Psalm 130 A Song of degrees. 1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. 3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. 7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
When a child is too young to speak they cry. There are many reasons; sometimes they are hungry or wet so they cry from the discomfort. We feed them or change them and they stop crying. A baby may cry because they are trying to shut out something that is bothering them like noise or light and when we finally figure out what is making them cry – we fix it and they stop.
Over time we get to know our child’s cries. You will often hear a mother or father say “oh, little Johnny is tired, wet or hungry” because they can recognize the cry. They don’t panic and they don’t over react because the cry is familiar.
But, there is one cry that starts the heart racing and the adrenalin flowing; a cry that stands out above all others – a call of distress that sends a parent into immediate action.
God wants to demonstrate His mighty power in our world so that people will know that He is the true and living God and recognize their need for Him. God sometimes allows crises in our lives so that He can fulfill the promise of Psalm 50:15 which says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
God desires to deliver those who call upon Him.
The Cry for Clemency begins with…
#1. CRYING OUT TO THE LORD – v 1- 2. “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.”
• God alone can fully deliver.
• From the greatest depths God hears our cries.
• The petitioners appeal is…
a Praiseworthy.
b Prudent.
c Precise.
d Personal.
This Cry for Clemency from God is followed by…
#2. CONFESSING OUR SIN – v 3- 4. “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.“
• He identifies suffering with sin. All evils, physical, intellectual, social, religious, and political, spring from moral evil.
• He identifies deliverance with forgiveness.
a God is so merciful that He does not “mark iniquities,” that is, He does not keep; retain them.
Harsh natures never forget injuries
Benevolent natures cannot retain them.
b God is so merciful that He forgives men their iniquities. The highest form of love is a love that forgives.
Because God is so merciful, we can trust Him – “That Thou mayest be feared.” Not with dread, but with love, loyalty, and cheerfulness.
If forgiveness were not a part of His nature, what rational person could reverence Him?
Dr. Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he “could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 % of them could walk out the next day.”
The Confession of Sin is followed by…
#3. WAITING ON GOD: – v 5-6. “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His Word do I hope. 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.”
• Verses 5-6 remind us, that though the Lord forgives when we call, the consequence of sin often remains.
• To wait on the Lord means…
a Trusting in God. Trusting in His wisdom, goodness, and rectitude.
b Expecting from God. Expecting that He will interpose in mercy, and grant the necessary relief.
c Attention to God. It is not a passive state of mind, it is watchful and earnest.
Our Waiting on God is followed by…
Our Waiting on God is followed by…
#4. AN INCREASE IN FAITH – v 7-8. “Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
• For with the Lord there is…
a Mercy
b Redemption
c Hope
CONCLUSION: In 1863 the Emancipation slaves was proclaimed in America. The word spread from Capitol Hill down into the valleys of Virginia, and the Carolinas, and into the plantations of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. The headlines read, ’Slavery Legally Abolished!’ However, many slaves in the South, went right on living like they had never been set free. In fact, when one Alabama slave was asked what he thought of the Emancipation Proclamation, he replied “I don’t know nothing about Abraham Lincoln except they say he set us free. And, I don’t know nothing about that neither.”
How tragic, A war was fought; legislation had been signed; slaves were set free, yet many continued to live out their years without knowing anything about it. They had chosen to remain slaves and kept serving the same master throughout their lives.
So it is with many believers today. They have been set free, yet they have chosen to remain slaves to the same strongholds that have gripped them all of their life.
Pastor Kevin Burden
Carter Creek Baptist Church
For Wednesday July 16th, 2008
