September 7, 2023 — Psalm 130

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.”

The psalmist has every confidence that G-d will hear and respond to every cry of pain, because mercy, the writer insists, is who G-d is. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice!”

The lament of Psalm 130 is familiar to our every day existence. The Psalmist cries out to G-d from “the depths”, from the darkest abyss of human suffering. That abyss takes different shapes in our individual and in our communal existence. We all have had or will have some experience of it. Grief, depression, illness, poverty, abuse, addiction — any of these experiences, and so many more, can plunge us into a darkness so deep that it can feel almost like death. That the abyss, the pit, the deep, is so centrally and universally a part of human life is reflected in the Psalms’ repeated reference to it.

Augustine, in his exposition on this psalm, likened the abyss to the belly of the whale in which Jonah was trapped: “Jonah’s abyss was deep in the water, in the center of the whale’s body, tangled in the “very entrails of the beast.”

What rescues us from the abyss is our trust in the promises of redemption that come through Jesus Christ. In many ways, Psalm 130 reminds us that yes, we can just wait while we struggle – or we can do more than just get through the waiting — we can flourish in the waiting. That the space between entering and exiting the abyss isn’t just a time to endure or a time to persevere through. Actually, it’s a time where G-d wants to sink some seeds deep within our soul that eventually will bear fruit. Remember, Jesus was the “first fruit” of our redemption, suffering for our salvation. Our suffering, though not necessary, can also be redemptive.

Let us Pray:

God of compassion, you sent your Word into the world to announce the dawn of salvation. Do not leave us in the depths of our sins, but give to us the fullness of your redeeming grace; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

Pastor Dave