Sermon
Martin Luther's Favorite Psalm - Psalm 130
June 29, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your bibles or your notes that you have. We've included all of the Scripture text in the notes. Today our psalm is 130. It reads: "Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat us according to our sins, O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You [just what man needs], that You may be reverently feared and worshiped.
I wait for the Lord, I expectantly wait, and in His word do I hope.
I am looking and waiting for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, I say, more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is mercy and loving-kindness, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities."

Now I suggest in our notes that Psalm 130 is a profound psalm, and because it is a profound psalm, it has been profoundly treated. And the reason I started with that sentence is that this is one of those great psalms that has been loved and preached on down through the centuries, and so there is a massive amount of resource material on it. The reason for these extensive treatments is that many of God's people down through history have considered this psalm blessed and have loved it as the result. In fact, many love this psalm almost like they do the 23rd Psalm. It is blessed because it contains a penetrating statement of the gospel.

Most of us know that John Wesley's conversion took place in the evening of May 24, 1738, when he attended a meeting in a little nonconformist chapel on Aldersgate Street in London and he heard someone reading from the Introduction to Martin Luther's work on Romans. It was the occasion when he described his heart as being "strangely warmed." What is not so well known though is that on the afternoon of that same day Wesley attended a vesper service at St. Paul's Cathedral, and in the course of that the service Psalm 130 was sung as an anthem. Wesley was greatly moved by the anthem, and it became one of the means that God used to open his heart to the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther also loved this psalm. He called it one of the Pauline Psalms, and he classed it with Psalms 32, 51, and 143. The he did this because of its offer of forgiveness by grace apart from human works. In fact, it is one of the best expositions in the Old Testament of the way of salvation by grace on the basis of Christ's atonement. Now Luther wrote a fine exposition of this psalm as well as a very beautiful hymn. The first stanza of that great hymn is:
From depths of woe I raise to thee, the voice of lamentation; Lord, turn a gracious ear to me and hear my supplication: If thou iniquities dost mark, our secret sins and misdeeds dark, O who shall stand before thee?

Psalm 130 is a penitential psalm. It starts at the lowest depths of despair, but it progresses steadily upward until, at the end there is encouragement for many from the experience of one. And in this sense Psalm 130 is in itself is a literal Song of Ascents. It climbs from the abyss of depression to the high ground of steadfast hope. You'll notice in many of David's writings he starts down where we usually spend much of our life and he describes and paints the problem, then he turns his eyes God-ward and he considers the God who delivers him in his journey in life, and finally the psalm ends with great words of praise and testimony. It's characteristic of David's writing.

Now we see this progression mirrored in each of the psalm's four stanzas as they deal in turn with sorrow over sin, then comes forgiveness through faith in God, and then a joyous testimony. Now the psalm begins with the writer in these words in "the depths" or, as the Latin says, de profundis. In Hebrew being in "the depths" refers specifically to being caught in dangerous and deep waters.

Psalm 69 reads: "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; and the floods engulf me." He's discussing and describing a panic where it seems almost that his sin and his guilt is just engulfing him, and his very life is being taken from him. And he describes it as being caught, sucked under, engulfed by water. I understand that phrase.

When I went home to visit my mother this week I drove by the old swimming pool where 65 years ago I went swimming as a little boy. And I remember still, as I drove by there this week, the day when I was being chased by someone who wanted to fight me. And I ran into that little swimming pool and I moved from the shallow to the deep trying get away, and the farther I went the faster he came. Finally now I'm into water I cannot reach the bottom and he's got a hold of my heel, and he pulls me under the second time and I'm almost down the third time and I'm gulping; I'm grasping for life, and thank God I found the edge of the pool and pulled myself out. I understand that panic of being engulfed. A panic so deep that even after 65 years I don't like water and don't go swimming much. I don't like the ocean. I understand, when you've gone through an experience it marks you.

Here's what our psalmist is saying: This thing is absolutely sucking me under. What's he talking about? Well, what is it that brought the writer of Psalm 130 into this dangerous condition? It's sin! He cries out under the weight and waves of his sins. This the ensuing psalm makes very clear. Desiring to be delivered from these depths out of which he cried, he deals with God wholly about mercy and forgiveness; and it is sin alone from which forgiveness is a deliverance. The doctrine that he preaches after he knows that he's been delivered is a doctrine of God's mercy, grace and redemption. But he interestingly describes guilt as an engulfing force that robs life of its very substance.

Now our problem today, especially in appreciating a psalm like this, is that most of us do not have such an awareness of sin as the psalmist did. We live most of our lives with very little awareness of God, and where God has been abolished an awareness of sin is inevitably abolished also, because sin is defined only in relationship to God. It is "any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God," which is the ancient definition of sin.

Here's my point: the less God means to us, and when He's robbed of His majesty, and His glory and His honor and His eternalness; when God is diminished down to a manageable deity, then sin and its power and its effect on our lives diminishes also. Our hatred for sin is always determined in relation to our love and our admiration of almighty God.

Now I'm old enough to say this when I tell you I have a great fear for the Evangelical Church 20 years from today. If it continues to trivialize God and bring Him down to a manageable person that they can be comfortable with, I tell you that in 20 years there'll be less appreciation or even concern for the matter of sin.

I picked up a book the other day with an interesting title, The Trivialization of God, the dangerous illusion of a manageable deity. A fascinating subject. So I opened a page and I just underlined one sentence for us: It is easy today to bemoan the loss of faith in our so-called secular culture. We should remember though that it was Israel that created the golden calf and it's the church that prostrates itself before the illusory power of manageable deities. So each of us must take heed, our knowledge of God may not be as trustworthy as we think. And his thesis simply is this, when you reduce the awesomeness of God, you reduce the awfulness of sin.

I tell you as I watch the worship process develop in evangelicalism, and as I see them throwing away the sacred roots of the past, and singing these little ditties that they call songs, I fear that the awesomeness of God is going.

The psalmist here is realizing he's being confronted by an awesome, marvelous God and his guilt and his sin is sucking him under and he's got to deal with this God. I noted here in our notes that the psalmist is deeply disturbed with a tremendous sense of guilt over his sins. Question -- how do we handle guilt? Well, we could handle it by denial. We simply refuse to admit its existence; and some do that.

There's another way through rationalization. We admit that we are guilty, but we immediately blunt the edge of our confession by pointing out all of the extenuating circumstances that have conspired to make us this way. If we can't blame our parents or our teachers, we blame the government or our genes. With rationalization we've got to pass the buck on to somebody, and that's the way a lot of people deal with guilt. Somebody else is responsible for what I just did.

Now there's another way of dealing with guilt and that's by relativization, and that is we simply point out that everyone else is thinking or doing exactly what we are, and that we aren't so bad after all. So when we find worse examples than ourselves, it makes us look better. And by this we also take the spotlight off ourselves and put in on someone else, much to our relief.

We handle guilt in different ways, but David is teaching us in this psalm how to handle guilt by admission, confession, and forgiveness. The advantage of this is that we don't have to carry the guilt anymore. Since this way is healing, it is God's way, and our psalm witnesses to it. Before God we can not only be relieved of the guilt of our behavior; we can also be relieved of the guilt of our fallen existence, and that's freedom.

Now I deal with this issue of sin just a little further. I suggest we need to recovery a sense of sin.
Man calls it an accident; God calls it an abomination.
Man calls it a blunder; God calls it a blindness.
Man calls it a defect; God calls it a disease.
Man calls it a chance; God calls it a choice.
Man calls it an error; God calls it an enmity.
Man calls it a fascination; God calls it a fatality.
Man calls it an infirmity; God calls it an iniquity.
Man calls it a luxury; God calls it a leprosy.
Man calls it a liberty; God calls it lawlessness.
Man calls it a trifle; God calls it a tragedy.
Man calls it a mistake; God calls sin madness.
Man calls it a weakness; God calls it willfulness.

The late Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman used to tell of a Methodist preacher who often spoke on the subject of sin. He really minced no words; he defined sin as "that abominable thing that God hates." A leader in his congregation came to him on one occasion and urged him to cease using such ugly words. Said he: "Dr. Blank, we wish you would not speak so plainly about sin. Our young people, hearing you, are more likely to indulge in sin. Call it something else, such as 'inhibition' or 'error' or 'mistake' or even 'a twist in our nature.'

"I understand what you mean," the old preacher remarked and going to his desk he brought out a little bottle. "This bottle," he said, "contains strychnine. You see that with the red label here that reads 'POISON.' Would you suggest that I change the label and paste one on that says, 'Wintergreen?' You can change the label folks, but sin is damning and its guilt weighs heavy on a sin stricken soul.

Now the psalmist writing our psalm cries out in pain and urgency to God for forgiveness. His sin is sinking him deeper and deeper into despair and desperation. And he sets the example: when sin becomes and is so overweighing us and guilt is tearing us down, he says there's only one thing to do and that's to go to God. He's the only source who can help us. If today you're living your life with guilt, there's only one who has the ability to forgive.

If you go looking inward, you're not only going to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss, but you'll be lost forever. What we all need is God. Remember, the psalmist says this thing will ultimately get you if you leave sin unaccounted for and unapproached.

Old Dr. Charles Spurgeon, in his commentary, writes these words: "This is the psalmist's statement and plea; he had never ceased to pray even when brought into the lowest state. The depths usually silence all they engulf, but they could not close the mouth of this servant of the Lord; on the contrary, it was in the abyss itself that he cried unto Jehovah. Beneath the floods, prayer lived and struggled; above the roar of the billows rose the cry of faith. It little matters where we are if we can pray; but prayer is never more real and acceptable than when it rises out of the worst places."

Pause -- we know that to be true. What I'm suggesting is that when our backs are against the wall the most natural thing we do it is call on God. History tells us that when the great Titanic was sinking up in the North Atlantic, I mean, before the night was filled with revelry and everyone was making a party of it -- here's a ship that never was supposed to go down and all of a sudden it hits the iceberg. And now they know tragedy is ahead. They tell us that the band immediately changed its music and started playing 'Nearer My God To Thee'.

We don't have to go back very far in history; 9-11, in one day! Amazing Grace became the anthem of the most Americans. We knew where to go to when our backs were against the wall! And the reason why that is so is because of our very nature. Look at, he says, Lord, hear my voice! The cry for God is the natural utterance of the awakened soul of a man in every land and age. David knows his back is against the wall, sin is dragging him under, he's about ready to sink and he calls out: God! Help me! Forgive me.

And I note here that the surface of his life for some may often appear to say one thing, and its depths quite another thing, but it is the cry from the depths that reveals what he truly is and what he needs most. That's true.

It is told of Pascal that often he seemed to hear God saying to him, 'Thou couldst not seek Me had I not found thee first.' We seek God because He has first sought us and found us. The cry out of the depths is more, therefore, than a mere human breathing; it is in itself a divine inspiration. Our pure unselfish longings for truth and goodness, our prayers for union with God, are, as Paul taught long ago, it's the Spirit making intercession for us. It's something deep within us because God made us, and when we need deep help in times when we're grasping for life we go to God.

The psalmist becomes overwhelmed with God's mercy. He's called out, but then he adds, "If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat us according to our sins, O Lord, who could stand? Because God's heart is open to him with mercy and love, the psalmist knows that his cry is not in vain, and as he thinks about God and his sin, there are two alternatives. The first is that God will note every sin that we commit and hold us accountable. The second is that God, knowing our sin, will accept responsibility for it and forgive us.

Now one of the amazing things, folks, is when you read David's psalms there are times when that gift of revelation that he sees far into the future. Remember in Psalm 22 he starts that Psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" hundreds of years before that was cried on the cross David had penned those words, and what we have is a revelation into the future. When he said my God if the You're keeping a ledger, when I get there I'm done for.

Does He keep a ledger? Take your Bible and I want you to turn with me almost to the last page of the Bible. It's an interesting verse. Go with me to Revelation 20:11. This is revealing folks, and David's saw this centuries before. Look at what he writes in verse 11, John says, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books (notice it's plural), books were opened. And another book (notice it's singular) was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Now it's almost beyond our grasp, but John sees something very profound and David saw it when he's writing this psalm centuries before, God keeps books. And John tells us that there will come a day when those whose name is not in The Book of Life will be judged out of the deeds recorded in the books. Now that thing really got to David because David knew that on that ledger was written he was an adulterer, he was a murderer, he knew that and all the other sins; and he knew, God, if I have to stand before You and face that ledger -- I'll never make it. None of us will.

You see, this is the marvel, ladies and gentlemen, when we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior, He places our name -- takes it out of the books -- and puts it in The Book, The Book of Life. And when we stand there we're not going to be judged out of the books, even though we've had sin, He's forgiven it all and our name will be in the book. David sees that moment when everybody, all of us, who have not turn to Jesus Christ on that eternal day God opens the books and we stand guilty and judged.

Back to our notes. But there is an alternative, however, there is forgiveness. David said, God, You've done something about this issue, I don't have to face those books, I don't have to confront that ledger. There is forgiveness, there is forgiveness with You. We are in the depths. Our guilt is before us. We cry to God, and He hears us and comes, not with judgment but with forgiveness.

And again, if you're here today and you're dealing with this whole issue of sin in your life, and you feel guilty about it, there's only one to turn to and that's to God; and say, almighty God, through Your eternal love You sent Jesus to die for my sin and I need forgiveness, and I turn my life over to Jesus today. And look at what Jesus does. This we know supremely in the face of Jesus Christ. It was He who stood before the woman taken in the act of adultery and said, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."

Now the irony of this statement is that only Jesus was qualified to stone the lady, since He is the sinless Son of God. But he didn't pick up any stones. He turned to that little lady and said, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. There is forgiveness with God through Christ.

Indeed, we are certain, as the psalmist says of Yahweh, "there is forgiveness with You." As a result of this divine mercy, he adds, "That You may be feared." When we truly understand God's forgiveness and the cost of it in sending Christ to the cross, we are broken and humbled as we bow in awe before God. So what our psalmist is saying is, God, I felt this engulfing, entrenching, the sin was just too much.

I sat this week with a man, and as he sat there confronting his sin, he said, I've got an evil heart and a wicked mind. If I don't change this thing is going to sink me into hell. This is what the psalmist is wrestling with. So he says, what am I going to do? I know, God, if I stand before You I can't face that ledger; You take my sin, You forgive me and I'll serve You.

Just let me talk to you for the next few minutes from my heart, because David reveals some very interesting aspects about this whole matter of forgiveness. And I've observed over the years this whole matter of making restorations, healings, and reconciliations. David realizes that restoration is painful; it's costly. I'll tell you why. You've got the one seeking forgiveness and you've got the one being confronted with the deed and the responsibility to react in forgiveness -- the one seeking forgiveness and the one having to give it.

I sat recently with a couple and because God has been dealing with one of the couples over something that was a deep, dark, terrible sin committed against the sacredness of the home, this person dealing with it felt just like the psalmist, God this thing is just sucking me under, I've got to confess it, I can't deny it, I can't cover it anymore. And so I'm sitting there with the couple as this one seeking forgiveness now has laid on the other one in the party the need for forgiveness. I watched the pain. I watched the pain of the one seeking forgiveness, and I watched the pain of the one having to forgiven it. There's pain on both sides of restoration.

To become knowledgeable of something you didn't know, something so deep, so dark; but ladies and gentlemen it's true spiritually, in this matter of restoration between you and God there comes that moment when our sin weighs us and the pain of it, and we bow and say, God, I'm sorry. But never forget there's pain in the restoration. He went all the way to the cross and He died so He could forgive. You see, there's pain on both sides.

The psalmist says something interesting. He said, God, I wait for You as the watchman waits for the morning. What's he talking about? He's already got deliverance because he said, God I cried to You and I know there is forgiveness with You, so he already has realized the forgiveness, but what is he saying, God I'm waiting for You just like the watchman waits for the morning to come.

There's something that happens in sin that separates and rips apart intimacy. The relationship -- those involved feel that ripping apart of intimacy, that sense of friendship and closeness. And what happens is in the process of restoration you can watch two people hurting as one says, please forgive me, and this one says, you're forgiven. But there's another step and it's usually the hardest one, it's when the forgiving person walks over and embraces the forgiven.

You see, that person has waited for a long time to once again sense the embracing arms of forgiveness. And when I'm in the midst of a counseling time and that moment comes, I leave the room because that's the most sacred part of healing. Because those ties that have been severed and the feelings that have been injured and the pain that has been inflicted robs a relationship of its intimacy. It's true also with God. There are times when we sin we feel like we are a million miles from God, from the gates of peace.

But there are three aspects to forgiveness, folks. There's the forgiving person then there's the act of realizing your forgiveness, but there's one more step, and this is what is sometimes the most difficult for all of us to take. When we come to God we've acknowledged our sin and we know He's forgiven. If it's a person involved, we've gone to that person and we've gotten their forgiveness. But the third aspect is the matter of forgiving yourself, and until you can forgive yourself that intimacy is never complete.

I was talking with a man who works with prisoners and he said to me, Pastor, you know, that's the hardest thing for a prisoner -- to forgive himself -- for the pain he's inflicted on his family, and his children, and society. To forgive one's self is difficult. Coming to that point where we know that forgiveness has been granted and it's our acceptance, and we're saying, now the healing is complete.

When I talk like this, this crowd gets awfully quiet because I'm dealing with something that's very close to all of us. Some of us have left a pathway strewn with broken hearts and blasted lives and burnt dreams. We've hurt others and we carry that guilt with us. It's time to get rid of it. It's time to go to the person and say I'm sorry. It's time to go to God and say I'm sorry God, and let this healing start. And this is the beauty of this psalm. The psalmist is saying, God, if I don't handle this thing. This is just sinking me and sucking me under and I'm losing the joy of life and I'm losing life's meaning, God, I've got to get rid of... I come to You. I'm not going to deny it. I'm not going to cover it anymore. This I confess: God I need You. And I know You can take my sin and take the responsibility for it. You're going to forgive me. You're keeping a ledger, but You're God and in You...it's interesting in the original Hebrew there's no verb...in You forgiveness.

In other words, the very nature of God is forgiveness. All inconclusive. You say, do you think He'll forgive me, Pastor? Look at what he did for David. David's a murderer, David's an adulterer, you can go down the list. You take the apostle Paul. That guy went around Palestine having people thrown in prison. He had blood dripping from his hands the rest of his life, I mean, he had put people to death; and yet he could say, I'm the greatest of sinners but God in His mercy has been gracious to me.

None of us have sinned like the men of the Scriptures, and yet they learned where forgiveness was. It's in God. And old David finishes this Psalm, there is forgiveness in You. Got the message? We now know how to handle this whole matter of guilt -- we go to God. And you know one thing, His very nature is to forgive and He'll take that ledger and He'll take your name out of the books and put it in The Book; and from that book you'll be judged. Amen? Let's pray.

Father in heaven, Your word is so clear and it's message so profound. This whole issue of guilt is something all of us have to deal with from time to time, some quite severely. But we've learned from David today how to handle it; just cry out to You dear God and confronted it and let You forgive it.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, if you'd like to raise your hand just to God, and by raising your hand you're saying, God, I need help in this area. I'm really wrestling with the sense of guilt and I really want You to help me. Yes, so many hands. So many of us.

Father, we've raised our hands, You know our heart, and I ask You now from the Scriptures to deal with us throughout this day, throughout this week. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. God bless you.