But the Lord of the universe is able to rescue us. “With the Lord is forgiveness.” He has navigated the undertows and the waves of sin. He has triumphed over sin. He is able to forgive us. Jesus tells us in, Luke 19:10 “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” He came to rescue those who are drowning. To redeem those who are in bondage to sin. To heal those who are dying. And when he does, we worship Him. We celebrate together the glory and majesty and power of our Great God who knows our misdeeds and rescues us anyway. We worship Him; we adore and honor Him, because He forgives us. We celebrate His saving power in our own lives. That is why we fear Him. With Him is forgiveness, forgiveness from our sin and forgiveness from our guilt. When he rescues us he doesn’t condemn us for swimming out beyond the buoys. He doesn’t chastise us for our disobedience. He celebrates, and rejoices that what was lost is now found. Even though we are helplessly drowning in sin, we are not hopeless because we can cry out to the sovereign Lord who rescues us from sin. “With Him is forgiveness.”

We will be saved; we will be rescued, when we wait for God to work. The psalmist tells us “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.” We must put our hope in God; we must wait for His salvation because He will save us in His good time. We must put our confidence and our trust in God, because unless and until He moves, we will only wear ourselves out trying. But “waiting for the Lord” doesn’t mean that we do nothing. It doesn’t mean that we say, O.K. God you made me this way and I’m not going to do anything about the sin in my life until you change me. No we must be diligent we must be actively watching for God’s deliverance in our lives. Watchmen have a tedious job, it is difficult for them to be diligent throughout the dark hours of the night, but they must be diligent. They must be ever watchful for the enemy. They must be careful to look for allies. And so like watchmen who wait for the morning and like drowning people we actively wait and diligently long for God’s salvation. We put our hope, we put our trust in His word, in His promises. I imagine it was difficult for faithful Jews to keep waiting for God’s salvation and forgiveness. But at just the right time God sent His son Jesus to take away the sin of the world. And at just the right time, maybe this afternoon or maybe 10,000 years from now, Jesus will come again. We must only wait for His salvation. We will be saved, completely and fully, when we wait for God to rescue us.

Finally, we ascend to the peak of this Psalm in verses 7 and 8. “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.” The Lord loves His people and He will rescue us. Jesus Christ has a passion for us. His love is unfailing. And he will deliver us. He will save us. He will fully redeem us. Unfortunately some lifeguards are ambivalent. They mostly care about getting a good tan and an easy paycheck. It seems like each summer I see a news expose about bad lifeguards who care more about themselves than the people they are supposed to save. But not the Lord God. The Lord steadfastly loves His people. He will not let us drown. In verse 7 the word there is hesed. Whenever my Seminary President Walter Kaiser would come across that word in the Biblical text he would say “Oye Vay! God’s hesed. Such a love!” We cannot accurately translate that word into English. God’s hesed means: loyalty, faithfulness, goodness, mercy, and favor. God’s hesed represents all the riches of His grace, and all the glory of his covenantal love. That’s why we can put our hope in the Lord, because of his hesed. He won’t let us down. He loves us too much. And when He rescues us he will bring full redemption. He will redeem us from our sin and he will redeem us from the guilt of our sin. Psalm 103:2 puts it like this. “He forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.” In Romans 8:1 Paul states it this way. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Not only are we forgiven for what we have done wrong, we are redeemed from the guilt of our past. We become new creatures. In 2 Corinthians Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has gone, the new has come.” The Lord may convict us of sin, but he will never condemn us for sin that we have confessed and repented. Salvation is found in the Lord Jesus Christ who endured sin, and rose from the grave. He frees us from all sin. He delivers us from the depths.

How can we be saved from this sin that plagues us? How can we be delivered from our hatred, from craving so much stuff, from alcohol addiction, from anorexia, and from pornography? How can we be redeemed from sealing a toy from our friend, or from gossiping about someone at school? How will we ever get rid of the envy and jealousy that steals our joy? We must remember the drowning victim of Psalm 130. We must admit that we are drowning in our sin, we must look to the Sovereign Lord to save us, and we must actively wait for His salvation. The Lord loves His people; He will rescue us. We will be saved when we wait for God to rescue us. Oh Calvary church put your hope in the Lord for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem us from all our sins.