10/18/2020 - Getting Right With God - Psalm 130

Psalm 130 is a hidden little gem. I have several commentaries on the Psalms and none of them devote more than a couple of pages to it, but then I was introduced to John Owen's work. The Puritan and vice-chancellor of Oxford wrote a 400 page commentary on these 8 verses! 400 pages and still more can be said. It takes you from the depths to the heights. It is in many ways the gospel found in the Old Testament.  It asks the question: How can I get right with God? And it gives the answer: Forgiveness comes through grace and not human merit. It is simple in that it contains only 8 verses, but its depth is profound. It begins with an intense cry for help from a dark place... "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!" The fiery British Preacher Charles Spurgeon said this: “It matters little where we are if we can pray; but prayer is never more real and acceptable than when it rises out of the worst places. Deep places beget deep devotion. Everyone prays; but very few ‘cry.’ But of those who do ‘cry to God,’ the majority would say, ‘I owe it to the depths. I learned it there.’” It’s true. God uses dark moments to help us see the brightness of his light. The Psalmist has sinned, found himself lost and in need of God's mercy. How do you see yourself? The entire condition of the world is represented in Jesus' story about a Pharisee and a tax collector. (Luke 18:9-18) One man says, “I know who I am. I’m not evil. I’m a good person. I only need to compare myself to others and see that God is more pleased with me.” The other simply says, “God, I need your mercy.”  "Which man had a right relationship with God?" asks Jesus. C. S. Lewis: “When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less.” Low thoughts of God accompany low thoughts of sin. Because God cares about people he cares about sin. He cared so much that he sent his son to die for them. The cross was God’s judgment of your sins placed on Jesus so that mercy would be made available. The Psalmist simply says, “What other plea can I make? I’m guilty.” God meets this confession with mercy.