Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities. Psalm 130 (ESV
Allen P. Ross writes:
In this psalm the psalmist cries to the LORD from his trouble, takes comfort in the fact that there is forgiveness of sins, eagerly waits for the oracle of forgiveness, and knows that ultimately the LORD will remove all iniquities and their effects – that is, from those who believe in Him and seek His forgiveness.
Every act of deliverance and every occurrence of forgiveness of sin are but harbingers of the final deliverance form sin and its effects. The glory of the love of God that brings such redemption must not be minimized. With the LORD there is forgiveness of sin! Full forgiveness! Believers, therefore, can have this same hope and confidence in the LORD, that someday there will be no more confession of sin necessary, and no more need to pray for deliverance. But in the meantime, every prayer and every confession should hasten the hope. And that hope, that waiting for final redemption with the return of Christ, should likewise lead us to be seeking forgiveness for our sin. The Apostle said, “Whoever has this hope purifies himself” (1 John 3:3).
MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 19
Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.