Out of the Depths...

It has been a good long while since I have written on a sermon that my dear Pastor has done. It isn’t that he hasn’t been speaking to me or ministering to me. On the contrary, God has been giving out a heavy dose of truth. He does that each and every time I attend church.

So, first let me give you the scripture…

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.
-Psalm 130

We all suffer. The best of men suffer in the depths. Here is what the Psalmist teaches us…

1. He seeks audience with the Lord. (v. 1 & 2)
- True prayer comes from a strong inward necessity!
- When times are pleasant or prosperous meaningful prayer goes out the window. (Why is it that when things are going good we think we’ve done it? Why don’t we fall at His feet in Holy Worship of His grace in our life?)
- The greatest privilege we own is prayer, but we take it so lightly.
55 I called on your name, O LORD,

from the depths of the pit.
56 You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears

to my cry for relief."
57 You came near when I called you,

and you said, "Do not fear."
58 O Lord, you took up my case;

you redeemed my life.
Lamentations 3:55-58

Everybody in your boat is in trouble when you are disobedient to God…(we can look at Jonah, we can also read his “out of the depths” prayer in Jonah 2)

2. The Psalmist senses the accounting of the Lord (v.3 & 4)
- We will never be right with the Lord until we understand His thought on sin – He HATES it.
God’s forgiveness comes in two ways: 1. Judicial Forgiveness (forgiven of our sin debt, all is paid with Jesus’ blood) and 2. Parental Forgiveness (I know you messed up, I LOVE YOU, I forgive you!)

3. He sees and stays assured by the Word of God (v. 5 & 6)
- Don’t we all just need to sometimes say, “Lord, just tell me one more time please…Do you love me?”
Note: The Psalmist states twice: “more than watchmen wait for morning” – I think he is doing several things in this statement.
1. He is reassuring himself of an answer to come.
2. He is professing to the Lord that he will wait as long as it takes.
3. He is anticipating and believing that God will answer and come and deliver him.

4. I will speak of His abundance (v. 7 & 8)