THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: God's Nurture Of The Inner Man In The Life Of Faith

CXXX: A Call And A Hope For God's Great Forgiveness

(Psalm 130:1-8)

I. Introduction

A. True guilt where one becomes painfully aware of his sin, is a great burden to bear. In Israel's pagan neighbors, guilt before their deity was a dreadful thing: pagan man was perceived to be only a slave to the gods (Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos, 1974, p. 65), and sinning against the deity made for an ominous future.

B. However, in great contrast to capricious, despotic pagan deities, Israel's God was gracious and forgiving, and Psalm 130:1-8 dwells on this truth in its call and hope for God's great forgiveness from sin (as follows):

II. A Call And A Hope For God's Great Forgiveness, Psalm 130:1-8.

A. The introductory remarks are part of verse one, so the numbering system in the Hebrew text matches that of the English Bible (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 1090). We thus stay with the English Bible's numbering system.

B. We then translate Psalm 130:1-8 (as follows):

1. "A song of ascents. From out of the depths [of guilt] I cry to You, O Jahweh;" (Psalm 130:1)

2. "O Adonai [my Master], hearken to my voice. Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my plea for mercy," Psalm 130:2.

3. "If You, O Jahweh, kept a record of iniquities, O Adonai [my Master], (then) who could stand?" (v. 3)

4. "But with You there is pardoning, forgiveness (selihah, B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 699) in order that (lema'an, Ibid., Kittel; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 775) You might be revered," Psalm 130:4.

5. "I look eagerly for (qawah, Ibid., p. 875) Jahweh, my life principle looks eagerly (qawah again), and in His Word I put my hope (yahal, Ibid., p. 403-404; Hiphil stem = hope for)," Psalm 130:5.

6. "My life principle (hopes) for Adonai [my Master] more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning," Psalm 130:6.

7. "O Israel, put your hope (yahal again, cf. v. 5) in Jahweh, for with Jahweh is loyal love, and with Him is abundant redemption," Psalm 130:7.

8. "and He (emph. pron.) will redeem Israel from all of his iniquities," Psalm 130:8.

C. We note significant observations regarding this psalm (as follows):

1. Theologically, Psalm 130:3 coincides with Romans 3:23 in teaching that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and Romans 5:12 teaches original sin, that all men are born sinners. Psalm 51:5 adds that all men are sinners starting at the point of conception. [That being so, a human being is a person in God's eyes starting at the point of conception, so abortion at any trimester kills a human being!]

2. However, in contrast to the false pagan gods, Israel's God was a pardoning, forgiving Master (Adonai), not a capricious, despotic deity looking for an opportunity to take vengeance on His subjects, v. 4a.

3. This unique characteristic of Israel's God led the people of Israel to revere Him, to respect Him as a God of infinitely good, righteous character in vast superiority to pagan capricious, despotic gods, v. 4b!

4. Confident in God's infinite capacity to forgive the repentant sinner, the psalmist looked eagerly for Jahweh, putting his hope of forgiveness in the Lord, v. 5-6.

5. Thus, the psalmist urged all Israel to put her hope of God's forgiveness in the Lord, for He was a God of "loyal love," of hesed, what is represented by our term grace in the New Testament! (v. 7)

6. Such a God would redeem the nation Israel from all her iniquities, v. 8. Romans 11:26 predicts God's salvation of the nation Israel, and Zechariah 12:10-13:1 gives us the details of that event: at Christ's Second Coming to the earth, the people of Israel will see the crucifixion scars of Jesus in His body, and realize they had rejected their Messiah, resulting in great remorse in the nation followed by God in grace opening up a fountain of cleansing for sin and uncleanness, forgiveness through the cross of Jesus Christ!

Lesson: Though all men are conceived in sin and thus commit acts of sin, Scripture's God, though perfect in righteousness and perfectly demanding of righteousness in His subjects, is also infinitely gracious, able and willing to forgive based on the work of His Son, Jesus on the cross! Thus, if anyone realizes he has sinned, instead of emotionally and mentally imploding, he should come to God for cleansing by faith in Christ as an unsaved one, and if he has sinned as a believer, he should confess it to God (1 John 1:9) to find full forgiveness.

Application: Scripture's God is gracious, so may we face our sin and go to Him about it to find full forgiveness!