Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
INTRODUCTION
I’m sure you have all seen those before and after photos, that are used in advertising.
They are used for Shampoo, that can turn dull lifeless hair into glossy flowing hair
I found them for Hair Transplant clinics.
And increasingly they seem to appear for teeth whitening nowadays.
You may also remember a few years ago when the SU from the then High School stayed in our halls some of them shared a Cardboard Testimony with us.
They shared their testimony in two short phrases.
One on each side of a piece of card board.
The first phrase describing their life before they met Jesus
and on the reverse side a phrase describing their life now with Jesus.
It is a very effective way to explain the change that Jesus makes in our lives.
Here are a couple of examples I found on the internet.
Controlled by Fear - Free To Trust
Lost & Hopeless in Religion - Found Hope in God’s Grace
And this evening as we continue in the Psalms of Ascent we come to Psalm 130,
And we find a song of testimony,
That any of us can sing on the journey,
To tells us why we are on the journey.
The song reminds us of where our lives used to be,
And now where we are headed.
So this evening as we continue on this journey to Jerusalem,
This Journey with Jesus.
Lets examine the Cardboard Testimony of the Psalmist.
And lets make it our own Testimony tonight.
Death to Life
So the first transformation that we sing of this evening,
Is the journey from Death to Life.
Perhaps it sounds like an exaggeration,
To describe our spiritual relationship with Jesus in such terms.
But it will only seem like an exaggeration, if we have forgotten what it was truly like before we met Jesus.
As we continue to walk with Jesus day after day,
The life before Jesus becomes a very distant memory.
It doesn’t seem as bad in our minds as it was in reality.
And the Song this evening is one of Death being transformed into life.
In other words, we were dead in our sins, and Jesus gave us new life.
Paul puts it like this to the Ephesian church
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.
Ephesians 2:1,2
And the Psalmist uses the picture of someone drowning in their sin.
They are so deep in sin that they cannot get to the surface.
It is becoming increasingly more difficult to catch a breath.
They are sinking deeper and deeper, sinning more and more,
And when they realise that they cannot get out of the sin.
When they recognise that it is pouring in over their heads,
They cry out for mercy,
And this song is not just about someone,
It is about you and me.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
Psalm 130:1,2
We were dead in our transgressions, and Jesus has given us new life.
Many assume that Jesus comes into a life to tidy up the rough edges.
He sorts out a few little problems that you might have,
Pats you on the head and tell you to go and do your best.
But as CS Lewis wrote:
Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good,
but dead people live.
- CS Lewis
Jesus takes death and gives Life.
When he was explaining this to Nicodemus, he told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again.
this is how deep the transformation needs to be.
When we follow Jesus, we start again from the very beginning.
Everything old is thrown away,
And there is a new beginning, a new life in Christ.
Guilt to Forgiveness
But this is not the only way of describing what has happened.
Secondly in this Psalm we have the transformation from Guilt to Forgiveness.
From someone who is drowning in the depths of the sea,
The Psalm now moves into the courtroom.
Imagine God keeping a record of our sins,
And we are called to take the stand and defend ourselves.
Who could do it?
Who could stand before a Holy God and make any sort of noise that could be used as a defence?
No one.
The weight of our sin in God’s presence would pin us to the floor.
We could never get up, no matter how hard we try.
But there is hope.
And that hope is in the Lord.
Look at how the Psalm describes the transformation.
If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared
Psalm 130:3,4
There is forgiveness.
We no longer need to be defined by our guilt.
But when we come before God He forgives us.
Sin is a problem that we all have.
It is a problem that each person we meet has.
Billy Sunday was a baseball player who when converted became an evangelist.
He was going to conduct a mission in a large American City,
And he wrote to the mayor asking if he could provide the names of individuals who ad spiritual problems and needed help and prayer.
A few days later he received a parcel from the Mayor’s office.
In it was the city’s telephone directory.
In other words everyone needs a Saviour.
Jesus takes our guilt and sin and offers us forgiveness.
When we are in the presence of one who can forgive sin,
there is no other reaction but to fear.
On Wednesday evening we saw how Noah built the ark in Holy fear,
And when our sins are forgiven we fall before God in Holy Fear.
Darkness to Light
So the transformation takes place from
Death to Life
and from
Guilt to Forgiveness
Thirdly we see the transformation from Darkness to Light.
The song moves from the courtroom to the city walls.
To the guards.
The worst time to be on guard duty is the night-time.
You can’t just guard a city in day light.
It has to be guarded at night in case of surprise attack.
It can be a long watch at night.
Everyone else is asleep,
And you are longing for the morning to come.
You are watching for the first hint of sun rise,
To signal that the day is coming.
And when we trust in Jesus,
He transforms a life of darkness into a life of light.
He takes away the darkness of sin that once held us,
And replaces it with glorious light.
And we should have a longing in our hearts for the light of Jesus Christ,
Just like the guards long for the light of morning
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Psalm 130:5,6
We wait on the Lord,
We trust in the Lord and he transforms our lives.
On Wednesday I was round in York House in Portrush,
Conducting the afternoon service of worship.
And I was thinking about this Psalm,
And when I mentioned the watchmen waiting for the morning,
I could see the staff nodding,
Because they know what that is like.
When they are on night duty,
They watch for the light of the morning to know that they are nearly finished and it will soon be time to go home.
Slavery to Freedom
So we have the testimony of each of these transformations,
Death to Life
Guilt to Forgiveness
Darkness to Light
and finally Slavery to Freedom.
This time we have moved from the city walls to the market place and the slave market.
Only Jesus can set us free.
Without Jesus we are slaves to sin,
We are slaves to the old life,
We are slaves to the darkness.
But when we trust in Jesus, He is the one who can set us free.
If you imagine the people singing this Psalm along the way,
The last couple of verses are the opportunity to experience this transformation if you have not already done so.
You have heard the testimony of those who are walking with God,
And now you are encouraged to put your hope in Him
7 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
Psalm 130:7,8
Only Jesus can redeem the slave.
Pay the price to set us free.
He loves us so much, that he has gone to the cross,
To pay the price of our sin.
What a Saviour we have.
That he would die for us
To take our lives of slavery and set us free.
CONCLUSION
This Psalm gives us a testimony to sing.
A transformation that only Jesus can bring about.
Jesus takes us from
Death to Life
From Guilt to Forgiveness
From Darkness to Light
and From Slavery to Freedom.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
INTRODUCTION
I’m sure you have all seen those before and after photos, that are used in advertising.
They are used for Shampoo, that can turn dull lifeless hair into glossy flowing hair
I found them for Hair Transplant clinics.
And increasingly they seem to appear for teeth whitening nowadays.
You may also remember a few years ago when the SU from the then High School stayed in our halls some of them shared a Cardboard Testimony with us.
They shared their testimony in two short phrases.
One on each side of a piece of card board.
The first phrase describing their life before they met Jesus
and on the reverse side a phrase describing their life now with Jesus.
It is a very effective way to explain the change that Jesus makes in our lives.
Here are a couple of examples I found on the internet.
Controlled by Fear - Free To Trust
Lost & Hopeless in Religion - Found Hope in God’s Grace
And this evening as we continue in the Psalms of Ascent we come to Psalm 130,
And we find a song of testimony,
That any of us can sing on the journey,
To tells us why we are on the journey.
The song reminds us of where our lives used to be,
And now where we are headed.
So this evening as we continue on this journey to Jerusalem,
This Journey with Jesus.
Lets examine the Cardboard Testimony of the Psalmist.
And lets make it our own Testimony tonight.
Death to Life
So the first transformation that we sing of this evening,
Is the journey from Death to Life.
Perhaps it sounds like an exaggeration,
To describe our spiritual relationship with Jesus in such terms.
But it will only seem like an exaggeration, if we have forgotten what it was truly like before we met Jesus.
As we continue to walk with Jesus day after day,
The life before Jesus becomes a very distant memory.
It doesn’t seem as bad in our minds as it was in reality.
And the Song this evening is one of Death being transformed into life.
In other words, we were dead in our sins, and Jesus gave us new life.
Paul puts it like this to the Ephesian church
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.
Ephesians 2:1,2
And the Psalmist uses the picture of someone drowning in their sin.
They are so deep in sin that they cannot get to the surface.
It is becoming increasingly more difficult to catch a breath.
They are sinking deeper and deeper, sinning more and more,
And when they realise that they cannot get out of the sin.
When they recognise that it is pouring in over their heads,
They cry out for mercy,
And this song is not just about someone,
It is about you and me.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
Psalm 130:1,2
We were dead in our transgressions, and Jesus has given us new life.
Many assume that Jesus comes into a life to tidy up the rough edges.
He sorts out a few little problems that you might have,
Pats you on the head and tell you to go and do your best.
But as CS Lewis wrote:
Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good,
but dead people live.
- CS Lewis
Jesus takes death and gives Life.
When he was explaining this to Nicodemus, he told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again.
this is how deep the transformation needs to be.
When we follow Jesus, we start again from the very beginning.
Everything old is thrown away,
And there is a new beginning, a new life in Christ.
Guilt to Forgiveness
But this is not the only way of describing what has happened.
Secondly in this Psalm we have the transformation from Guilt to Forgiveness.
From someone who is drowning in the depths of the sea,
The Psalm now moves into the courtroom.
Imagine God keeping a record of our sins,
And we are called to take the stand and defend ourselves.
Who could do it?
Who could stand before a Holy God and make any sort of noise that could be used as a defence?
No one.
The weight of our sin in God’s presence would pin us to the floor.
We could never get up, no matter how hard we try.
But there is hope.
And that hope is in the Lord.
Look at how the Psalm describes the transformation.
If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared
Psalm 130:3,4
There is forgiveness.
We no longer need to be defined by our guilt.
But when we come before God He forgives us.
Sin is a problem that we all have.
It is a problem that each person we meet has.
Billy Sunday was a baseball player who when converted became an evangelist.
He was going to conduct a mission in a large American City,
And he wrote to the mayor asking if he could provide the names of individuals who ad spiritual problems and needed help and prayer.
A few days later he received a parcel from the Mayor’s office.
In it was the city’s telephone directory.
In other words everyone needs a Saviour.
Jesus takes our guilt and sin and offers us forgiveness.
When we are in the presence of one who can forgive sin,
there is no other reaction but to fear.
On Wednesday evening we saw how Noah built the ark in Holy fear,
And when our sins are forgiven we fall before God in Holy Fear.
Darkness to Light
So the transformation takes place from
Death to Life
and from
Guilt to Forgiveness
Thirdly we see the transformation from Darkness to Light.
The song moves from the courtroom to the city walls.
To the guards.
The worst time to be on guard duty is the night-time.
You can’t just guard a city in day light.
It has to be guarded at night in case of surprise attack.
It can be a long watch at night.
Everyone else is asleep,
And you are longing for the morning to come.
You are watching for the first hint of sun rise,
To signal that the day is coming.
And when we trust in Jesus,
He transforms a life of darkness into a life of light.
He takes away the darkness of sin that once held us,
And replaces it with glorious light.
And we should have a longing in our hearts for the light of Jesus Christ,
Just like the guards long for the light of morning
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Psalm 130:5,6
We wait on the Lord,
We trust in the Lord and he transforms our lives.
On Wednesday I was round in York House in Portrush,
Conducting the afternoon service of worship.
And I was thinking about this Psalm,
And when I mentioned the watchmen waiting for the morning,
I could see the staff nodding,
Because they know what that is like.
When they are on night duty,
They watch for the light of the morning to know that they are nearly finished and it will soon be time to go home.
Slavery to Freedom
So we have the testimony of each of these transformations,
Death to Life
Guilt to Forgiveness
Darkness to Light
and finally Slavery to Freedom.
This time we have moved from the city walls to the market place and the slave market.
Only Jesus can set us free.
Without Jesus we are slaves to sin,
We are slaves to the old life,
We are slaves to the darkness.
But when we trust in Jesus, He is the one who can set us free.
If you imagine the people singing this Psalm along the way,
The last couple of verses are the opportunity to experience this transformation if you have not already done so.
You have heard the testimony of those who are walking with God,
And now you are encouraged to put your hope in Him
7 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
Psalm 130:7,8
Only Jesus can redeem the slave.
Pay the price to set us free.
He loves us so much, that he has gone to the cross,
To pay the price of our sin.
What a Saviour we have.
That he would die for us
To take our lives of slavery and set us free.
CONCLUSION
This Psalm gives us a testimony to sing.
A transformation that only Jesus can bring about.
Jesus takes us from
Death to Life
From Guilt to Forgiveness
From Darkness to Light
and From Slavery to Freedom.
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