Reading… and Thinking

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
   O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
   that you may be feared.

– Psalm 130:3-4 (ESV)

The psalm begins with a heart-wrenching plea: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!" We see here the believer who is conscious of searing guilt, who is in an agony of despair because of stark awareness of sin.

This believer has nowhere to turn, except to the very Lord against whom she or he has sinned. But, there is a ray of hope. Ours is a God who forgives!

Indeed, if He did not, who could stand? The Lord Jesus alone. And yet God has made it plain that He intends to save many. So it must be that He forgives. What an awesome God!

In other psalms we read beautiful expressions of how the stars in the heavens, and our own miraculous bodies, are awe-inspiring witnesses to the power, the glory, the love, and the infinite care of the Almighty. But there is one miracle that surpasses even the immensity of the universe, and the complex marvel of living things. It is the miracle of forgiveness.

God made the universe that it may give Him glory. The psalmist here describes why this all-powerful Creator should bother to forgive, rather than snuffing us out: this, too, is so that He may be glorified. His greatness is proclaimed in His willingness to save. “With you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”

In some cultures through the ages, if you save someone's life, that person is your servant from that point forward. You gave them life, and they return it to you. This is exactly the right response to the Lord who saves us!

The psalm continues: “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.” If you have offended a king who has power of life and death, how anxious are you to face him? And yet the servant of the Lord eagerly awaits Him. The night watchman longs for morning, not just because then his work is done, but because it means that the night has passed safely. The Lord's servant is so confident in his God's forgiveness, that this is the kind of eager expectation he has as he waits for his Lord's arrival. He is not terrified at the prospect of meeting his God. He knows he will be greeted with love.