a song of ascent

Psalm 130

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;

2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive

To my cry for mercy

3 If you, O Lord kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?

4 But with you there is forgiveness;
Therefore you are feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I put my hope.

6 My soul waits for the Lord
More than watchmen wait for the morning,
More than watchmen wait for the morning.

7 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
For with the Lord is unfailing love
And with Him is full redemption

8 He himself will redeem Israel
From all their sins.


These words speak magnitudes to anyone who has lived a life drenched in sin, and has then come to find God. The fullness of God’s grace is overwhelming to me, but without constant reminder I can fall into valleys of guilt and shame. If we confess our sins God is faithful to forgive us, and forgive us fully. Verse 3 says that if God kept a record of our sins none of us could stand. If we’re standing, yet still feeling shame, who’s keeping a record? We are! We’re playing our record over and over again. God’s truth is higher than any human emotion.

The author of this psalm is awaiting God’s forgiveness with excitement and anticipation. H says he’s waiting like a watchmen is waiting for morning, if I were a watchmen and I was up all night I’d be so so ready for the sun to rise! The psalmist is ready and waiting for God’s forgiveness, he placed his hope in God’s wonderful grace and forgiveness! I know I’m the exact opposite; I go to God with my tail between my legs, head hung low, ashamed. We dig ourselves into a hole, we’ve done so much wrong that there’s nothing God can do about it anymore. that we won’t receive full blessing or full forgiveness, so our expectations of God are lowered.
This psalm convinces me more and more of what I know. That when we cry out from the depths of our valley, in full confession and repentance, God WILL show up, and the fullness of His grace and forgiveness will overwhelm us.

To be redeemed is to buy something back. God promises us FULL redemption…meaning we will be fully restored. When God fully forgives every sin we’ve committed. He can, and will, restore our identity, our ability, our purity, anything. What hits me the most about this is that God won’t get all the glory until we use the bad for good. He will diffuse our past of the hurt and harm that haunts us…but He will also infuse us with a power to help others. This may be what keeps so many of us from feeling the fullness of His forgiveness and redemption. That we stop too soon in the process, I know have stopped too soon, I’m still stuck here, but He’s working on me.

I can’t wait to continue to follow Him, and will rejoice in the day when the God of this universe turns my past agony into glory.