Psalm 130

Aren’t these pilgrim songs (Ps. 120-134) significantly encouraging?  We are seeing that when God said He would be our helper, He meant it.  He is a refuge, He never is caught asleep or preoccupied, He cares for our family and work, and He gives us hope when we face life’s greatest challenges. 

But perhaps you are wondering, Will He, can He, help me with the challenges that I bring on myself?  

That is an excellent question because it is extremely relevant.  If we are honest, and we must be if we are going to be faithful on this journey/pilgrimage, the fact is that we dig a lot of potholes for ourselves.  We let our anger get in the way of relationships we value.  We refuse to be generous with others and find that when we are in need there’s no one around to help us.  We mistakenly think that satisfying every fleshly desire will make us happy, only to find ourselves enslaved to something that is destroying us.

The issue we are talking about, according to this Psalm, is iniquity (v4,8).  It refers to wrong actions (it’s a word for sin) and the guilt and consequences they produce.  All of that seems to be wrapped up in one term.  Which tells us why the place they lead us into the depths (v1).  The deep it’s talking about is the greatest depths of the ocean (that’s how the term is usually used in Scripture), where it is unimaginably dark and the pressure cannot be endured.

It is out of the deep waters that the Pilgrim cries, a situation he has made for himself.  His iniquities have dragged him to this hole.  But he cries out to the LORD because he knows some things about the LORD.  But there is forgiveness with You (v4).  With the LORD there is mercy; with Him there is abundant redemption (v7).  God had abundant grace to purchase our souls for Himself.

Forgiveness is a word only used two other times in the OT.  In Neh. 9:17 Nehemiah was praying, confessing Israel’s terrible sin that led to their captivity in Babylon.  In His prayer he said, But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them!  They were words that Daniel had prayed, from Babylon, perhaps just a few months earlier: To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him (Dan. 9:9).  Babylon was truly the depths for Israel, depths of their own making.  But these men cried to the Lord because He was merciful.  And so can we!

The Pilgrim knows there is one thing to do.  He must trust the LORD.  The LORD will redeem him.  That he knows.  But he must hope in the LORD for deliverance from the depths.  It is a matter of watching for it like the watchman waits for the morning.  It will come, in time.  The forgiveness is not just about getting out of our difficulty; it is about learning to fear the LORD (v4).

What a Helper we have for our pilgrimage.  Turn to Him.  Cry out to Him in your afflictions.  Hope in the LORD!