THE PSALMS – A JOURNEY IN WORSHIP AND FAITH - December 23, 2014 - Day 130 - Psalm 130

As a person who suffers from depression I have come to embrace the dark days. Having tried the world’s psychology and the world’s psychiatry I found no hope in man’s feeble attempt to fix me. At my darkest point I finally heard the voice of God through the calling of the Holy Spirit to just trust in Him. So now when depression hits me I pray. The psalmist here in Psalm 130 is in the same place.

Psalm 130:1-2
A SONG OF ASCENTS. 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!

Out of my depths I cry out to God. What I need is mercy. I am a sinner.

Psalm 130:3
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

I cannot hide from God. He knows my sins. How can I stand before Him? How can I even pray?

Psalm 130:4
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

God loved us so much He sent His Son, Jesus, part of the Holy Trinity of the Godhead, to die for me. But to say I believe on His name and to think I am saved from my sin yet not to fear Him is the greatest affront to our Holy God there is. We must understand the holy nature of God. Our sin should scare us to death. And the death it should scare us to is death of the hope that we can do anything to save ourselves. Our only hope is in Christ.

Psalm 130:5-6
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.

I call Jesus Lord yet I fail daily to follow His commandments. I keep sinning over and over and failing my Lord. But I must step back and read His Word. He will finish the work He has started. I must do as Jesus said to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26:41
“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Psalm 130:7-8
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.

Just as Israel must put its hope in Jesus so must I. When the dark days come and the storms roll in we can trust in Him. This is a sure hope. Until Jesus returns we must be watching and praying. My depression keeps me there, it ensures that I keep praying and watching for Jesus to come. Not that I don’t have joy; I do. But until the day Jesus takes me home through death to this life or He simply returns in His second coming, I will echo the cry of the psalmist.

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!