Savage Street Church of Christ

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10292017Psalm130DonRuhl

The Cry of a Sinner 

What you will find when you cry to the Lord

Psalm 130

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • October 29, In the year of our Lord, 2017

Scripture Reader and Reading: Jacob Noveske – Job 12.7–10

Song Leader and Song Suggestions: Phil Joseph – Songs on forgiveness

Prelude: 

1. When you become aware of your sin, 
   1. when you have done something that you never imagined you could ever do,
   2. it will cast you down deep into despair.
      1. Will God forgive you for what you have done?
      2. Is there any hope for you?
2. Psalm 130 is for you. 
   1. See the psalmist desperate
   2. for the Lord and
   3. for the Lord to hear his prayer.
      1. The Holy Spirit put Psalm 130 in the Bible for Christians
      2. to show us that the Lord
         1. will hear our prayers and
         2. will forgive our sins.

Persuasion: 

1. Psalm 130.0 | Ascending Because of Forgiveness
   
   0 A Song of Ascents.
   
   1. Judah and Jerusalem had suffered badly for their impenitent sin.
   2. They had learned
      1. that the Lord spoke the truth in regard to the repugnant nature of sin.
      2. Therefore, they traveled to the city of God
         1. singing of prayer and forgiveness, knowing
            1. that the Lord Yahweh is the only one we can pray to and
            2. that He is the only one who can forgive our sins.
         2. Their pain becomes our ladder to climb out of the pit of darkness.
2. Psalm 130.1–2 | The Cry of a Sinner
   
   1 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD;
   2 Lord, hear my voice!
   Let Your ears be attentive
   To the voice of my supplications.
   
   1. Out of the depths the psalmist cried out to the Lord.
      1. From deep within he cried out to the Lord.
      2. He was in deep despair and depression, and needed the Lord.
         1. Out of the depths from which no man can hear,
         2. the psalmist knew that the Lord would hear.
            
            “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 out to Jehovah” (Spurgeon, p. 118).
            
      3. The psalmist had fallen into deep despair like Jonah.
         1. Although Jonah’s stubbornness clung to him like a disease,
         2. he entered a world of darkness, and
            1. that led the man to open his mouth,
            2. as he remembered the Lord,
               
               2 And [Jonah] said:“I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction,
               And He answered me.
               ‘Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
               And You heard my voice.
               3 For You cast me into the deep,
               Into the heart of the seas,
               And the floods surrounded me;
               All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
               4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
               Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
               5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
               The deep closed around me;
               Weeds were wrapped around my head.
               6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
               The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
               Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
               O LORD, my God.
               7 When my soul fainted within me,
               I remembered the LORD;
               And my prayer went up to You,
               Into Your holy temple.”
               (Jon 2.2–7)
         3. How desperate would your cry be?
         4. When we sin,
            1. we have allowed a great sea creature to swallow us and
            2. it will drown and consume us,
               1. if we do not do what the psalmist and Jonah did.
               2. If we imitate them, the Lord will hear and forgive.
   2. Pray and plead for the Lord to hear.
      1. Plead with Him to hear your voice.
      2. Plead with Him that His ears be attentive to your supplications.
         1. Supplication is begging for something that you need.
         2. What greater need do we have than forgiveness?
      3. We plead with Him in such a manner, because
         1. we need to understand just who He is and
         2. who we are in comparison.
   3. Why did the psalmist so plead with the Lord?
      1. He entered a whelm, a spiritual pit, from which he could see no way out.
      2. However, he knew the power and influence of prayer.
         1. When we ignore prayer,
            1. we ignore the Lord,
            2. until we find ourselves in a crisis from which we see no way out.
         2. At that time, some people will take their lives and
         3. some people will place their lives in the Lord’s hands.
            1. You are in the depths,
               1. seeing no way out,
               2. believing that you shall never see good in life again, but
            2. you place your life in the hands of the Lord and
               1. He does things that you never imagined.
               2. That was Judah in Babylon.
                  1. The Lord sent them there for their sin.
                  2. How would they ever escape the super power of Babylon?
      3. If they remembered what the Lord told King Belshazzar,
         1. they would know
            1. that there is a way out of
            2. the most terrifying and depressing circumstances of life.
         2. Daniel 5.23 quotes Daniel as telling the king
            1. that God held Belshazzar’s breath in His hands and
            2. owned all Belshazzar’s ways.
         3. Or as Job said to his friends,
            
            10 “In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
            And the breath of all mankind?”
            (Job 12.10)
            
3. Psalm 130.3–4 | Marking Sin vs. Forgiving Sin
   
   3 If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,
   O Lord, who could stand?
   4 But there is forgiveness with You,
   That You may be feared.
   
   1. If the Lord should mark our iniquities,
      1. what would happen to us?
      2. How do you think it would affect you,
         1. if the Lord wrote down every sin you have ever committed, and then
         2. showed you the list?
            1. How long would your list be?
            2. How long would it take to read it?
      3. For one thing, we would lose the ability to stand.
      4. Psalm 40.12
         
         12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
         My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
         They are more than the hairs of my head;
         Therefore my heart fails me.
         (Psa 40.12)
         
   2. The psalmist knew that with the Lord there is forgiveness.
      1. Yes, He is a God of holiness and wrath.
      2. However, He is also a God of love and
         1. wants to forgive us.
         2. Is that not the teaching of the Bible?
            1. He does not want to separate from us, but
            2. He wants to separate us from our sins, or vice versa.
               1. Therefore, He makes the generous offer of forgiveness.
               2. If we choose not forgiveness,
                  1. we will experience the other option,
                  2. the wrath of God.
   3. When you learn
      1. the magnitude of your sin and
      2. the generosity of the Lord’s forgiveness,
         1. you will fear Him.
         2. You will not fear
            1. any other god or
            2. anything else
               1. that claims to have power over you.
               2. You will see that the Lord holds your life in His hands.
4. Psalm 130.5–6 | Wait on the Lord
   
   5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
   And in His word I do hope.
   6 My soul waits for the Lord
   More than those who watch for the morning—
   Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
   
   1. Of course, the psalmist waited for the Lord.
      1. With his deep inner being, his soul, the psalmist waited for the Lord.
      2. Often that is what we have to do, because
         1. the Lord does not operate on our schedule, but
         2. we operate on His schedule,
            1. whether we realize it or not.
            2. Do your part, then wait.
   2. The psalmist rooted his hope in the word of the Lord.
      1. The Lord makes promises, and
      2. the poet of Psalm 130,
         1. knew that the Lord would keep all those promises.
         2. Therefore, the psalmist put his hope in the word of the Lord.
            1. Brethren, read the word of the Lord and
            2. know the peace that passes all understanding.
   3. The psalmist so eagerly waited for the Lord
      1. that his intensity surpassed those who wait for the morning.
      2. The suffering and those staying with them, wait for the morning.
      3. Guards wait for the morning when they can see.
         1. As much as those two groups wait,
         2. the psalmist waited more intensely for the Lord.
5. Psalm 130.7–8 | Hope in the Lord
   
   7 O Israel, hope in the LORD;
   For with the LORD there is mercy,
   And with Him is abundant redemption.
   8 And He shall redeem Israel
   From all his iniquities.
   
   1. When you learn of something wonderful in the Lord,
      1. you want others to have it also.
      2. Hence the psalmist wrote this Psalm for Israel and
         1. the Holy Spirit wanted the rest of the world to know its message.
         2. The psalmist found himself in the pit of despair, but
            1. He trusted in the Lord,
            2. found forgiveness from the Lord,
            3. which gave the psalmist hope.
               1. He saw his brethren going through life without hope.
               2. He wanted them to know where they could find it.
   2. Hope in the Lord because with Him there is mercy.
      1. This is another way of speaking of forgiveness.
      2. Yes, our sin and guilt plunge us into hopelessness, but
         1. there is one who has mercy on us.
         2. Go to Him.
   3. Hope in the Lord because with Him is abundant redemption.
      1. Again, this is another way of referring to forgiveness.
      2. Do you know of anything that the Lord does halfway or half-heartedly?
         1. I know of nothing.
         2. Therefore, when He redeems He does so generously.
            1. He takes us from the road to the worse possible destination and
            2. places us on the road to the best possible destination.

Exhortation: 

1. Never forget who is there to hear your prayers. 
   1. Never forget the one who wants to show you mercy.
   2. Throw away your pride,
      1. humble yourself, and
      2. let the Lord know of your need.
2. Nothing else matters, if you do not have the forgiveness of sins.