"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." Psalm 130
Are you in the depths of woe and despair? Well, we all have good cause to be! Think about it; we are sinful human beings living in a sinful world and about to stand before the LORD God, a holy and righteous God who created all things good and who hates sin, wickedness and rebellion against Him and His Word. And, whether we live or die, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.
The Bible tells us that "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27), and later adds the warning that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).
So, whether we have died or are alive and remain on the day of Christ's return, we will all stand before our holy and just God. How many of you are ready? Hence, Psalm 130, the Word of God for our consideration today.
"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (v. 1-3)
If the LORD were to mark our every iniquity in His books and keep a record of our every failure, who could stand in His judgment? Who is innocent of all sin? Who can stand before God and proclaim his own righteousness under the law?
And yet, that is what many are planning to do -- to seek acceptance with God on the basis of their own lives and works. But God demands more -- He demands perfect obedience in our thoughts, desires, words and deeds. God's law demands that we be holy as the LORD our God is holy (cf. Lev. 19:2; Matt. 5:48).
Even Christians cannot stand on their own merit. Our hearts are divided. We may have the desire to love the LORD with all our heart, mind and soul, but we don't. We may desire to obey all God's commandments, but we fail.
Knowing that God demands that we be holy as He is holy, we can easily be discouraged and even become angry with God for demanding of us what we are not able to do.
The Bible tells us in Romans 3:19-20: "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
Therefore, we are in the depths of woe -- sinners and guilty before God, deserving of nothing but His eternal wrath and punishment! All of us "have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
Psalm 130, however, gives us comfort and lifts us up from the depths of woe when it says in verse 4: "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared."
The LORD God is merciful and forgives sins! How? As the psalm promises, God sent His own Son to die for our sins and provide for us "plenteous redemption," to "redeem Israel from all his iniquities" (v. 7, 8). And Jesus Christ, God's Son, died not only for the sins of Israel, He made atonement for the sins of the whole world and rose again (cf. Matt. 1:21; John 1:29; 1 John 2:1-2).
We, therefore, wait for the Lord's coming in confidence and readiness, placing our hope in His word of forgiveness and acceptance through faith in Jesus' holy life and innocent sufferings and death in our stead (cf. Heb. 9:28).
In fact, we look for His coming in judgment, knowing that all our sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus. "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). Our God "hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph. 1:6-7; cf. Rom. 3:21-26; 5:1-2).
And so, are you ready to stand before Your Maker? The answer for all who look to Christ in faith is: Yes, indeed, for in Christ Jesus, we have "plenteous redemption." He has redeemed us from all our sins and blotted them out forever!
God tells us in His Word (Isaiah 44:22): "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins; return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee."
May God graciously move us to return unto Him with faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior!
Dear LORD God, we give You thanks that You have redeemed us in the Son and that You graciously forgive us all our sins when we look to Christ Jesus in faith. Amen.
[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible. Devotion is by Randy Moll. More of Moll's devotional writings are freely available at https://goodshepherdonline.org. Moll may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.]