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Well, you can turn with me in
your Bibles to Psalm 130. Psalm 130. I'll read the Psalm and pray,
and then this will be the focus of our meditation before we participate
in the Lord's Supper. So Psalm 130, beginning in verse
one, a song of ascents. Out of the depths I have cried
to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If you,
Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But
there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. I wait
for the Lord. My soul waits. And in his word,
I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more
than those who watch for the morning. Yes, more than those
who watch for the morning. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord, there is mercy. And with him is abundant redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father
in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you that the Spirit
who gave it to us guides and leads us now into an understanding
of it. And God, as we consider this,
cause us to reflect upon your great mercy and your grace, cause
us to stand in awe at the fact that you have forgiven us of
our sin. And as we eat the bread later and as we drink this cup,
as we proclaim the Lord's death till he comes, may these things
not be just an empty ritual, but may they constantly put before
us the doing and the dying and the rising of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Forgive us now for all of our sin and unrighteousness,
and again guide us by your Holy Spirit, and we pray through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. When we look at this particular
Psalm, you'll notice verse one in the Hebrew text is a song
of ascents. And so is that Psalm that I read
at the outset of worship. Psalm 129 is also a song of ascents. In fact, from Psalm 120 all the
way to Psalm 134, they all bear that inscription. They are songs
of ascent. And essentially what that meant
was that the pilgrims going to worship on the Sabbath day, as
they traverse the way to Mount Zion, they would sing these particular
Psalms. They would rehearse the glory
of God and His works toward His people through the Psalms of
David. And if we look back to Psalm
129, you'll notice that it's the external threat upon the
Israelites that is the subject matter in Psalm 129. Notice,
many a time they have afflicted me from my youth. Let Israel
now say, many a time they have afflicted me from my youth, yet
they have not prevailed against me. So he's concentrating on
that external threat that the enemies of God present to the
children of God. Well, as we move to Psalm 130,
we see that he's dealing with the internal threat. He's dealing
with a problem bigger than external enemies. He's dealing with the
problem of sin. Now, it's not ascribed to David,
but the Psalms as a whole are called David by the author in
the book of Hebrews. So unless there is an identifying
mark to indicate otherwise, we assume that David did in fact
write this particular Psalm. And it's an experience in his
own heart and in his own life. He obviously had sin as an unconverted
man, but he obviously had sin as a converted man. And I think
that's the emphasis here in Psalm 130. He's musing on the fact,
he's reflecting on the fact that he is not perfect before God.
And as a believer, that does cause some degree of concern. That causes the distress that
we find specifically in verse one. Now, in terms of this particular
Psalm, Martin Luther loved it. He called it one of the Pauline
Psalms. I like that sort of categorization,
a Pauline Psalm. This author says the others are
Psalms 32, 51, and 143, and he called it this, and he understood
it this way, because of its offer of forgiveness by grace apart
from human works. So as the author bemoans and
laments and cries out in his distress, he doesn't look for
self-atonement, he doesn't simply say, well, I'm going to try harder
to balance out the scales. Rather, he casts himself upon
the mercy and the grace of God Most High. So I want to look
first at the psalmist's invocation of God. That means his calling
upon God in verses 1 and 2. Secondly, the psalmist's recognition
of the nature of God in verses 3 and 4. And then finally, the
psalmist's exhortation to the people of God in verses 5 to
8. He uses himself as an example,
and then he gives a specific exhortation to all of Israel. But look with me at verses 1
and 2. We see first this cry of distress. Out of the depths I have cried
to you, O Lord. Now, this is not an uncommon
thing in the experience of man. We face affliction. We face hardship. This world is a veil of tears. It's a sin-cursed world. It's
a present evil age, and certainly there is no shortage of affliction.
Psalm 129. They're afflicted by external
enemies. They're afflicted by Philistines. They're afflicted
by Canaanites. They're afflicted by the godless
and the enemies of our Most High God. Well, here specifically,
as we try and identify the nature of his distress, I would suggest
that his distress here is not physical. It's not temporal,
though David had his temporal and his physical challenges.
Note, for instance, his battle ultimately with Saul. Saul wanted
to hunt him down and kill him. That could not have been a happy
time in the life of David. But as well, it wasn't just Saul
within the kingdom, it was the Philistines outside the kingdom
that presented a great challenge to King David. But I don't think
that's what he is crying out for with reference to this particular
psalm. The depths from which he cries
out to God are spiritual in nature. And we know that from the rest
of the psalm. The marking of iniquities and
subsequent judgment, verse 3. The reality of forgiveness by
God's pardon and grace, verse 4. the confidence in God's word
to afford hope for remission in verse 5, and the exhortation
to Israel that God redeems from all iniquity in verses 6 to 8. So it's not a physical affliction
that evokes this from the psalmist. It is rather his sin. It is his
condition. It is his spiritual state before
a thrice holy God. And in terms of that sinful state,
there's not one particular event we can pinpoint. Now we all know
David's benchmark sin was adultery and murder in that section in
2 Samuel 11 and 12. A section that we might want
to have sort of torn out of the Bible. I don't know if you're
like me, but you get to 2 Samuel 11 and You start talking to your
Bible, you start saying, come on, David, please don't do this.
This is not going to end well. Go out to battle, as is the custom
of kings. Don't go up on your roof. Don't
look at that woman. Certainly don't go into that
woman and then don't kill her husband to try to cover up the
fact that she's pregnant. This is an unsavory truth in
God's word. Well, in Psalm 51, it's a Psalm
of repentance. And the particular indication
of the sin is his sin with Bathsheba. That's not here. So what particular
sin is in view in Psalm 130? We don't know. But I think the
idea is, is that remaining corruption in the lives of God's people
get to certain points where they cry out. where they are in the
depths of distress, where they do lament the fact that they're
not what they ought to be. They're not what they're gonna
be. By God's grace, they're not what they once were. But nevertheless,
they come up short. They hear Paul in Philippians
1, let your conduct be worthy of the gospel. And then they
realize, my conduct isn't worthy of the gospel. They read Exodus
chapter 20 or Deuteronomy 5, and they see all the prohibitions,
and they see all the sort of positive implications, and they
realize, you know what, I'm not really doing that. So it's not
one particular sin that is in the heart of David in Psalm 130,
where he's crying out to God from the depths of distress.
It's sin in general. It's his remaining corruption.
It's the fact that he is not what he ought to be. And instead
of being content in that state, and instead of accepting that
state, he cries out to God from that state. As well, in terms
of the nature of his distress, he's not an unconverted man here.
He's a converted man. He is a believer. In fact, turn
back to Psalm 32. We know that David was justified
by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We know that
not only based on his words here in Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2,
but Paul's use of Psalm 32 in Romans 4. Paul the Apostle, in
declaring the truth of justification by faith alone, says, this isn't
new. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted unto him as righteousness. Abraham and David are his test
cases for the doctrine of justification by faith alone. So notice in
Psalm 32 at verse 1, a Psalm of David, a contemplation. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit. David was justified
freely by God's grace. So the depths that we find him
in are not the depths in a sort of pre-converted state. He's
not just coming to the conviction of sin. Now, if you're not a
believer and that is your case, the God of grace in verse 4 that
was that to David is the God of grace now to any and all who
come to him in faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So while David
specifically is a believer struggling with remaining corruption, the
grace that is available in our God, the abundant redemption
that is referred to in verses 7 and 8, is available to any
needy sinner who, by God's grace, looks to Jesus Christ in faith.
So it is the depths of sin, it is the distress of the spiritual
that causes David to cry out. But then notice, verse 1, out
of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord, and then the specific
petition is in verse 2. Lord, hear my voice, let your
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. His cry of
distress led him, or rather the depths of distress in terms of
sin, led him to cry out to God. See, I think that we sometimes
subscribe to the devil's logic. We get his newsletter, comes
into our email box or on our phones via text. And he says
things like, man, you've made a mess of your life. You're really
not living the way you ought. So you probably shouldn't go
through the hypocrisy of reading your Bible. You shouldn't go
through the hypocrisy of prayer. You shouldn't attend the Lord's
Supper. I mean, come on. You don't deserve that. Well,
the devil's right. We don't deserve that. We celebrate
sovereign grace. But we need to remember that
the depths of sin, when we're there, the only remedy whatsoever
is the grace of God. And that's what David celebrates
here. He's in distress, he's in the
depths, but he's not despairing to the point where he is no longer
functioning as the man of God he ought to be. See, in the Christian
life, remaining corruption's a reality. To try and hide from
it, or evade it, or say, oh, it's just not the case, is simply
to deny scripture. Romans 7, 14 to 25. Galatians
5, verse 17. There's no perfection on this
side of heaven. But when we identify that, we
need to deal with it like big boys and big girls. We confess
our sin, we forsake our sin, and we reach, or we receive the
mercy of God Almighty. So again, he is in the depths,
he cries to God, Lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications. There is an expression of faith
in the very appeal itself. In fact, John Gill makes that
point. Though the psalmist was in the depths of distress for
sin, yet not in the depths of despair. He cried to God, he
hoped in him and believed there was pardon with him. See, that's
the mark of a believer. And again, unbeliever, call upon
the Lord God. Call upon this one who is filled
with pardoning grace and mercy. So David is in this condition. And I think that this causes
us, or it should make us reflect on the fact that there is remaining
corruption. What are we going to do when
we face it? Well, I'm not going to go to church. I'm going to
stay home and stew. No, that's not the best way. You're listening
to the devil. I'm not going to pray because
it's hypocritical. I'm not going to read my Bible.
Every time that you suspend the use of one of God's means, you're
listening to the devil. Out of the depths, David cries. David doesn't, in the depths,
say, well, you know, I don't want to try to claw my way out
of here because I'm not fully not hypocritical. No, when you're
in the depths of despair, to whom else shall you go? It's
the John 6, 68 thing. When Jesus says, do you also
want to depart? Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. In other words, there's no other
hope. There's no other place. There's
no other solution. We must go to you. And so he
exercises his faith in the Son of God, and that's manifested
in his prayer. It is manifested in the earnestness
of it. But there again, brethren, your
prayer is not to be measured in terms of its earnestness.
Well, my prayer only seems about 48% earnest. So, therefore, I'm
not going to pray. I love the hymn by Edward Mote. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. Praise God that we aren't called
to trust sweet frames. Because there's times in the
Christian life, there aren't those sweet frames. Maybe again,
I'm projecting that you're like, well, I only ever have sweet
frames. Good. You should write books on how
to always have sweet frames so wretches like me can learn and
grow and understand and enjoy. You see, brethren, we need to
use the means that God has given, and that's what David displays.
In the depths of distress because of his sin, because of the evil
that remains in his heart, he has no other recourse than to
go to God. That's the emphasis that the
psalmist brings to us. Now that brings us then, secondly,
to consider his recognition of the nature of God. So he's considering
his sin, he's vexed over his sin, he's in the depths of distress
over that sin, and now he's pondering God. And he ponders two perfections
of God, the justice of God and the grace of God. Notice, specifically
in verse 3, he says, "'If you, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?' Now, this marking of iniquities, this
means basically God observing, God keeping note, God keeping
an account, God writing it down in his book. Well, God does know
all things. Nothing escapes him, right? The
eyes of the Lord, according to Solomon in Proverbs 15.3, are
in every place. They behold the good and the
evil. He's not making a theological observation on divine omniscience. He is making, or he's recognizing,
rather, something concerning the strict justice of God. He
is a sinful man. He cannot approach God via the
covenant of works. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities,
that means take note of them, put them in your book, record
them against me or against anybody, he says, oh Lord, no man, no
one can stand. You see a similar usage in Job
10.14, if I sin, then you mark me and will not acquit me of
my iniquity. John Owen says, That's what he
means. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord who could
stand? The logic is impeccable, right? You all follow the logic. If
God should mark each and every one of our sins, and again, divine
omniscience, He knows our sins, but He's talking here in a legal
context. If He marks them with reference to punishing them,
oh Lord, who could stand? There is none righteous. No,
not one. There's none who seeks after
God. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Romans 3.18.
The whole scripture is filled and replete with that theme.
Why? Because in Adam all die. And as a result, the covenant
of works is not a covenant of life for the ungodly. David's problem is not resolved
by more obedience. David's problem isn't fixed by
reformation. David's problem isn't put back
together again by his own resolve to go and try harder. No, he
is not perfect in terms of exact, entire, perpetual obedience to
God's holy law. And he knows it. Listen to David
Dixon. He says, if the Lord should deal
with supplicants in the way of strict justice, according to
the tenor of the law or covenant of works, no man could escape
condemnation and the curse. You see what he's saying? As
he contemplates his sin problem, he then goes to God, the God
he invokes, for relief. And as he considers God, he first
ponders his justice. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand? This is the condemnation of all
men because of their sinfulness. Turn to 143 too, similar emphasis
there. Psalm 143, specifically at verse
two. Do not enter into judgment with
your servant, for in your sight no one living is righteous. See,
what David is doing is what Paul does in Romans chapter three.
He highlights the fact that we are not capable, because of our
death in Adam, our covenantal status in him, by virtue of the
transgressions that actually do proceed from that original
sin that is ours, we are not able to ascend into the presence
of God in our own strength. He says, if thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? The answer is obvious.
No one can. There is none righteous. No,
not one. The impossibility of acceptance
by God on the day of judgment is taught here, specifically
in verse 30, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Thankfully, David
doesn't stop at the strict justice of God. The God who is just is
also the God who is merciful. Not two gods, but a God who has
a multitude of perfections. God is spirit, infinite, eternal,
and unchangeable. In his being, wisdom, power,
holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. God is his attributes. All that is in God is God. So he is justice. He is grace. He is mercy. He is a glorious
being worthy to be praised and worshiped. And David goes on
now to highlight that forgiveness. So verse three, if you, Lord,
should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? It's basically
loading himself up with the bad news. I'm a sinner, I'm in the
depths of distress because of that sin. I'm gonna call upon
you, God. I'm gonna pray and invoke that
your ears be attentive to the voice of my cry. And while I'm
doing this, I'm just going to consider the reality that you,
as a just God, owe me nothing except punishment. You owe me
nothing except judgment. You owe me nothing except hellfire. You owe me nothing except condemnation. Because if thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? David's not suggesting
that he alone could, in fact, stand. No, he knows that all
men everywhere are under that curse of the law. And so then
he moves to this celebration of the forgiveness of God. Isn't
this glorious? Verse 4 is one of those, you
know, but God verses in our Bibles. The but God verse in chapter
2 of Ephesians in verse 4. Here's what you were, verses
1 to 3. But God, who is rich in mercy. who abounds in grace and in love. That God is your God. So he says, but there is forgiveness
with you that you may be feared. The forgiveness that he knew
experientially in his own life. See, after the prophet Nathan
comes to rebuke him for his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, David
confesses. And it's not some elaborate long
prayer. It's quite simple. He says, I
have sinned against the Lord. Some people say, well, it should
have been more elaborate than that. He should have agonized. He should have beat himself with
a whip. He should have put ashes all over, you know, in his soup
that day. He should have really lamented. He should have really
felt bad. I have sinned against the Lord. Do you know what he
says there? He says, I'm not blaming Bathsheba. I'm not blaming,
you know, the fact that she was on the roof. I'm not blaming,
you know, all these other sorts of things out there. I've got
a high-tension job. I'm under a lot of stress. I'm
under a lot of pressure. This is just sort of natural
and inevitable. And look at those kings, all these kings around
them. They have their harems. They have all this. He doesn't
do that. When he's confronted by the prophet,
all he can say is, I have sinned against the Lord. That's the
best confession you can ever make. God seemed to appreciate
it because the prophet pronounces in the name of God that God covered
his sin. So he knew that forgiveness experientially. We see it in Psalm 32, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. Blessed
is the man who receives forgiveness for his sin. So now he's calling
upon God for that grace and mercy because he needs experiential
forgiveness for whatever the sins are that he's confessing
here to God. There is forgiveness with you.
I trust in that. I bank my soul on that. I will
indeed live based on that reality. And for David, he had a lot of
data to encourage him in this type of thinking. I'm sorry,
Exodus 34, six and seven. Remember in chapter 33 of Exodus,
Moses says to God, show me your glory. And so what does God say? God says, go get in the cleft
of the rocks, and I'll let my hind parts pass by you. In other
words, you can't see the glory of God. You can't witness, according
to your ability, the divine majesty. Those men of Beth Shemesh opened
up the Ark of the Covenant and they died. So when it comes to
God, he sets him in the cleft of the rock and then he passes
by him. And what does Moses see but the attributes or perfections
of God? It says, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed,
the Lord, the Lord God. Now remember, this is Old Testament.
I think there's some weird people out there that think the Old
Testament is only full of death and mayhem and judgment and blood
and guts and all that sort of thing. No, this is an Old Testament
text. In the book of Exodus, which
we call Torah or law, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed,
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering
and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing
the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation.
So David had that in his Bible, but David had it also in his
pen, because he wrote Psalm 103. Remember, bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. So then
David rehearses the benefits of God, the ones that he ought
to bless God for. And specifically in 103.8, he
says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding
in mercy. He is resting on that reality
and that perfection of God, wherein there is grace and mercy to forgive
sinners. Remember Jonah? Jonah was the
only successful preacher that I know of that whined. Jonah
went out, preached to Nineveh, and they actually repented. They
actually listened to the prophet, and it wasn't lasting, and it
wasn't, you know, we try to put it into the ordo salutis. Whatever
happened under the preaching of Jonah, there was a change
in Nineveh. And what does Jonah do? He goes and he sits under
that gourd, and he whines, he mopes, he grumbles, he's upset,
he's not happy about this. I knew that you were gracious.
I knew that you were gonna forgive these Ninevites. He's got a nationalistic
spirit. He's got a nationalistic pride.
He wants to see the Ninevites get their comeuppance. He doesn't
want God's grace in their lives. Jonah 4, the Lord God, Most High,
says to him, or this is what Jonah says, Jonah's upset. And what does God say? You care
about this gourd. And it wasn't altogether altruistic. It provided a bit of relief from
the hot summer sun. But he says, you've been concerned
about this gourd. And what does God say? Should
I not pity Nineveh, where there's 120,000 people that don't know
their left from their right? Probably a reference to children.
So if there's that many children, there's a whole lot of people
that are Ninevites. What does God say? Should I not
pity? If you've never reconciled or
reckoned with that reality, our God is not a miser. He's not
Ebenezer Scrooge. He's not just doling out little
tiny tidbits of grace and mercy. He's abundant in mercy. He's
abundant in redemption. He's abundant in the forgiveness
of sins. Why? Because we have an abundance
of sins to be forgiven. And this is what God says. As well, Micah 7, the prophet
says, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing
over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does
not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. So you see, for David, like Paul,
they celebrated the grace of God to meet the needs of man
who are done in by sin. Whether unconverted, come to
the Savior and be saved. Whether converted, you're having
struggles, you're having hardships, you're lamenting and bemoaning
the fact that you've got this remaining corruption. Seek Christ
for relief. He is your advocate with the
Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. So when we look at
verses three and four, it's obvious we're dealing with justice and
grace. We need to understand that the glory of the Christian
gospel is that the justice of God is maintained. See, the gospel
doesn't just mitigate the justice. It doesn't just come along and
say, okay, no justice at all. The glory of the gospel is that
justice was served. It was served upon the surety. It was served upon the Lord of
glory. It was served upon Him in our
stead. In fact, this is Paul's point
in Romans 3, and you can turn there. just to show you that
grace does not cancel out justice. At the cross, we get both grace
and justice. So Romans 3 and 4, essentially
what Paul is doing here, after having started in chapter 1 at
verse 18, to declare that all men everywhere are under sin.
That's his point. He starts off with the bad news.
He starts off with the grim reality that Gentile and Jew alike are
liable to the wrath and fury and curse of God most high. He
does that from 118 to chapter three, verse 20. And then he's
gonna start to talk about what's called justification by faith
alone. The reality that we don't have
works to try to earn our way into heaven. We don't have works
to sort of counterbalance our bad things. We only have the
Lord Jesus Christ and his words. and all those who by faith come
to him will receive his benefit. So Paul wants to present that
truth of justification by faith alone. He's going to deal with
it specifically in chapter 4 and what it looks like, again, in
terms of Abraham and in terms of David. What it looks like
in terms of us who by grace believe. But before he gets to the man-word
benefit with reference to justification by faith alone, he first deals
with God. He first wants us to understand
that the gospel doesn't compromise God's righteousness. It does
not sacrifice justice. It rather upholds it. That's
the glory and beauty of the Christian message. So look with me at Romans
3.21. So he's already summarized. He
said what he said. 1.18 to 3.20. The 320 is the sort of crowning
statement involved. He says, Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. That is a crushing statement.
If you think you're going to earn your way into heaven, Paul
tells you there is no way. You are absolutely positively
wrong if you think you can fix yourself, or you can clean up
your act, or you can add a few good things to your bad resume
and sort of sort things out with God. No. For by the deeds of
the law, no flesh will be justified in a sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. Now notice, but now, he says. But now the righteousness of
God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. In other words, it was an Old Testament concept.
Abraham and David, he's going to point to in Romans 4. He says,
through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.
For there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now notice verse
25, whom God set forth as a propitiation. Propitiation assumes or presupposes
wrath. God is wrathful toward sinners. And this idea of propitiation
simply means that Jesus comes, stands in our place, and doesn't
just send the wrath of God away, but rather Jesus takes it in
himself. Remember, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Jesus on the cross bears the
wrath of God that was due for us as a result of our sin. And
then notice the specific God word reference. So verse 25,
whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to
demonstrate his righteousness. When you look at the cross, think
love. When you look at the cross, think
grace. When you look at the cross, think
mercy. But when you look at the cross,
think righteousness. The Lord God Most High punished
His Son in our humanity on the cross. It was a satisfaction. In fact, atonement, we use that
word often. Older authors use the language
of satisfaction. He satisfied divine justice by
his work on the cross. Because in his forbearance, God
had passed over the sins that were previously committed. That
doesn't mean he didn't pay attention to them. It simply means that
he was looking to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the cross work of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world. And then note in verse 26, to demonstrate at the present
time his righteousness, and here it is, justice is maintained,
that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has
faith in Jesus. And then notice in 4, 5, but
to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. And then in
chapters 4 and 5, he goes on to explain how it is that Jesus
could die for us in terms of maintaining God's justice, satisfying
that justice on the cross. So back to Psalm 130. If thou,
Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Strict
justice. But there is forgiveness with
you that you may be feared. Pardoning grace. But that pardoning
grace isn't just an obliteration of the strict justice. In the
gospel, our Lord upholds every demand in terms of strict justice. He paid our debt on the cross.
He was our substitute. He was our curse bearer. That's
the glory of the cross. When people try to make it just
about an example, oh, what an example of love for humankind.
It is that. But we preach Christ and Him
crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block,
and to the Greeks, foolishness. But to us, we're being saved.
Christ is both the wisdom and the power of God. He satisfied
divine justice in His own sufferings. He propitiated the wrath of God
that was due for us by taking it in Himself. So when we go
back to Psalm 130, the psalmist knows all about justification
by faith and the blessed, blessed effect upon the needy sinner.
But notice again in verse 4, there is forgiveness with you,
and then the result or purpose, that you may be feared. Sort of a justification, sanctification
thing. Notice, it's not fear God and
then he'll forgive you. And I should just explain, fear
of God here, oftentimes in the Old Testament, simply means being
rightly related to God. It means to be a believer. It
means to be rightly connected to God by faith in Jesus. The
fear of God is a good thing. It's not the slavish fear where
we're running and hiding from Him, but it's the sort of fear,
filial fear, where we run to Him. And that's precisely what
David is saying. There is forgiveness with you
that you may be feared. What is characteristic of man?
Again, Romans 3.18, there is no fear of God before their eyes.
The result of God's grace, the result of pardoning mercy, the
result of the forgiveness of sins is our response to God in
the proper way. It's not fear Him and then He'll
forgive you, obey Him and then He'll forgive you. No, He forgives
you and shows you grace and shows you mercy, and then the resulting
sort of response is that you'll fear Him, and obey Him. Same
sort of thing as we saw in John 14, 15. If you love me, you'll
keep my commandments. Well, why did they love Him? Because they
had believed on Him. And love is the chief fruit of
faith. And then they are supposed to
obey Him. It's not obey me, and then love me, and then you'll
be saved. No, you're saved. Now in that
salvation, love Him and obey Him. Same thing here. There is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. And again,
I know people outside the church, people outside of Christianity.
What kind of a life is the fear of God? It's the best kind of
life. It's the glorious kind of life.
Again, it's not a running and a hiding underneath the piano,
but it's understanding who God is. It's understanding Him as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is to show Him the respect
that is due for Him. as the creator, as the governor,
as the redeemer of his elect. He demands and deserves our respect
and our fear. We call it reverence. Churches
should be marked by reverence. Individual Christian lives ought
to be marked by reverence, not this kind of weird solemnity
where you got to eat lemons and look miserable all the time,
but some sort of a reverence toward our God. You see this
in Jeremiah 32, for instance. Jeremiah 32, promise of the new
covenant. God says in verse 40, I will make an everlasting covenant
that I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put
my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me.
So when Newton writes in his famous hymn, Amazing Grace, "'Twas
grace that taught my heart to fear," he's simply imitating
the prophet Jeremiah. He's simply reflecting on what
David has said in Psalm 130, verse four. There is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. The relation here of
justification to sanctification. The relation here to God's grace
received by us, to us then living in light of that grace. Again,
we're going to fall, we're going to stumble, we're going to be
back to verse 1, but what do we do? We cry out to God, out
of the depths, and we seek His mercy and His grace. And then
finally, and quickly, notice his exhortation to the people
of God. His example is in verses 5 to 6. He's patient. He's on
God's time frame, not the other way around. He's not saying,
okay, you better perform. No, faith is expectant, but it's
not presumptuous. He's confident in the grace and
the mercy and the forgiveness of God. He's not presumptuous,
he's not arrogant, he's not sort of that way. So verse 5, I wait
for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I do hope. Isn't
that interesting? He ties his hope to the word
of the living and true God. And I would take this word in
two ways. I would take it first, the written word that he already
possessed. The written word that he was in the process of writing
himself. David wrote much of the Psalter.
David wrote and celebrated the glory of Christ. That's the second
taking of the Word. I will wait for the Word in your
Word, I do hope. The incarnate Word, the One who
will come from the Father to save His people from their sins.
The Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. See, the Old
Testament saints had a messianic expectation. They were looking
forward. They were looking to Jesus. They
were justified freely by God's grace through faith in Jesus. It wasn't some nebulous sort
of a concept. They knew from the promises,
from the word of God, through the types. When Abraham takes
Isaac up to Mount Moriah, that preached Jesus to several generations
of Israelite believers. And so David has this patience.
He has this confidence. But then notice this earnestness
in verse six. If anybody's ever worked a graveyard
shift, you can get verse six. You really understand it. My
soul waits for the Lord. He's now describing how earnest
he is in his waiting. He's patient, he's confident,
he's also earnest. My soul waits for the Lord more
than those who watch for the morning. Yes, more than those
who watch for the morning. Could be the security in the
city, could be the temple security, but it's somebody who's up at
night. If you've ever worked graveyard, you know that at two
or three o'clock in the morning, your body knows it should be
asleep. It just knows that. There's a
circadian rhythm thing. There's the way God made everything. And so when you're at 0400 and
you've got a couple more hours till the light comes on or the
sun comes out and you get off your shift, there's an eagerness
and an earnestness. You're ready to go home and you're
ready to climb into bed because you've been up all night. This
is what he's saying. I have patience in my Lord. I
have a confidence in my Lord's word. But I also have an earnestness
about me. I'm like those watchmen who can't
wait for the morning to come. What does that indicate? It indicates
that he doesn't make peace with his own sin. This happens sometimes. This happens with believers.
They make peace with their ass, just remaining corruption. Nobody's
perfect. We all got our challenges. We
all got our issues. I'm not as bad as some, probably
a little worse than others, but you know, on the continuum, I
think I'm okay. Don't make peace with sin, brethren. Let Psalm
130 verse 1 be your guide. Out of the depths I've cried
to thee. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. Don't be at peace with sin. David
wasn't. He was earnest, like the watchman,
waiting for the morning. He wanted forgiveness. He wanted
resolution. He wanted this right relationship
with God. When there is sin undealt with,
what is there? There's a breach. I think this
is 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. Yeah, general interpretation,
sinners should come to Jesus for forgiveness. But specifically
in the context, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us. That doesn't mean our sins aren't
dealt with by Christ in justification. It rather means the maintenance
of our fellowship and our communion and our relationship with God,
at times when we're not dealing with our sins properly, is going
to be hindered. David didn't want that. David,
with the earnestness of a watchman, wanted the sun to rise, and he
wanted the smile of God back on his face. And then in that
light, he exhorts Israel. Verse seven, O Israel, hope in
the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. He's able to say that
because he's tried and proven as God. He knows that mercy exists.
He found it when he went into Bathsheba and killed Uriah. He
found it when he celebrates the glory of God in Psalm 32. He
finds it here in verses three and four. So he's able, as a
redeemed sinner, to tell other sinners to go to the Lord. He
is preaching Christ to Israel. O Israel, hope in the Lord. Why?
For with the Lord there is mercy. Why should I hope in him? Because
there's mercy. Notice, and with him is abundant
redemption. You've got abundant sins. Good
news for you. There's abundant redemption to
be had in God. And he shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. Our blessed God, our glorious
Lord has dealt with us according to grace and mercy, never sacrificing
his justice. The son of his love assumed our
humanity and lived for us and died for us and rose again for
us to satisfy divine justice and to make the way so that God's
grace could be profusely poured out upon us so that we would
know abundant redemption and that we would know redemption
from all of our iniquities. Well, hopefully this has been
somewhat encouraging. I think that the Psalms of David
are most helpful for any soul that is in distress, any soul
that is downcast. There's a Psalm in the 150 somewhere
that is going to speak to you. It's going to encourage you.
And the Spirit of God in the history of the church has used
the Psalter in an immeasurable way to build up the saints of
Jesus Christ. Well, let us pray. Our Father,
we thank you for your word. We thank you for this wonderful
psalm. We thank you for David, under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, teaching us truth, teaching us truth about strict
justice, teaching us truth about the upholding of that justice
in the gospel of our Lord, and the fact that you do save, that
you are merciful and gracious, and that there is forgiveness
with you that you may be feared. We thank you for that. We pray
again that many would come to a saving knowledge of our Lord,
that they would see that there is abundant redemption to be
had in the God of heaven and earth. And we pray through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
