A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.
1 From the depths of despair, O Lord,
I call for your help.
2 Hear my cry, O Lord.
Pay attention to my prayer.
3 Lord, if you kept a record of our sins,
who, O Lord, could ever survive?
4 But you offer forgiveness,
that we might learn to fear you.
5 I am counting on the Lord;
yes, I am counting on him.
I have put my hope in his word.
6 I long for the Lord
more than sentries long for the dawn,
yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord;
for with the Lord there is unfailing love.
His redemption overflows.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from every kind of sin.
hope in the Lord v.7
MAIN POINT: There is hope for despair in the person of Jesus who redeems.
If you read too quickly you might miss the words “depths of despair”. You might have become numb to a Psalmist’s honesty and emotional transparency. Maybe you are too tired yourself to feel with the writer and to connect to the words again. So you rush on to the rest of the Psalm. And it isn’t difficult to rest on verse 4 and the forgiveness being offered. And if that is uncomfortable and confrontational you might skip right to verse 7 and the unfailing love mentioned in that verse.
But I want to draw your attention back to “depths of despair” in verse 1. In many ways my life is pretty cushy. And although I could wax eloquent about my physical, mental and relational burdens, I know that others will have had depths of despair far more significant than me. If you are in a depths of despair moment in your life, then I don’t want you to rush past these words. Some personalities and cultures are more prone to transparency concerning the inner life and emotional and mental well-being. Other subcultures, friendship groups, families and workplaces strongly discourage open sharing of personal struggles. So you might not have much of an outlet for your depths of despair feelings. You might be maintaining a front that all is good, even when you are despairing. Call for help. Call out to the Lord. Recognise that God is listening. He is not asking you to be superficial, all together, or pretending to be perfect. He knows. This year in my personal, probably quite mini, depths of despair, I found great comfort in the simple phrase,
He knows.
Verse 3 really drives this idea home. It may have once again been a point you missed upon the first reading. But the Psalmist wants you to understand God knows. He knows what you are thinking, what you are plotting, what you have been planning, what you have been secretly longing for. And get ready for it. He isn’t standing there with a grudge ready to hold it against you.
God forgives.
What is going to get us out of this rut of thinking? What is going to save us from this darkness? Who is going to have the patience, fortitude and gentle care to nurse us out of these addictions? Who will save us from the hate, the bitterness, the self-centeredness, the self-destructive habits? Who will wake us up from the numb marching on of years of continual self sleep. Who can restore our job? Give us rest? Or bring balance to our thinking?
The LORD.
I used to work the night shift in a children's home. There were 30 children living on three floors ages 2-19 and all in their own room (hopefully), all sleeping and I was there, the only adult awake (often the only adult present) to comfort, to look in on them in the night, to give cough syrup to them and to mop the floors, empty the dishwashers, do the laundry and iron the school uniforms and little Disney dresses. At the same time I was a youth pastor and a Dutch language student. Sometimes I couldn’t wait for the sun to come up. I was tired to the core. I knew what these sentries were feeling in Psalm 130 verse 6. I don't think I have ever had a job where I was more conscious of the time. And time could move so slowly. Tiredness, weariness, exhaustion and depression can be so, so draining. It feels like it will never end.
HOPE is the answer to such desperation. And this Psalm offers it. Why? Why can the person who confesses to be in the depths of despair have hope?
Hope is based in the person this Psalm is written to, The Lord. And why? Maybe you ask that because you do not really know the Lord. So let me introduce you to our Lord.
The Lord listens.
The Lord can help.
The Lord pays attention.
The Lord forgives.
The Lord is amazing. (worthy of our fear)
The Lord is stable. (You can count on Him. v5)
The Lord is desirable. (The writer of the Psalm longs for Him.)
The Lord has unfailing love. (This is a repeated theme in the Bible and especially in the Psalms)
The Lord redeems.
(Can you match the statements with the verses?)
The Lord redeems, this idea is huge and would take hours to unpack. But let's throw some light on it now. To buy back, to give value, to rescue from a bad situation, to restore to its former worth, to recognise the purpose for which something was made. To clean up, to repair, to fix. All these ideas are bound up in this idea of redemption.
And you can look back through the Psalm and see the character of the person doing the redeeming; you’ll better understand the why and the how of redemption and that will give you hope. Even if you are in the depths of despair, if you can even for a moment look at the Lord Jesus Christ, you will see something worthy of your hope.
There is a little poem called Footsteps in the Sand. And it is meant to remind us that God is not only present but is carrying us through our most difficult situations. It might be a cliché little poem. But it is true. He is present, He sees, He cares, He forgives, He helps, He redeems. He is worthy of your hope.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Conclusion:
Are you a believer? If so then my words, the Psalmist’s words and Paul’s words have lifted your spirits to have hope. I’m sure. If you don’t believe in the Lord who redeems and all that is told us of Him then I don’t know where you will find hope. Hope in the Lord, He knows, He helps.
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| Handwritten Psalm 130 |
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