Today’s post is part of our Psalm Saturdays series from guest blogger Robert Chamberlain. You can read his archives at www.roberlain.wordpress.com .
Psalm 130:1–8 (ESV)
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
If we ever feel down in the dumps, in the depths of despair, we’re in good company, because the Psalmist felt the same. But instead of wallowing in self pity, he cried out to the Lord, and so should we. We should long for God to hear our voice.
If God kept a record of wrongs, we’d be hopeless. No one would be able to stand before Him in that case. Thankfully, love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs, and God is love.
If there’s forgiveness with God, we might wonder why it follows that we should fear Him. But on a human level, if someone forgives us, if we receive that forgiveness, we don’t abuse it, instead, we feel our indebtedness to the one who has forgiven us. So it should be with us and God.
The life of faith requires patience, because God doesn’t work to our mortal, finite, impatient timescales. So we have to wait for Him, and to be encouraged by the hope that His faithful word provides.
We’re to wait for God more than watchmen wait for the morning. If you’re a security guard on the night shift, you look forward to daylight and another shift free from harm. If we get through this life to meet our Saviour, we’ll be infinitely relieved.
We the people of God ought to hope in Him. He’s unfailingly loving and completely delivers us from slavery to sin. He redeems us from all the filthy stains of our sins.
“Heavenly Father, we wait upon You to bring our salvation to complete fruition. Thank You for the hope Your word supplies that just as You have always kept Your promises, You won’t stop now. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
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