Psalm 130
1Out of the depths I cry to You, Lord;2 Lord, hear my voice.Let Your ears be attentiveto my cry for mercy.
3 If You, Lord, kept a record of sins,Lord, who could stand?4 But with You there is forgiveness,so that we can, with reverence, serve You.
5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,and in His word I put my hope.6 I wait for the Lordmore than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,for with the Lord is unfailing loveand with him is full redemption.8 He Himself will redeem Israelfrom all their sins.
Psalm 130 WITH THE LORD IS UNFAILING LOVE
Springford Baptist Church: February 27, 2022.
We can know our God as a God of unfailing love. We can rest in the safety and security of that relationship. We can feel “at home” with the truth that “WITH THE LORD IS UNFAILING LOVE.”
All of us have been struck this week by the way our world has been shaken by the news of Russian troops invading the Ukraine. The fragile stability and uncertain peace of our world has been under attack. While we have been watching and hearing this news in the comfort of our homes, people in the Ukraine have literally been fleeing for their lives. I was hearing of a journalist who is also a Mom describing how at their supper table she had tried to help her children to have some understanding of what is happening there in the Ukraine. She had gently explained that while they were able to relax and gather around their table for supper, that many children and their families in the Ukraine could not.
As I read this Psalm 130 that provides inspiration from God’s Word for our message today, I am so thankful that we can gather around the reassuring truth of knowing that WITH THE LORD IS UNFAILING LOVE. As I said, this knowledge of God and His unfailing love is something we do “feel at home with.” At the same time, we must care about those who do not have this same awareness of God and who do not know the comfort of His Presence and care for them.
We are going to explore today this psalm writer’s experience of knowing God as One Who provides unfailing love. We are going to recall our own experiences of God’s unfailing love. But today’s message will not stop there. We will also be challenged to consider how we can help to bring other people home to their own personal assurance that, “WITH THE LORD IS UNFAILING LOVE.”
Psalm 130 begins with these urgent words, “ 1Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 2Lord, hear my voice. Let Your ears be attentiveto my cry for mercy.”
We do not know exactly what the depths from which he cried were. It is clearly an extreme circumstance of need, an insurmountable problem where God is the only hope and only God can bring help as this person cries out for mercy.
This is how I feel about the extreme circumstances of need in our world, at this time. We are crying to God out of the depths and only God can help us.
As we come to God pleading for mercy, we do not come on our own merit. We come appealing to God because of His unfailing love. We hear this expressed in Psalm 130:3,4
3 If You, Lord, kept a record of sins,Lord, who could stand?4 But with You there is forgiveness,so that we can, with reverence, serve You.
If God in His unfailing love was not a God of forgiveness, people would only run from Him in terror. Instead, when we have experienced God’s unfailing love and forgiveness, our response is to want to serve Him with reverence. This is a moving picture of being restored and brought back home to God. We know where we have been when we were not walking closely with God and we are so relieved that He brings us home to His side. God brings us home to where we can serve Him with reverence, deeply aware of His unfailing love.
This waiting for the LORD spoken of in verses 5 and 6 is waiting in hopeful expectation. There is a confidence that God will answer because there is confidence in His unfailing love.
5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,and in His word I put my hope.6 I wait for the Lordmore than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Doesn’t that ring true that when we pray and are waiting for God to answer out of His unfailing love, our whole being waits. All of our heart and soul and mind and strength is involved in waiting to see God express His unfailing love. Then all of our heart and soul and mind and strength responds with loving the LORD our God Who answers us.
The waiting of the psalm writer is compared here to watchmen looking for the first rays of dawn when they would be relieved of their duties by other guards. In their responsibility of guarding a city, the watchmen would long for the sun to come up so that their time of duty would be completed.
The psalmist is even more eager for God than this longing for the morning light. He is longing for God to answer His cries for help from the LORD and for God to bring the dawn of redemption and safety for him.
In a similar way we are longing for the answers to our prayers for peace in the Ukraine. We are longing for the morning light of peace to shine.
What are your own personal experiences of hoping in God and His unfailing love? Are you abiding in a place of safety and security, at home with God and His unfailing love, even as you wait for what God will do in answer to Your prayers?
If we only linger at home by the warmth of the fire of God’s unfailing love for us, we do not finish what this Psalm 130 describes.
These final verses of Psalm 130 urge,
7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,for with the Lord is unfailing loveand with him is full redemption.8 He Himself will redeem Israelfrom all their sins.
Know that with all that goes on in our world, our only true hope is in the LORD. At other times in history when the forces of evil were evident and strong, God was stronger!
We do have a message of hope in our LORD and His unfailing love that we can cling to ourselves and that we can share with anyone and everyone we know.
When we are praying for the Ukraine, we can be praying that people who are now refugees without homes, that these same people can again be in homes that are safe and secure.
For everyone, our prayer is that they will discover the powerful and reassuring truth that “WITH THE LORD IS UNFAILING LOVE.”
God’s love for us is a place of certainty where we can take refuge even when the circumstances of life seem desperate and unsolvable.
Please pray with me for people who need to be at home with our LORD and His unfailing love. Pray for those who have yet to discover the full redemption that God provides. Pray that we will fully understand what a promise this is where we can take shelter and find peace because truly, “WITH THE LORD IS UNFAILING LOVE!”