In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Out of the depth I cry to You, O Lord.” This is where the psalmist starts, in the depths of sin and guilt. I know that what the Scripture says is true – in sin did my mother conceive me, and in iniquity was I born. I know that I have not helped matters since then. Instead, I was born into a hole of sin, and have only succeeded in digging it deeper and deeper with the shovel of my own actions and inactions. All the systems and theories and religious ideas of the world have thrown me ropes, but these have only given me length to hang myself.
The further and further down we dig in our own hearts, the more and more we realize that we are blinded by our sinful condition. We turn in circles endlessly in the pit of despair, looking for the way out, only to find that our path has been chasing our own tail. We bumble along, stumbling upon this and that, collecting artifacts from our own broken lives, ignorant both of the problem and the solution. And our pride and stubbornness keeps us from asking for help until we reach the end of the line, until we slam into the brick wall.
“O Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication!” When you run headlong into the wall of the Law, the only option left is to cry out in the midst of your distress and hope that someone will hear you and rescue you. You cry out into the darkness, as one fallen down a well or a mine shaft, frantically hoping that someone will hear you and save you. This well shaft is deep, even bottomless, and yet, you have hope that you will be saved. You have hope because there is one who stands at that top of the shaft and calls out to you to hope.
The Lord God has made Himself known to you and has filled you with hope in the promises of His Word. He has called out to you in the midst of your distress and made you to know that your deliverance is at hand. Even though you see the sorrow of your sin in front of you, your redemption is near.
“If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” In the court of heaven, the charges stand against you. If the Lord should reckon accounts, who of us would come up even? Is there anyone who could call himself righteous on the accounting of his own works and merits? Sure, there are some who try, doing extraordinary works of charity to balance out their selfish pride and greed. But the Lord is not some cosmic scale of karma, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot balance the books in our favor.
“But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” Thanks be to God that he does not keep a record of wrongs. With the Lord, there is no weighing of the heart to find out whether we will be admitted into heaven or devoured by the hound of hell. Jesus has taken the record of charges against each of us and nailed it to the cross, and there it stays forever. Regardless of the depth of our hole or the depravity of our deeds, the record against us is expunged permanently. Not simply sealed and buried away, but erased; the writ of charges against us is washed clean by the blood Jesus shed on the cross. Therefore there is forgiveness in Jesus' name, because those who stand in Him stand free and clear because of Him.
“I wait for the Lord... and in His word do I hope... O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plenteous redemption.” The steadfast love of the Lord led the Father to offer up His Son for us. There is steadfast love, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There is steadfast love, in that God sent His Son into the world not to condemn us but to save and redeem us.
Because of the steadfast love of the Father for His children, Jesus came and has redeemed us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He came to this earth, came into our flesh, and came to rescue us. He comes to us sunk down the well, not sinking down with us, but pulling us up out of the darkness and despair, and pulling us up to Himself. He pulls us out of our depths and all the way up to heaven, and He, in living flesh and blood, reigns for us as our brother and our king on the Father's throne. And no matter how many times we fall down the hole, Jesus continues to pull us out. Even seven times seventy times.
“My soul waits for the Lord... and He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” We too wait for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the dawn. We anxiously, with all creation wait for each new day, when we plunge the old Adam back under the water and drown the previous day's sins and failings, and arise to live a new day. Though we mourn and weep through the night, yet the Lord comes with the dawn and gives us forgiveness and renewal. And we wait eagerly for the day when dawn will break for eternity. We yearn for the end of sin and sorrow and the coming of the new day, when we will hope no longer, but live forever in the love of God.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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