"God Redeems Us"

July 28, 2024

Background: Psalm 130; Print: Psalm 130:1-8;

Key Verse: Psalm 130:7; Devotional: Matthew 25:1-13

Psalm 130:1-8 (ESV)
¹  Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
²  O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
³  If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
⁴  But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
⁵  I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
⁶  my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
⁷  O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
⁸  And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Psalm 130 (Commentary)

130:1-3 The psalmist cries out to God from the depths of his emotional turmoil (130:1). He realizes his desperate situation as his sin is juxtaposed with God’s holiness: If you kept an account of iniquities, Lord, who could stand? (130:3). When our sin is measured against God’s righteousness, we fall short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23) and deserve death (Rom 6:23).

130:4 But—praise God—that’s not where it ends, because with [God] there is forgiveness. The Lord made forgiveness possible through the atoning sacrifices he required of Israel. But, ultimately, these sacrifices are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. By faith in his death on the cross, “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14). God extends such grace not so that it will lead to indulgence but so that [he] may be revered and taken seriously.

130:5-6 The psalmist waits for divine deliverance from guilt, like watchmen who stay awake all night waiting for the morning to come. He looks to God to remove the weight that his sin had laid on him.

130:7-8 In light of God’s faithful love, the psalmist urges Israel (and believers today) to put [their] hope in him for the blessings of redemption and deliverance (130:7). One day, the Lord will redeem Israel from all its iniquities (130:8). They will believe in their Messiah and repent of their rejection of him, and Christ’s millennial kingdom will be ushered in.

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